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Luna’s 6th Year Study Log
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15-02-2019 2:11pm#1
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I sat the HPAT today so I thought I’d give you a brief update on how I thought it went.
Section 1 was probably my worst section. The questions themselves weren’t too hard, it’s just that I messed up my timing. I ended up completely guessing quite a few unfortunately. Looking back I kinda wish I focused a bit more on this section during my prep but I guess it’s too late now.
Section 2 was definitely better. It took me the full 45 mins to finish this section which was surprising as I usually have 10-15 mins to spare. I found that I had to really think about the answer options so it was definitely more challenging than practice tests. Thankfully it was still very approachable. I was able to answer most questions and I could narrow down the rest to two answer options and make an educated guess from there.
I was expecting Section 3 to be a lot harder than it actually was. It used to be my worst section but I’ve really improved it with practice and I think this was reflected in the test today. The patterns looked really complex at first but once I took my time to figure them out I found that the answer came to me. I did still had to guess a fair few though so I’m still not expecting to do amazingly well.
Overall I’m disappointed with Section 1 but happy enough with Sections 2 and 3. I honestly have no idea what my score will be and there’s no point in worrying about it. It’s out of my control now. At least I can now fully focus on the LC. Just four more months of hard work and then I’ll be free!
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I sat the HPAT today so I thought I’d give you a brief update on how I thought it went.
Section 1 was probably my worst section. The questions themselves weren’t too hard, it’s just that I messed up my timing. I ended up completely guessing quite a few unfortunately. Looking back I kinda wish I focused a bit more on this section during my prep but I guess it’s too late now.
Section 2 was definitely better. It took me the full 45 mins to finish this section which was surprising as I usually have 10-15 mins to spare. I found that I had to really think about the answer options so it was definitely more challenging than practice tests. Thankfully it was still very approachable. I was able to answer most questions and I could narrow down the rest to two answer options and make an educated guess from there.
I was expecting Section 3 to be a lot harder than it actually was. It used to be my worst section but I’ve really improved it with practice and I think this was reflected in the test today. The patterns looked really complex at first but once I took my time to figure them out I found that the answer came to me. I did still had to guess a fair few though so I’m still not expecting to do amazingly well.
Overall I’m disappointed with Section 1 but happy enough with Sections 2 and 3. I honestly have no idea what my score will be and there’s no point in worrying about it. It’s out of my control now. At least I can now fully focus on the LC. Just four more months of hard work and then I’ll be free!
Congrats! Honestly one of the reasons I’m not going for Med is due to the insane difficulty of the Hpat. I just tried Section 1 for some sh*ts and giggles and I literally almost had to guess everything. This is coming from someone who has HL Maths as one of their easiest subjects (I get 100% in more than half the tests and 93% I think in the remaining ones) and I literally did not know where to begin with those questions. Can you actually get better at it over time? I found it really difficult to adjust to the multiple choice format and wasn’t used to the kind of tricks that were put on it. I always thought that it was some kind of intelligence test, no work has to be done for it whatsoever.0 -
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Fair play with getting the English done on Thursday. Composition exercises can literally take me days to do, like I had to devote half my study time last weekend to doing one. For the JC, I did virtually no essays and just wrote a rushed bunch of crap on the day (how I got a Higher Merit, I will never know). But can you really do this at leaving cert too? I contemplated dropping to ordinary level simply to ease the workload, but my teachers say that I'm good at the subject and perhaps don't devote enough time to it (they're right on that in fairness, I haven't studied any literature in weeks and never bothered revising the quotes yet). I can be a real perfectionist in that I want my essay done out a certain way and when I do that, it nets me high results (like H3/H2s or even H1s), but that's after days of work, which I won't get in the LC. How did you go about solving it?
Honestly I always procrastinate so much when it comes to writing English essays. I find that I have to be in the right ‘mood’ to write them. The only reason I got that composition done that day was because it was homework that was due the next day so I forced myself to write it.
