Ridiculously hard leaving cert year?

Daledge

So it seems as though everyone is coming out of exams thinking that they were hell incarnate and lightyears more difficult then previous years, got me wondering.. is this the general opinion every year or is this Leaving Cert considerably more difficult then before?

Hotale.com

I think the exams have been nice this year. Not necessarily "easy", but I think they definitely could have went way worse.

plmko

I think that they have been a right bitch. Not all of them, but most of them.

Dee15

Biology today was the hardest exam I've ever sat, not a chance that I passed. Other than that I think they were okay, higher level Irish was easy enough though!

randylonghorn

Daledge wrote: »

So it seems as though everyone is coming out of exams thinking that they were hell incarnate and lightyears more difficult then previous years, got me wondering.. is this the general opinion every year or is this Leaving Cert considerably more difficult then before?

It's the general opinion every year; when you're stressed and actually doing the exams they always seem much harder than the papers you looked at in class with your teacher commenting etc.

Judging by the stress levels around this forum, which seem to have been lower than most years, and the lack of any major volcanic eruptions over English or Maths in particular, it would seem that this year's papers were in fact quite balanced and didn't cause any major upsets.

That's not the same as saying they were "easy" ofc, but this: "hell incarnate and lightyears more difficult then previous years" wouldn't really seem to be accurate, no.

EoghanIRL

. In Irish the listening was the easiest ever . The reading comprehensions seemed significantly easier too . Most people agreed it was easier than usual.

Shane15

Irish and English were fine for me, but maths paper 1 and the biology paper today went horribly for me. Definitely not getting my courses but oh well lol.

peekachoo

So far, all of the papers have been ridiculously predictable this year!

robman60

I've only done Irish, English and Maths thus far. English and particularly Irish were probably than easier in my opinion. I thought maths paper one was pretty horrible but paper 2 wasn't bad.

Hotale.com

robman60 wrote: »

I've only done Irish, English and Maths thus far. English and particularly Irish were probably than easier in my opinion. I thought maths paper one was pretty horrible but paper 2 wasn't bad.

Yeah, the only one that I thought was tougher than usual was Maths P1. I messed up English P2 a bit but as a paper it was fine. The rest were nice enough.


I've a bad feeling about chemistry being difficult though.

RyanB61

I thought both English papers for Higher level were hard enough.. Probably failed them

FatRat

I think we got lucky with maths. It wasnt as easy as last year but there definitely wasn't any outrageous questions. The poets in English were very very predictable too, especially Dickinson.

lckid

From browsing this forum over the last few years, people always seem to think this. However, when you sit back and rationally observe the papers after you have finished them you will see they were pretty normal.

I think English was fairly standard apart from the Macbeth Q which was challenging. Maths was stupidly easy. A diligent JC student could've gotten a C3 in Maths this year, especially paper 2. Geography ranged from being oddly specific (that sedimentary rock q was horrific) to incredibly easy, especially the Economic elective.

I think what it stems from is that you've been loooking at the same exam papers all year and subliminally expect to see the same EQ's from previous years and when you see something come up that never came up before or a differently phrased Q, you panic and think is the 'strangest', 'hardest' paper you've ever seen, when in reality if you had a good knowledge of the whole course you would've done fine.

In saying that, it was a massive shock to see no Photosynthesis/Respiration and having food as Q2 is just taking the piss

randylonghorn

FatRat wrote: »

I think we got lucky with maths. It wasnt as easy as last year but there definitely wasn't any outrageous questions.

Last year there was a misprint on one of the papers, which confused / panicked a lot of people. And then they spent the rest of the night giving out about it on here, instead of preparing for their next exam!!

fionnacake

I don't think it's been too bad- the Irish papers were lovely, the maths papers were weird but doable (the timing was more an issue than the questions I thought) and the only major curveball so far has been Heaney not coming up as a poet :P

bb1234567

lckid wrote: »

From browsing this forum over the last few years, people always seem to think this. However, when you sit back and rationally observe the papers after you have finished them you will see they were pretty normal.

