Nine down, one to go
One exam left. The final hurdle, and it’s not until next Monday. Huzzah!
Today I had French and History. Unfortunately yesterday I had a pretty bad headache I just couldn’t shrug off. No amount on painkillers could help, and I found it pretty hard to study with it. I think it may be a combination of sleep deprivation and caffeine. So I got very little study done last night, and was pretty worried about today’s exams.
Overall, they could have been worse. French was mixed. The written paper was quite awkward. The comprehensions were not topical, and the written questions couldn’t have been predicted. While I’m not asking for the exam to be easy and predictable, surely it wouldn’t hurt to actually have us write about topical things, rather than the drivel I suffered with today (loss of tradition and too much noise). On the upside, the Aural was pretty easy, especially when compared with previous years.
Then there was History. This was the closest I’ve come to freaking out during these exams, as I coolly declared that this was going to be a disaster. Thankfully, it wasn’t quite as much of a disaster as I’d feared (it was more of a minor-fishing-boat-sinking-but-all-passengers-surviving than a Titanic type situation). This was down to pure luck, as the few things I knew half decently came up, and I managed to cope with the ridiculously tight time limits of this exam. However, on the whole, the paper was a joke, and I imagine some people were really caught out. Out of any exams I’ve taken so far, this one is most likely to cause uproar - there always seems to be one or two exams every year that “cause uproar”. It was plainly obvious that they were trying to catch students out.
The document question was on Vietnam. Thank Christ. However, the questions asked were tricky, and I thought the contexualisation question (”Why was President Johnson unable to win the war in Vietnam?”) was difficult enough. I think most students would have been better prepared on how opposition to the war grew or how the Tet Offensive was a turning point in the war.
Home Rule was not asked in Ireland : Topic 2, which is an absolute joke. Home rule is the main part of that section! It was “guaranteed” that CS Parnell would be coming up, but he was nowhere to be seen. Where were you Charlie babe?There was a ridiculous question comparing John Redmond and Edward Carson. I mean, come on, who would have studied that in great detail? The question I did was about Cultural Revival, and I had learned the three organisations that played a big role in this - The GAA, the Gaelic League, and The Anglo-Irish Literary revival. The question asked about the first two, but then (just to be feckin’ awkward) asked about WB Yeats instead of the Literary Revival. I got on alright, but it was just annoying. There’s three main organisations for that section, so why are they not just asking about them? Simply to be awkward is why. To try to explain this a little better, here’s a (poor) analogy :
What did the following contribute to the world of Sport 1990-2008 : Rugby, Athletics, David Beckham.
You get meh?
Ireland : Topic 3 was no better really. A lot of people had been banking on the rise of Sinn Féin coming up, and it didn’t. Which is quite silly. I did a question on the Eucharistic Congress, which is a very waffle-filled topic, about how Irish pride and identity was created. Snore.
Then in the Dictatorship and Democracy section, no Mussolini! How dare they leave out my little Benito? He hasn’t appeared on the exam yet, so it seemed sure he’d be there. For Mussolini to be ignored three years in a row is just plain silly. Mussolini and Fascist Italy are a huge part of that section, and this should be reflected in what is asked in the exam. I was sorted for this one though, and talked about the civilian population in Britain during WWII. But why are we having to write about such boring material when there’s so many more interesting topics in that section. I had a friend of mine tell me recently that he can’t wait to finish the history exam, so he can go back to loving history. The way we study history for the Leaving Cert actually turns people off it, and the same goes for Irish. There’s something terribly wrong with that, and the State Exams Commission need to look at it. Or pay me to do it for you. Feck it, I’m sure I’d manage.
So, Physics next Monday and it’s all over. Four days to study for my final Leaving Cert exam. I miss it already…
Popularity: 13% [?]
If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!