To answer your question, I would recommend trying to write essays under time pressure. You probably won’t be 100% happy with the end result as you usually spend longer perfecting your essays but that’s okay. Just hand it up to your teacher and see what grade you get. It may be lower than your usual grade but don’t be disheartened. Take on board any mistakes you made and try again. Keep doing essays under time pressure until you’re happy with your grades. You won’t see results immediately but you will improve. Spending hours and hours on English essays is tempting but you simply don’t have that time in the exam. Also as you said, it eats in to your other study time. Basically in order to do well in English being able to write well is not enough, you need to be able to write well quickly.
Honestly you seem like you’re well able for HL English. Yes it does require a bit of work in terms of learning quotes etc. but it is worth it. It can be so rewarding in a way that other subjects aren’t. It’s such a good feeling when you get a high grade on an essay that you know you worked really hard on.
That being said I now have to go work on a Macbeth essay which is due this Friday.
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Honestly I always procrastinate so much when it comes to writing English essays. I find that I have to be in the right ‘mood’ to write them. The only reason I got that composition done that day was because it was homework that was due the next day so I forced myself to write it.
To answer your question, I would recommend trying to write essays under time pressure. You probably won’t be 100% happy with the end result as you usually spend longer perfecting your essays but that’s okay. Just hand it up to your teacher and see what grade you get. It may be lower than your usual grade but don’t be disheartened. Take on board any mistakes you made and try again. Keep doing essays under time pressure until you’re happy with your grades. You won’t see results immediately but you will improve. Spending hours and hours on English essays is tempting but you simply don’t have that time in the exam. Also as you said, it eats in to your other study time. Basically in order to do well in English being able to write well is not enough, you need to be able to write well quickly.
Honestly you seem like you’re well able for HL English. Yes it does require a bit of work in terms of learning quotes etc. but it is worth it. It can be so rewarding in a way that other subjects aren’t. It’s such a good feeling when you get a high grade on an essay that you know you worked really hard on.
That being said I now have to go work on a Macbeth essay which is due this Friday.
You're absolutely right. It's just that I always procrastinate with English and actually getting me to put the head down and do an essay is about as easy as getting me to chew gum off a chair. I know it's a terrible attitude to have, but I just can't really bring myself to do one of them, especially when all my other 6 subjects are much easier and more straightforward. However, I feel passion has a part-time play as well. I love Maths so even when it causes some grief at times, I'd be willing to work hard at it since I know it'll always pay off (and it always does). You're absolutely right about the great feeling of getting a high grade in English, it makes me happier than getting it in any other subject. And I'm only in 5th year now, so now is the time to put some work into my writing skills.
Btw, how much would you study per day in 5th year? And more importantly, how productive would it be? I always do at least 2 hours per weekday and 5 hours per weekend day. I'm always wondering how productive people are with their studying and where I'd stand (it could take me an hour to do say, Mechanics in Physics or almost two hours to do banking and monetary policy in Economics). I can be very productive at studying too (I could do the previous in half the time stated), it just only happens say 25% of the time studying.0 -
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So I haven’t updated the log in the past two weeks as I’ve had my orals and haven’t done much study apart from preparation for them. I’m back now and I thought I’d just do an update on how I thought they went.
So I had my Spanish oral last week and it was okay. The examiner asked quite basic questions and wasn’t constantly interrupting me which was good. However I did make some grammar mistakes and misunderstood one of the questions. I really hope that didn’t lose me too many marks. She also didn’t ask me much about topics that I knew really well (i.e. school, family) which was kinda disappointing. I honestly think my mock oral was better
I had my Irish oral today and it was alright. The examiner was honestly dead AF and didn’t even crack a single smile at me haha. She kept looking out the window as well. I get that it’s tedious having to listen to students rattle off boring sh*t about their lives but at least try to act like you care. Anyway I’m a bit annoyed because I got a sraith pic that I hadn’t prepared very well. I know it’s my fault but it was one of the three I didn’t like. As for the general conversation she just asked about school, my area, college and my hobbies. So yeah she didn’t ask me anything difficult but I did manage to bring in the modh coinníollach in an attempt to impress her. I hope it worked lol.