I think English was fairly standard apart from the Macbeth Q which was challenging. Maths was stupidly easy. A diligent JC student could've gotten a C3 in Maths this year, especially paper 2. Geography ranged from being oddly specific (that sedimentary rock q was horrific) to incredibly easy, especially the Economic elective.

I think what it stems from is that you've been loooking at the same exam papers all year and subliminally expect to see the same EQ's from previous years and when you see something come up that never came up before or a differently phrased Q, you panic and think is the 'strangest', 'hardest' paper you've ever seen, when in reality if you had a good knowledge of the whole course you would've done fine.

In saying that, it was a massive shock to see no Photosynthesis/Respiration and having food as Q2 is just taking the piss

The geo sedimentary question was so easy it was just a slightly adapted limstone/carbonation question:pac:

XtotheZ

To be absolutely honest I thought Maths, English and Biology have been the handiest papers ive ever seen. I dont care about Irish because im in pass :L I consider myself fairly smart but as lazy as hell and honestly tho, I dont think I could of asked for nicer papers. Which makes me think physics will be an absolute slaughter of paper

spurious

Re-regs are not welcome here, neither are grammar Nazis. Goodnight Maude.

Saskatchewan

Overall most exams so far have been okay. I still regard last years maths and biology exams as easier though! That being said, its objective viewing. Every year everyone thinks that have the hardest! Take a look at Hl maths 2012 vs. 2014 and that's the difference!

randylonghorn

Dear lord, Pat Custard / Joe Joe Junior Shabadu / Mauderator, haven't you really little to be doing?!! :rolleyes:

bottomdog

'Been' instead of 'gone' .
Be nice to others ,it's a stressful time - nobody's perfect

Hotale.com

bottomdog wrote: »

'Been' instead of 'gone' .
Be nice to others ,it's a stressful time - nobody's perfect

Ban him Randy.

I'm not serious.

kn2k10

Only moderately hard exam for me thus far was Biology.


Physics will be hard too, I think I may die during it.
Was nice knowing you, world .. sorta.

Physics is a bitch.

Hollister11

Thanks god i'm finished with all this on Thursday. I cant hack this any more. I come home knackered and still have to study. If history wasn't in the afternoon tomorrow i don't know what i would do. I'm fit to sleep for a week. Finsished on Thursday after business OL. Biology was a killer today but overall they were fine... Need to finish get my hair cut, shave, top up my betting account on watch this world cup. None of my friends are finished until next week so i cant go out for a few cold ones... would love some cold beer right now...

Ompala

I wouldn't call this year ridiculously hard (maths is easier than it was imo), but it depends on the subjects, if I recall correctly 2011 Physics was the hardest paper ever for it, while 2011 Geography was very easy (but thats just based on my school!)

WhatzLogin

To be Honest, I found the Maths quite hard, I think that's the only thing *so far* that I found hard during my Leaving cert, anyone else thinking the same?

TheBegotten

kn2k10 wrote: »

Only moderately hard exam for me thus far was Biology.


Physics will be hard too, I think I may die during it.
Was nice knowing you, world .. sorta.

Physics is a bitch.

Do you think? I was feeling pretty ok about it...just avoid the photo-electric question like the plague

randylonghorn

TheBegotten wrote: »

WHY AM I NOT STUDYING FOR FRENCH?

We don't know!!

But it might be a good idea!! :pac:

Calvin

Only thing that i've found hard so far was Maths Paper 1. The rest has been do-able for me (geography, english, irish, maths p2). All that's left is Physics and Accounting, with Accounting being a generally predictable paper.

LmnadZ

I'd say this was one of the easier years from practicing papers from different years in my opinion considering some years like 2011 maths papers.Except for maths paper 1 which was quite unpredictable and disappointing,my maths teacher from the start of the year told me that financial maths was definitely coming up .Paper 2 was definitely the easier paper than some years.

Biology paper was an absolute piece of gold couldn't wanted a better paper.Thx to those who set up the Biology paper

Vito Corleone

Yeah, the papers were piss this year and I'd have gotten 625 if I had sat them. :pac: