**Higher Level English Paper 2 2012 - Before/After

SeanMadd

AGB_Ghost wrote: »

So everyone was expecting Heaney and Plath in my school, I studied Adrienne Rich like a boss before school and this week, decided to make this little number for all those who wanted to see Heaney come up.

Same! Love Rich! I just knew this would be like the whole Boland incident. People need to stop predicting on a whim!

leaveiton

Was happy to do Larkin but thought the GVV questions were horrible. I did the 70 marker and I'm not sure if I approached it at all, I kept saying things like "I personally felt happy when Michael in Inside I'm Dancing started to become more independent, it showed that the GVV was mostly positive" because it asked for your attitude, but I just don't know Bleh, and usually the comparative is my best. Got a nice poetry question and a nice one for my single text though so hopefully it'll be okay.

Random_Person

M&S* wrote: »

My reasoning behind this is there's people out there (Ruairí Quinn) who think that they understand of the education system is better than anyone and think that once in power they can fire out several changes to courses (material that comes up and course content). The leaving cert isn't designed to crush people at the beginning of their exams.
I'm glad you find the upset of others hilarious, it's good that some good comes out of your smugness.

I agree with you on the system completely, it is ridiculous. Saying that, the course is there to be learned -- deal with it. The syllabus states what to learn so just do it.. As for crushing people at the beginning of their exams, you have to just move on. If you've gone into the exam knowing that you only have 2 poets and know you'd breakdown if neither comes up, don't look at poetry until last.

Also, it's not the upset of others I find funny. It's the fact that year after year people are told not to listen to predictions that it is never a sure bet and yet you still see this happen every few years. People not taking the hint and continuing to ignore guidelines is funny, not the upset of others. I'm genuinely sorry for those who were affected by only studying Heaney and Plath but it's the risk you took.

oh and in hindsight it probably wasn't appropriate to say it was hilarious, it's deleted now but sorry for it anyway.

Wkds

annettesayz wrote: »

Really had no clue,kind of talked about deception bit much.. Um Ghost,Soliloquys and then just about the plot.. DISASTER... You?

Characters, imagery, dialogue, spying and actions+reactions. almost did 4 pages. Thought about doing the play as soon as I came out of the exam. Was sickened

biohaiid

montown wrote: »

what techniques did people say for conveying corruption? i was completely befuddled for a few minutes, decided on characters, dialogue and imagery in the end! only got 3 pages but quality over quantity right? :P

I think I said typified characters, corruption of roles, betrayal, characterization of women and the use of the tragic shakesperian hero.
Probably nowhere near right but I think I made it sound convincing enough.
Actually quite happy! Done with now anyways

Fergus_

I wrote 3 pages for Hamlet, 2 1/2 pages for Poetry and Comparative.

I felt like I should have written a lot more for the comparative, would I lose much marks for this

Evan93

SpirantSpem wrote: »

Work for the Leaving Cert is not unjustified considering your chosen college course depends on it.

Em well studying 5 poets is unjustified. There's so much other stuff on the paper that will carry you through to get quite a good result without doing 5. Of course you can justify "well my college place depends on it" but , like, 3-4 poets is enough. You could study 8 & that is perfectly fine but completely unjustified work when you have other important things to be doing.

annettesayz

Wkds wrote: »

Characters, imagery, dialogue, spying and actions+reactions. almost did 4 pages. Thought about doing the play as soon as I came out of the exam. Was sickened

Ah yeah I did play aswell actually, Ughh the first one might of been easier but there was no going back!
I only had one choice of a poet, Larkin... Bit disappointing.

Astrozombies

10 pages altogether... ih.
UHHH HATE COMPARATIVE. Halfway through (I did the 1st one on GVV) and I realised... fml, should of done the second one..
but anyone else do madness in hamlet? I was DELIGHTED with it spent the whole weak studying appearance vs. reality but with the notes I made it was so easy to twist my knowledge into a classss answer , BOOM.

iamanengine

Kinsella you absolute babe!!

I got very lucky, i had Plath and Kinsella done very well, for Kinsella I had that particular question done well to!

Hamlets madness and role of women i was begging to come up, got the madness!

Got a handy general vision 2 parter, you could talk about anything really.

Feel bad for those relying on Heaney and Plath, thought 1 girl was going to collapse in the exam hall!

earwax_man

I wrote 5 for Hamlet, 7 for LG, 1.5 for unseen poetry, and 5.5 for poetry Sweet paper

Darren.993

I could have cried when I didn't see Plath on the paper.
- I did the Kinsella question and managed to get 4 pages, but I only talked about 3 poems. Our teacher says that's fine though.
- I did the second question on GV+VP and I don't have a clue tbh. I don't know if what I wrote is what they were asking for. I also have never done the 2 part question either, but the long question was just too hard.
- Hamlet question I got 4 pages on. My essay seems more like a personal summary of his madness than anything else. I must have repeated the same thing about 50 times.
- The unseen poem was a disaster. Couldn't make head nor tails of it so just wrote the biggest load of rubbish ever down in the last 10 minutes.

Chavways

Fergus_ wrote: »

I wrote 3 pages for Hamlet, 2 1/2 pages for Poetry and Comparative.

I felt like I should have written a lot more for the comparative, would I lose much marks for this

You'll lose a good bit if you didn't expand on your points.I did almost 7 for my comparitive.

Did anyone do the second part of the Dancing At Lunasa question? I had to spoof my way through it.

Adolescenteen

Shocked that neither Plath or Heaney didn't come up. Luckily had Rich and Larkin done as well. Rich question was lovely I thought. Wrote four pages.

Hamlet madness question was fantastic as well, wrote five pages on it. Wrote 5 pages on General Vision and Viewpoint also. Overall thought it was brilliant paper.

Hard luck to all those who were pretty much screwed for poetry, only myself and six other people in my exam hall (of about 50) had a poet come up for them. Don't dwell on it, get focused on your next exam.

Zaffy

21 Pages
6 Hamlet
6 Poetry
7 Comparative
2 Unseen

Now let's hope it all ends well.

fizzyorange

The girl beside me started crying when Plath didn't come up.

I loved the paper though! Did Larkin, Hamlet's madness and Lit Gen. Brilliant paper, hoping for a nice B now.

Lago

Had a mini-heart attack when I looked at the poets and thought none of the ones I'd studied had come up. Then thank the lord, Patrick Kavanagh sitting at the bottom had escaped my quick glance. My favourite poet and the one I studied the most.

Did crap on the comparitive though. Squeesed out 3 and a half pages but didn't answer the question at all. I picked the very first question and regreted it halfway down the first page. I went back at the end and wrote a ending paragraph to try and relate what I wrote to the question so hopefully that gets me some marks.

Also, the Unseen Poet was the easy one I've ever seen! Took me 10 minutes to do the two questions

The girl beside me started crying when Plath didn't come up.

Same in my school

biohaiid

Darren.993 wrote: »

I could have cried when I didn't see Plath on the paper.
- I did the Kinsella question and managed to get 4 pages, but I only talked about 3 poems. Our teacher says that's fine though.
- I did the second question on GV+VP and I don't have a clue tbh. I don't know if what I wrote is what they were asking for. I also have never done the 2 part question either, but the long question was just too hard.
- Hamlet question I got 4 pages on. My essay seems more like a personal summary of his madness than anything else. I must have repeated the same thing about 50 times.
- The unseen poem was a disaster. Couldn't make head nor tails of it so just wrote the biggest load of rubbish ever down in the last 10 minutes.

I only did 3 poems too, always have. Be grand.

MuireannNiSh

I had only covered Plath and Kavanagh in depth. Had a fair idea of Boland and Heaney too though. Nearly died when I saw the paper and saw Larkin, Kinsella and Rich as the first three (we hadn't done the first two, and I don't like Rich). I think the supervisor saw how happy I was when I came to number four because he came down and asked me if I was happy with what came up!

Those general vision and viewpoint questions were as good as it was going to get for me. Got a similar one to Q2 in the Mocks and got an A, so I think that was alright.

That Hamlet section was a bit of a bitch though wasn't it? I saw the word "techniques" in Q2 and didn't even look at the rest of the question. Completely bull****ted my way through Q1, but I think the first three paragraphs were golden so that was okay.

My timing was completely messed up though so I never got to do the unseen poetry. Barely got to write a three line conclusion for Hamlet.

Oh well, at least paper one went really well!

Togepi

Delighted with that paper! I assume everyone else feels the same? :pac:

ciaranmor

I was fairly happy with the questions, did 5.5 for Hamlet corruption (corruption of Gertrude/Ophelia, breaking the chain of being, deception), 5 for literary genre, 1 for unseen, and 5.5 for rich (6 poems). Overall couldn't have gone much better!

Namlub

VOMITING RAINBOWS

cocopopsxx

Spent so much time perfecting my poetry and gvvp that couldn't do the unseen poetry and half of hamlet gutted.
Poetry and gvvp were a beauty thoughz
What are the minimum marks for Hamlet?

Kelix

I wrote 20 pages for the whole thing, thought it was a lovely paper, did great yesterday too so hopefully I've got the A1 I've worked for in English, I need it!

I thought the general vision and viewpoint question was kinda weird though, did the split questions instead of the 70 marker that I usually do but it worked out well in the end.

As for Plath and Heaney not showing up, it was grand, I did all 8 poets so I would have my choice of the questions. I did Kavanagh, it was an easy question.

I think if you rely on just 1 or 2 poets, it's your own fault...you should do at least 5 so you're guaranteed one poet, it's basic probability. But don't worry about it if you didn't get the poet you wanted, if everyone actually did as bad as their making out, the marking curve will be brought down and you'll be grand.

icedtea

Have to say that while everyone else in my class seemed really unhappy with the paper I was delighted.
Worked my way around the Hamlet question grand, Bull****ted for Ireland for part of the comparative but I think I had some good bull****!

The sighs of disappointment when Plath or Heany didn't show up but I was grand with Larkin...

Cruel Sun

Today's paper was a sign of what is too come. The SEC are out to get us.

niallio93

Gambled on Plath and Kinsella....Kinsella came up aced him! :D
Started with the comparative fiarly straight forward 7 and a half pages
Did the hamlet question very nice really to be honest!
Did a page on the unseen, a page of complete and utter bull!

Overall happy out! Nice paper in fairness

Killian In The Name Of

Hamlet was alright
Poetry was grand
Comparative was brutal

Thanks be to God Rich came up! The looks on some of the lads' faces when Plath and Heany weren't there were priceless, mine included!