Leaving Cert 2016/17 Off-Topic Thread

thetalker

Has anyone had their examiner arrive in very late for the orals?
My school was told the french examiner would be there at 2pm on Thursday and only see 4 people. This means we might have to stay back on Friday for the orals which I find ridiculous.

randylonghorn

They're probably in another school that morning, and just getting a headstart by getting through a few on Thurs.

The choice is probably to have everyone on Friday, which would definitely increase the chances of running late!

thetalker

I guess thats possible but everything I've heard of this examiner makes me feel like they're going to be very cranky

BadBannana

Got really lucky with both oral examiners. Only really fudged one question in the French, Irish was a bit disastrous but I think I scraped a pass

spurious

thetalker wrote:

I guess thats possible but everything I've heard of this examiner makes me feel like they're going to be very cranky

I doubt it. Especially if they are finished after your school.

Crazyteacher

thetalker wrote: »

Has anyone had their examiner arrive in very late for the orals?
My school was told the french examiner would be there at 2pm on Thursday and only see 4 people. This means we might have to stay back on Friday for the orals which I find ridiculous.

That's not late at all. Completely normal. They probably have a batch of schools to do in your area. Would be nice for you to have it over with earlier in the day but that's just the way. Have a few minutes to yourself before you go in, it can make you more nervous talking to your classmates about what they got asked etc.

padraigmck

Had my Irish oral today and somehow we ended up talking about the cows on our farm.....
Other than that it was fine lol

Ponguin

Is it bad to ask the examiner how you did after? I've asked twice but in a kind of funny/hopelessly desperate way haha

BadBannana

padraigmck wrote: »

Had my Irish oral today and somehow we ended up talking about the cows on our farm.....
Other than that it was fine lol

You should have told them you have frontage, to show off

Nyctolust

Had my Irish oral today and it was honestly a bit of a disaster, much worse than I expected it to be and I'm not happy with it at all... We did have a really lovely examiner though. No point worrying about it now. Just glad it's all over now and I can join everyone burning their sraith pictiúrs...

Consonata

The oral examiner had some fun questions for people in our school, one was the disadvantages of living in a town beside a bypass. And that was to an OL candidate!

ElmW13

Was all ready for my French oral today... went to get my document to find that someone had drawn Hitler moustaches on nearly every photo... the tears followed but the examiner was fine with it thankfully but I was so glad to have it done

ciara18

What is everyone planning to do revision-wise over Easter? How many days on-off, how many hours a day etc.? I know it'll be different for each person but just to get some sort of an idea!

Liordi

I've made a timetable with about 80 hours of work, so excluding today, that's an average of 5 hours per day. Gonna be so much fun. :pac:

X6.430macman

Liordi wrote:

I've made a timetable with about 80 hours of work, so excluding today, that's an average of 5 hours per day. Gonna be so much fun.

Wow...5 hours a day, seriouly how can you do that

Liordi

X6.430macman wrote: »

Wow...5 hours a day, seriouly how can you do that

because I've done no study whatsoever outside of orals. Currently entering panic mode.

hasdanta

Had my French oral today, for my document she literally asked me 3 questions (including the standard "decrivez-moi votre document question) and then moved on to asking about what I'll do during the summer holidays. Did this happen to anyone else? Really annoyed cos I'd loads of good material prepared for it

ciara18

hasdanta wrote: »

Had my French oral today, for my document she literally asked me 3 questions (including the standard "decrivez-moi votre document question) and then moved on to asking about what I'll do during the summer holidays. Did this happen to anyone else? Really annoyed cos I'd loads of good material prepared for it

Yeah my examiner did the exact same with mine, I was very disappointed!

Nyctolust

That's unusual. In my school we were told examiners usually spent about three or four minutes on the document, and everyone in my year who did one got plenty of questions and got to talk about it a lot.

wanderer100

Had my Irish oral today. Can't get my head around how simple it was!! I'd prepared so much but the examiner just stuck with the simple topics of family, school and pasttimes for the whole thing. Got a great sraith pictiur as well!!

