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:

69cokaz

I honestly found the mocks way easier so far anyway. Maths was way harder than i expected.

kn2k10

TheBegotten wrote: »

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

My teacher was a pleb though.

Didn't finish the course.
Didn't get all experiments done.
Wasted one class after another by letting us finish up 10 mins early a lot.
Tried to embarrass us constantly.
Constant slacker.

To be honest, have no clue how he ever became a teacher.
I think for some people, care fades with age. The old ****e probably couldn't give a damn about students any more and has his eyes set solely on his retirement.

I blame my inabilities on him, but I'm still going to try for the HL paper. If I can just get the experiments out and do Q5 I think I can get by.
Got 56% in the mocks ...

Fiske

As someone who has been out of school for a ton of this year and the last and not got much study done, I think the exams so far (at least Maths, Irish, English and Biology, the ones I've sat) have been gorgeous. Nothing on Maths was mad cruel, Irish and English were predictable (and this is the first time I've ever got most of the answers on an Irish aural. Lovely tape was loooovelyyy). Biology was just plain nice. Still three exams to go but I'm already thinking of 2014 as the year that some great entity decided to have mercy on me and my soul! Let's hope it keeps up for Physics because my teacher's god awful so I'll be pretty much handling the whole course myself this weekend.

Badwulf

Although I don't think the exams have been ridiculously hard this year, I do feel some have been completetly unfair due to the fact they have "Broken the mold" so to speak.

Engineering

TWO graphs for question 2 and not a single NDT question, this has never happened until now.
Polymers question showed an xbox controller and asked the method instead of showing the moulding process and asking what it was, how it worked, and what it could be used to make. This has also never happened.

Biology

NOT ONE SINGLE photosynthesis, respiration OR human reproduction question, I can tolerate no photosynthesis or respiration but no reproduction question either? Also a diagram which looks like the photo was taken by a 6 year old with pizza slices for hands, wtf like? I couldn't tell if it was a foot or a bicep flexing.

Swan Curry

So far it's been pretty good for me,the Irish listening was a breeze compared to the samples.Depending on how history goes tomorrow I could do a complete 180 on this!

Stheno

There is a phenomenon called exam adrenaline, which causes people to think that real exams are far more difficult than mock exams, which could cause people to post a lot of what is on this thread.

LmnadZ

Stheno wrote: »

There is a phenomenon called exam adrenaline, which causes people to think that real exams are far more difficult than mock exams, which could cause people to post a lot of what is on this thread.

Maybe... I was sweating,panicking and my heart was constantly pounding hard during the mocks exams.It's strange however i don't experience any of those things right now on exams maybe I'm just well prepared for the exams

Stheno

LmnadZ wrote: »

Maybe... I was sweating,panicking and my heart was constantly pounding hard during the mocks exams.It's strange however i don't experience any of those things right now on exams maybe I'm just well prepared for the exams

I've compared over 1000 students doing mock versus live exams, 90% come out saying the live was harder, yet results for the entire 1000 are +/- 3 marks of what they got in the mocks for all bar one.

Hotale.com

Stheno wrote: »

I've compared over 1000 students doing mock versus live exams, 90% come out saying the live was harder, yet results for the entire 1000 are +/- 3 marks of what they got in the mocks for all bar one.

+ / - 3 marks!? That seems incredibly close :eek:

LmnadZ

Stheno wrote: »

I've compared over 1000 students doing mock versus live exams, 90% come out saying the live was harder, yet results for the entire 1000 are +/- 3 marks of what they got in the mocks for all bar one.

Interesting nonetheless,at the end of the day for a lot of people the amount of preparation plays a big part in their experience of the actual exam like it did for me though you could argue it all comes down to the day of the exam no matter how much you prepared.

randylonghorn

* Bunch of Physics posts moved to Physics Discussion thread! *

LmnadZ

randylonghorn wrote: »

* Bunch of Physics posts moved to Physics Discussion thread! *

Thx randy didn't realise it while discussing

randylonghorn

LmnadZ wrote: »

Thx randy didn't realise it while discussing

Not the end of the world as we know it, just makes it easier for everyone if we try to keep the place a *bit* tidy!

Red Nissan

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, ?

It seems to me that one is expected to actually know stuff, to get an education and not just enough to answer a few exam questions and hope the favourites come up.

Maybe your exam will mean something, 40 years ago my leaving was over qualified for a job, and yet we did nothing, our teachers we very clever and gambled on what would come up in the exam and they just did that.

I probably should not have bothered, but you'll need a BA to equal my leaving. And that was like 150 years ago in 1972, and yes my math is pathetic.

Badwulf

Wait are you saying that in the "live"exams everyone either gets 3 marks higher or lower?

Stheno

Hotale.com wrote: »

+ / - 3 marks!? That seems incredibly close :eek:

This was in an adult education course where the pass was 65% forty questions each worth 1 mark.

So equivalent to a difference of 2.5 marks for an exam marked at 100 easy enough to change a grade for better or worse

I've the data to back it up.

It did vary depending on how well people did/didn't do in mocks, those who failed in mocks tended to go up, those who did really well, went down a little, those in the middle stayed there.

Google it "exam adrenaline" it's well recognised.

Pidge96

I'm surprised with how sticky biology was in parts and how reasonable the higher maths was.

Raspberry Fileds

Stheno wrote: »

This was in an adult education course where the pass was 65% forty questions each worth 1 mark.

So equivalent to a difference of 2.5 marks for an exam marked at 100 easy enough to change a grade for better or worse

I've the data to back it up.

It did vary depending on how well people did/didn't do in mocks, those who failed in mocks tended to go up, those who did really well, went down a little, those in the middle stayed there.

Google it "exam adrenaline" it's well recognised.

IMO, that's not especially illustrative. The question of the thread is whether the general difficulty of the papers of this LC was abnormally high. I assume, by difficulty, that the OP is referring to the objective difficulty of the questions and not to how difficult it is to achieve particular grades, because we all know that the grade distribution remains roughly equal from year to year.

Though the circumstances of the study aren't the same (for example, I imagine LC students practise far more past papers than those in Adult Education, which would likely sway the results in some way), I suspect that the overwhelming tendency of Adult Education students to find the exam more difficult than a mock would also be found to be the case with LC students.

It's a shame that the SEC doesn't conduct studies of this nature.

My opinion on the English and Maths papers is that the first was of usual standard (if anything, slightly easier than usual - poetry was very kind, for instance), and that the second was significantly less challenging than some papers on the previous syllabus.