Luna’s 6th Year Study Log

luna4573 · 15-02-2019 3:11pm #1

Hey, I’ve decided to start a study log to track the work I do up until the LC. I’m hoping to study medicine (original, I know haha) so I need 550+ points - along with a decent HPAT score, of course!

These are my seven subjects and what grades I hope to achieve in them:

English (H1/H2)
Irish (H2/H3)
Maths (H2/H3)
Spanish (H1/H2)
Chemistry (H1)
Biology (H1)
Physics (H1/H2)

I know that I am aiming high but hopefully I’ll get the grades I want if I put the work in. Just four more months to go!

luna4573 · 15-02-2019 3:12pm

So I guess I’ll just tell you how I felt my mocks went (finished yesterday!).

English:
P1 was a bit iffy. I definitely need to work on the timing for reading comprehensions. My personal essay was kinda all over the place as well. I didn’t think P2 was too bad. The comparative questions were nice and my favourite poet came up. My Macbeth essay was pretty waffly though so more revision is definitely needed in that area!

Irish:
I honestly did not realise how much time you have for P1. Two hours to write a 3 page essay is sort of ridiculous! I really took my time and still had about 45 mins to spare. The aural was grand as well. P2 was a bit weird to be honest. Well, the comprehensions and poetry were okay. I just didn’t really like the prose question as I felt like there wasn’t much I could say. Same for An Triail.

Maths:
This was by far the worst exam! I don’t think there was a single question on P1 that I could fully understand. P2 was slightly more approachable, but by a very small amount. The thing is, I’m actually not bad at maths. I almost always understand the homework and do well in class tests. However, I never seem to do that well in exams. I just can’t understand why! At least I now know that I definitely need to work on exam questions and timing from now on.

Spanish:
We hadn’t covered the topic that came up for the opinion piece which was slightly annoying but otherwise the paper was doable. I have my mock oral after the midterm break so I’ll let you know how that goes then.

Chemistry:
This was quite a nice paper. There was a good selection of long questions. I definitely need to revise my experiments though!

Biology:
This was a dream of a paper. None of the topics I find hard came up! However, I do need to go over the experiments again.

Physics:
I didn’t love this paper but overall it was okay. The long question choice wasn’t amazing but I managed to get the required amount of questions done. Is it just me or is the wording in physics papers kind of unclear? Like I feel like they’re always trying to catch students out haha. I probably just need to do more revision and I’ll be fine.

Overall the whole experience was pretty middling. I didn’t revise an awful lot for the mocks (due to burning out after Christmas) so I know I’m not going to reach my full potential grades wise. However, I am glad that I now have a good idea of the timing in each exam and of what topics I need to go over for June.

luna4573 · 22-02-2019 3:49pm

Okay so I’m probably going to update this log weekly with the work I’ve completed. This week I focused on doing the Acer HPAT material and a few drills. The Acer exams seemed slightly easier than the M*dEntry practice exams so I hope this will also be the case in the real thing!

Monday:
Acer Practice Exam 1
Sec 1 Drill
Sec 2 Drills (x2)

Tuesday:
Acer Practice Exam 3
Sec 1 Drill
Sec 2 Drills (x2)

Wednesday:
Acer Additional Questions 1
Acer Additional Questions 2
Sec 2 Drills (x2)

Thursday:
Acer Practice Exam 4
Sec 1 Drills (x2)

I’m probably not going to do much today so my head is clear for tomorrow. I’ll just look over my notes and vocab list but nothing much else. At this point I feel like I’ve done all the prep I possibly could’ve done so hopefully it will pay off! If anyone else reading this is also doing the HPAT tomorrow then I wish you the best of luck. You will be absolutely fine😃

luna4573 · 23-02-2019 8:37pm

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!

c_f_p99 · 23-02-2019 11:57pm

luna4573 wrote: »

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.

luna4573 · 24-02-2019 1:52pm

c_f_p99 wrote: »

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.

Hi, thanks for your comment! I totally understand why the HPAT puts a lot of people off med. It puts so much additional pressure on people. To answer your question though I think it is possible to improve to a certain extent with practice.

In Section 1 the questions mainly relate to graphs, data tables and logic puzzles. With practice I definitely felt like I became more comfortable with these types of questions. My mistake was that I didn’t work on my timing enough. The issue with Section 1 is that you have to solve 44 questions in 65 mins. Being a fast thinker is crucial for this section. This is definitely difficult to improve if it doesn’t come to you naturally but I do think it can be done with lots of practice.

Section 2 is the hardest to improve in my opinion. I guess you can get better at answering these questions by expanding your vocabulary and reading more. However in my opinion you have to be naturally good at understanding people and their emotions to really excel here.

I would say you can definitely get better at Section 3 (pattern recognition). The drills and exams on M*dEntry really helped me with this section. It seemed impossible to me at first but with practice it became easy to spot the different patterns. ACER have realised that people can improve a lot in this section and that’s why they’ve reduced its weighting to only 20% and made the questions a lot harder than the ones in their practice tests. Nonetheless I found the questions in the real exam to be very approachable.

I know that ACER say that it’s an aptitude test but you are definitely at an advantage if you’ve familiarised yourself with the exam beforehand. ACER themselves have practice tests and questions available that you can buy once you register. These tests are easier than the real exam will be but they were still the best reflection of what the test was like in my opinion. So yeah I would say at least look at the official ACER material to anyone who’s sitting the HPAT. Personally I feel like doing the M*dentry course did help me a lot as well. That being said, it’s not necessary to do a prep course to do well and doing one doesn’t necessarily guarantee that you will get a high score either.

Sorry for the long winded reply haha. I wish you the best of luck with your studies and the rest of fifth year!

luna4573 · 04-03-2019 12:24am

Monday:
Crammed for my Spanish oral

Tuesday:
Chemistry past paper Qs on titration

Wednesday:
Made a study timetable starting next week (this doesn’t technically count as study I know)

Thursday:
Probability past paper Qs (x8)
2019 Examcraft English Mock QA
Revised Irish grammar terms

Friday:
Nothing because I was too tired....

Saturday:
Nothing again because we had guests over...

Sunday:
Bio revision worksheet on enzymes, respiration, photosynthesis & osmosis
Differentiation past paper Qs (x4)
2019 Examcraft English Mock QB

Ok so I didn’t actually do much at all this week. I guess it took me a some time to fully recover from the HPAT! Just note that I only count homework as ‘study’ if it’s exam questions or something else that I think is relevant. Anyway I hope to be a lot more more productive next week now that the back-to-school exhaustion has worn off.

My mock Spanish oral was on Tuesday and it was grand. The examiner was really friendly and thankfully the exam felt more like a conversation than an interrogation. I definitely need to work on my grammar but otherwise I feel confident that I can do well in the real exam. In other news, I got some mock results back. I’m pretty happy with my results so far and I’ll share them once I get everything back.

smartboyz · 09-03-2019 5:00pm

What did you get in your mocks

luna4573 · 10-03-2019 11:30pm

smartboyz wrote: »

What did you get in your mocks

I’m going to post my results once I get all of them back:)

luna4573 · 10-03-2019 11:33pm

Monday:
Chemistry iron tablets titration past paper Qs (x2)
Differentiation past paper Qs (x3)
Feminine VS masculine nouns in Irish
Construction 17 Revision

Tuesday:
Sráith Pictiúir 8 Revision
Differentiation past paper Qs (x4)
Heat past paper Qs (x2)

Wednesday:
Differentiation past paper Qs (x4)

Thursday:
2019 Examcraft English Mock Composition (article on beauty)

Friday:
Nothing

Saturday:
Spanish Dialogue & Note 2014
Irish Oral Conversation Prep

Sunday:
Irish Oral Conversation Prep
Sraith Pictiúir Revision

I could’ve done more this week but I got a bit lazy again. I have my mock Irish oral on Tuesday so I’ll update you guys on how that goes next week.

c_f_p99 · 12-03-2019 7:39pm

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?

luna4573 · 13-03-2019 7:42pm

c_f_p99 wrote: »

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.

c_f_p99 · 15-03-2019 7:00pm

luna4573 wrote: »

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.

luna4573 · 18-03-2019 11:18pm

c_f_p99 wrote: »

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.

It’s great that you find your other 6 subjects easy and straightforward. I would love to be in that position with maths! Don’t worry too much about English, just do your best and the results will follow.

In fifth year I did the same amount of study as you. I studied for around 2 hours on weekdays (on top of my homework) and around 4-5 hours on the weekends. My study definitely wasn’t productive 100% of the time though. The great thing about fifth year is that you have the time to experiment with different study techniques to find what is the most productive for you. Personally I found that doing exam questions under time pressure and correcting them myself afterwards helps me learn the best. Also making out a timetable each Sunday for the week ahead is a good idea. I make sure to make my tasks really specific because I find that I’m more likely to complete them that way. For example, instead of saying on Tuesday I will study Biology I would say on Tuesday I will do 2 Biology past paper questions on enzymes in 30 mins.