Now for two weeks of intensive study!!!!

thetalker

French oral went alot better than I expected. Though I imagine I made a few small errors I think I did good. Really strange how nice she was considering all the negative stuff my teacher said.

Mr Rhode Island Red

ciara18 wrote: »

What is everyone planning to do revision-wise over Easter? How many days on-off, how many hours a day etc.? I know it'll be different for each person but just to get some sort of an idea!

No more than 3 or 4 hours a day, probably end up closer to 2 a day though, with an odd day off.

Crazyteacher

hasdanta wrote: »

Had my French oral today, for my document she literally asked me 3 questions (including the standard "decrivez-moi votre document question) and then moved on to asking about what I'll do during the summer holidays. Did this happen to anyone else? Really annoyed cos I'd loads of good material prepared for it

Yes that happens all the time. It did in mine too. It doesn't mean they weren't interested just that they wanted to move on to see what other French you had.

ciara18

Anyone have any tips on how to study for the french written productions? I've never really studied for them because I'm not really sure how to

thetalker

Productions?
If you mean reading comprehensions, reading real articles and stories will naturally help in knowing what the text is saying.
The rest really is just knowing some tenses and spellings.
Oh and for the aural listen to past ones and real french people.

Anyone doing chemistry? I want to get a H2 but I don't know what I should focus on. I started writing up some organic experiments but I feel that the other Q's in Section 2 might let me down.
I understand definitions etc are crucial but if I had a set amount of things to solely focus on that would be neat.

Consonata

thetalker wrote: »

Anyone doing chemistry? I want to get a H2 but I don't know what I should focus on. I started writing up some organic experiments but I feel that the other Q's in Section 2 might let me down.
I understand definitions etc are crucial but if I had a set amount of things to solely focus on that would be neat.

Question 6 is always a good bet I've found. That and Titrations should be your 50/50 questions, after that Equilibrium comes up often enough as a half question or a full question. Usually if Rates gets a full question, then Equilib gets a half a question. Water is tipped to come up this year in either the experiment (EDTA) or as a long question, so know your different stages of sewage treatment and water treatment. Also know your options back to front because that's a guaranteed half a question too.

Apart from that, I would just know my organic really well. Know substitution as a mechanism really well as that hasn't been asked as a mechanism and later organic is always a question 8/9.

hasdanta

thetalker wrote: »

Anyone doing chemistry? I want to get a H2 but I don't know what I should focus on. I started writing up some organic experiments but I feel that the other Q's in Section 2 might let me down.
I understand definitions etc are crucial but if I had a set amount of things to solely focus on that would be neat.

I would focus on Heats and Fuels of Reaction, Organic Chemistry, Equilibrium, pH/Acids and Bases, Water, all organic experiments, all titrations experiments - these questions are pretty much guaranteed to come up.

thetalker

I see thanks. I definitely find organic to be my weakest and I've barely checked the options.
Its probably time I focused on it and experiments since they're guaranteed.

Mr Rhode Island Red

thetalker wrote: »

I see thanks. I definitely find organic to be my weakest and I've barely checked the options.
Its probably time I focused on it and experiments since they're guaranteed.

Do you mean like the options at the end of the book? Our teacher didn't even bother doing them with us, he said they're not worth the time considering how much they actually appear on the paper, which is normally only half a question at most. I wouldn't worry about them, titrations and organic are the bigger fish to fry.

spurious

Mr Rhode Island Red wrote: »

Do you mean like the options at the end of the book? Our teacher didn't even bother doing them with us, he said they're not worth the time considering how much they actually appear on the paper, which is normally only half a question at most. I wouldn't worry about them, titrations and organic are the bigger fish to fry.

Anything on the syllabus can appear on the paper.
Chief Examiners keep saying they want the exam to be less predictable. I woldn't be leaving anything out, unless I knew I was well covered.