Last week Killian shared his blog on Geography, and today he looks at Higher Level French. Keep scrolling to read Keileagh’s History paper review below too.
The Leaving Cert Diary series, with thanks to the Irish Second-Level Students’ Union, gives young people the chance to tell us how it went for them in their own words.
Read Killian’s Blog
Bonjour tout le monde! Today I sat the leaving cert French Higher Level exam, which I was pleasantly surprised by.
The reading comprehensions were very accessible and proved to be an interesting read once translated! One was about sustainable travel, the other followed the story of a woman seeking tenants for her apartment
The dreaded Q1 ended up being fairly nice, with one question on holidays and another on the housing crisis, which I ended up doing. Moving on to the optional questions, there was a wide variety of options to choose from. I ended up doing the diary entry, which asked to write about your first driving lesson – endless possibilities!
The listening aspect of French is definitely the hardest, but today it seemed to be relatively straightforward with references to the French soccer team and street food.
Overall, this exam was fair, with lots of chances to pick up some serious marks. Au revoir!
Keileagh was very happy with History.
Read Keileagh’s Blog
Wow, just wow. As someone hoping to be a History teacher, I can’t say this exam was weighing lightly on my mind.
Still, with such a broad course and having five exams back-to-back beforehand, my History study was admittedly limited. I decided to narrow down the course to the sections I enjoyed and, in honour of Martin Luther King, walk in there with a dream.
After speaking to some of my peers, there are mixed reviews on today’s exam, but I personally can’t explain the sigh of relief I let out as I read through the paper.
This year’s DBQ options were the Dublin strike and lockout, the 1885/86 elections and the star of the show, the foundation of the GAA. The sources were nice and easily comprehensible, however I was hoping for a question on the general challenges facing the GAA rather than solely the political.
For the essays, I focused my study on Mussolini, Hitler, the Jarrow Crusade and race relations, and thankfully I was nicely covered. I don’t think they could have asked a nicer race relations question if they tried, and I’m sure there are many in my shoes delighted with this too.
Despite this, I was disappointed for my friends who had studied the moon landing and Vietnam as we were all expecting to see those options there today.
Overall, I think it was a very fair paper from the SEC, and with the amalgamation of my RSR submitted in April, I’m expecting to be very happy in August!
Make sure to take some time to relax. This article from RTÉ News is a big help – how to mind yourself at exam time.
MORE – Visit RTÉ Learn for subject by subject exam tips.
The Irish Second-Level Students’ Union (ISSU)
Founded in 2008, the ISSU is the national representative body for school students in the Republic of Ireland. The ISSU is led by students, for students.
This content is taken from their Exam Blog series – see them all here.
The views expressed here are those of the authors and do not represent or reflect the views of RTÉ.