Well everyone!

I know it’s been ages for my last post. Apologies. School is just pretty insane at the moment…. Some mock papers also took much longer to get back than others and I wanted to blog about them all as a big, miserable mess. I hopped on over to the Mister X’s Journal to the right… “elePHAnT”? Has it really been that long? Might as well throw that out there then.

HPAT. I was at Trinity College (at which there was a chronic shortage of toilets…) No panic attacks or anything the night before thought it did take me a while to fall asleep. Overall I though the whole thing was organised really well, smooth in and out apart from the blip of handing out papers. Is it true people cried in UCD?

Section 1: Surprisingly okay. I think I had to rush at the end and hadn’t a notion about the dragonfly or mosquito question on wingspan. Graphs seemed off to me. Otherwise, this section was alright I thought.

Section 2: Again, not too bad. Apart from the dialogue between the child talking to her dad about leaving her mother? I found that a little difficult, as if the questions were presuming too much from little snippets of conversation. Overall, I thought it too was alright.

Section 3: Sweet Mother of Jesus. This section was all over the place for me and I found it much less logical than anything on the sample paper. I mean, I got a few but most of it was everywhere. Not happy with that one and it could be the one that let me down.

For the most part though, I was happy/relieved. It’s one more thing done right? Kind of messed up my timing though, because I sped through Section 2 to leave extra for 3 in any practice I did. You can’t do this! Tight for time, but generally ok. What was up with people with beeping stopwatches? Seriously, you waste time tapping the yoke every 30 seconds! Fingers crossed, salt over the left shoulder, three-leafed clover, horseshoe and rabbit’s foot at the ready

Ah the Mocks. I got 475 points. I’m needing 550. Suffice to say I freaked out a little bit. But I’ve chilled a lot, become more organised in my approach to notes/study and decided, hey, if HPAT goes okay and the Leaving sucks I can always repeat. (Don’t tell Kevin I’d love to stick around another year haha ). In truth though it is a big leap to 550 and I am a little apprehensive.

English     B1

Overall, pretty amazed. My poetry was badly, badly answered in my opinion. Paper 1 was my saving grace which I suppose is a good thing. Paper 2 can be improved although Lear/Comparative/Poetry (eh…whole paper..) need serious work.

Irish     B3

Again, I was surprised. My An Triail question was one of the best, although I missed a poetry question and my Aiste was riddled with mistakes. Oral let me down and I need big work there.

Maths C1

My only Ordinary Level paper. I’ll admit: I did nothing, looked at none of the stuff I hadn’t done in Honors. My Trig is ferociously weak and I’m really going to have to pull up my sleeves to get the A1 in this. Was it just me though or was the paper really hard compared to past years? Our’s was DEB I think, had the tough tax question as number 1 on Paper 1…

Geography    B2

I put a lot of cramming into Geography and none of my regions came up. I had to work on memory a LOT and I think the paper was marked too easily. My SRPs were really hazy and general. I was pretty surprised with the result and my timing wasn’t too great in the exam.

French B2

I couldn’t believe this result but overall I found the mock disappointing and much too easy in comparison with the past papers, particularly the comprehensions on which I got full marks on the first. The listening was ok but again, like Irish, my oral was not good. Again, a major source of stress over the coming weeks.

Biology B1

Delighted. I really love Biology and worked hard at it throughout the year. I did a little cramming but the constant work obviously paid off.  Hopefully I can haul this up to the A bracket over the next few months.

Chemistry C2

My lowest result. My God, the cramming for this one. I’ve since started keeping up with topics as they come but I find the subject very difficult, especially learning the material off and not mixing up chemicals. Doesn’t help either we’re crawling through the course.

Sooo… overall? Yeah, I’m happy with the results I suppose because they’re mostly good. I just really hope I can bump up for June. Reckon it’s possible? Because my parents are fairly skeptical  and my friends (who were just delighted to pass) don’t want to hear it..hope everyone else’s were ok!

This is my major source of Vitamin Chillax : http://songza.org/

It’s keeping me sane. Peace out!

Mister X.