I’m so relieved that they’re over but at the same time I felt like they could’ve gone better. I put in a lot of work but I think the nerves kinda got to me so I ended up making quite a few mistakes. I’m probably not going to count Irish so I guess it doesn’t matter if I don’t get an amazing grade in it but I kinda want to get a H2 again for myself. As for Spanish I feel like I’m going to have to do really well on the written in order to get a H1 as my oral wasn’t really of a H1 standard. Anyway they’re out of my control now so there’s no point in worrying about them anymore. Now I can focus all my study time on the written papers.0 -
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Okay, not gonna lie, I kinda forgot about this study log until now. Not to worry though because today I am here to give you an update on how I felt my first few exams went.
English Paper 1: I was quite nervous the day before this exam (simply because it was the first exam) but thankfully it turned out to be a pretty good paper. The question As were definitely doable. The SEC did decide to put paper 2 content on paper 1 again but it was okay because the questions were quite general. I didn’t love the question Bs however. I know nothing about sport so I couldn’t do the first one and am not creative enough to write two pages on the advantages of ‘real’ shops over online shops so I ruled out the last one as well. So yeah, I ended up doing the spaceship question (like everyone else in country haha). As for the composition, there was a really nice selection and I did the speech on our self obsessed generation. I felt slightly bad giving out about my fellow teenagers but it just had to be done haha. Overall it was a nice, doable paper.
English Paper 2: Can someone please tell me what the SEC has against Heaney? I was so certain he was going to come up I ended up answering the Plath question which I’m kind of regretting now considering the fact it was answered by like 75% of the country. What’s done is done I guess. As for Macbeth, the questions were a little unusual. I did the first question on ‘bizarre’ elements of the play. I wrote a lot about the supernatural stuff in the play but I’m not sure if I answered how they affected the ‘tragic intensity’ properly. The comparative was okay. I was surprised that theme/issue didn’t come up though. I did the GV+VP question on the ‘personal integrity’ of the characters. I kind of felt like I was making up stuff as I went along but hopefully it was relevant haha. As for the unseen poem, it was okay as well. I managed to scribble a page and a half on it in the last fifteen minutes. So yeah, it was definitely a challenging paper.
Maths Paper 1: This was a pretty fair paper. The short questions were nice with only a few tricky bits. The first question, the integration question, the complex numbers question and the root 2 proof question were all beautiful. The long questions were quite approachable but I definitely messed up on a few parts. I wasn’t really sure what was going on in the last few parts of that Cantor set question tbh. I also know I got the last parts of Q8 and Q9 partially wrong too. Anyway, I put something down in every box so hopefully attempt marks will boost my grade! The good thing is that it was a thousand times better than the mock paper!0 -
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Hello, anyone there???
Jokes aside, I’m sorry for never updating this. You see, around this time last year I got my LC results and CAO Offers. To make a long story short I was pretty devastated. I missed my dream course, medicine, by three points. I actually got less points then I got in my mocks. It felt like a kick in the face after working so hard for 2 years.
After thinking through my options, I decided to take a year out to repeat the HPAT. I put 5 months of solid hard work into that exam. I also worked part-time to save up for college. I’m not going to lie, it was tough at times. My friends were all enjoying themselves at college while I was left behind, taking a gap year I never wanted to take in the first place. Then of course, Covid-19 happened. That definitely didn’t do much to ease my anxiety of whether I’d get in to college or not...
However, everything changed today...
I recieved an offer to study medicine at my first choice university! To say I am over the moon is an understatement. It has been a bit of a rollercoaster ride to get to this point but I wouldn't have it any other way. As some wise person once said, “The more you endure on your journey, the sweeter the arrival to your destination.”
If anyone reading this is upset with their results and/or offers, please remember that it is not the end of the world. There are so so many ways into everything. You’ll figure it out, I promise.
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