And it’s okay to spend different amounts of time on different subjects. For example I find Biology easy so I don’t study it as much as I would study Maths which I find more difficult. So yeah, find out what study techniques work best for you and what subjects you need to spend more time on and your work will become a lot more productive.

luna4573 · 18-03-2019 11:21pm

Monday:
Crammed for mock Irish oral

Tuesday:
2015 Chemistry Titration Q1

Wednesday:
Standard Deviation Qs

Thursday:
Macbeth Essay (Ambition)
Revised imperfect subjunctive (Spanish)

Friday:
Mock Reading Comprehension (Spanish)

Saturday:
Nothing oops

Sunday:
Differential Applications past qs (x4)
Spanish Vocab (El Medioambiente)

I had my mock Irish oral on Tuesday and it was alright. I wasn’t asked anything weird, just the basics. I got geibheann for my poem (woohoo!) and the sraith pic was also grand. During the general conversation I did find that the examiner kept cutting me off though which was annoying. It’s not as if I was reciting pages of learnt off stuff or anything like that. The minute I started to expand on an answer she would quickly butt in with another unrelated question!

It went a bit like this:

Examiner: An bhfuil deartháireacha nó deirfiúracha agat?

Me: Tá beirt deirfiúracha agam. Réitíonn muid go mhaith...

Examiner *cuts me off*: Agus cá bhfuil tú i do chónaí?

Hopefully my actual oral won’t be like this:rolleyes:

luna4573 · 19-03-2019 5:46pm

Maths: H5 (57%)
Irish: H2 (80%)
English: H1 (92%)
Spanish: H2 (86%)
Physics: H1 (91%)
Chemistry: H1 (93%)
Biology: H1 (95%)

Total points: 576

Let's start with the worst one, maths. I honestly thought that I had failed the paper so at least I passed comfortably enough. I want to get at least a H3 in the real thing though so I'm determined to work really hard at maths for the next few months.

I was expecting a H3 in Irish so I'm glad I managed to scrape the H2. The aural and my essay lost me a lot of marks so work is definitely needed in those areas if I want to maintain this grade.

I was so shocked with my H1 in English! I thought the exam had gone well but I was expecting a H2 at the most to be honest. I am a little scared I won't be able to maintain this grade so I'm going to keep working hard - especially on Macbeth, the comparative and Question Bs.

Hopefully I can get Spanish up to a H1 in the real thing. I made a few stupid mistakes in both the oral and the written so those need to be fixed.

The science subjects have always been my best three so I'm really happy with my grades in those.

If anyone else reading this has got their results please remember that it's only the mocks. It doesn't matter whether your results were good or bad. You can't burnout now, work hard for the next couple of months to ensure that you give the real exams your best shot.

P.S. There are only 98 days until the LC is officially over. You've got this!:)

c_f_p99 · 21-03-2019 5:20pm

I got a H2 (83%) in the personal essay btw. Was utterly flabbergasted as to how I could have done so well. I thought that while the essay definitely had potential to be a H1/H2, it was extremely flawed: it dragged on by the middle of it, the language use was basic for the most part and it simply wasn't all that interesting for the most part. I kind of realise now that English isn't marked as harshly as I thought it would be (my teacher is known for being a harsh marker who follows SEC guidelines) considering the fact that I even knew that it was that deeply flawed. Will definitely consider doing the personal essay topic since I like it a lot. The speech/discursive essay is good too, but it very much depends on the title.

As great as this may be in theory though, I’d have to work extremely hard to actually deliver that “perfect essay” in an exam under timed conditions. I’ve a long way to go before that happens. I’d also need to read more so that I can improve the quality of my language used.

luna4573 · 21-03-2019 8:29pm

c_f_p99 wrote: »

I got a H2 (83%) in the personal essay btw. Was utterly flabbergasted as to how I could have done so well. I thought that while the essay definitely had potential to be a H1/H2, it was extremely flawed: it dragged on by the middle of it, the language use was basic for the most part and it simply wasn't all that interesting for the most part. I kind of realise now that English isn't marked as harshly as I thought it would be (my teacher is known for being a harsh marker who follows SEC guidelines) considering the fact that I even knew that it was that deeply flawed. Will definitely consider doing the personal essay topic since I like it a lot. The speech/discursive essay is good too, but it very much depends on the title.

As great as this may be in theory though, I’d have to work extremely hard to actually deliver that “perfect essay” in an exam under timed conditions. I’ve a long way to go before that happens. I’d also need to read more so that I can improve the quality of my language used.

Well done, that’s an amazing grade! I enjoy writing the personal essays and speeches as well, probably because I like reflective writing. I wouldn’t touch the short story or descriptive essay titles with a ten foot pole tbh. Anyway, keep up the hard work and you’ll be in a great position this time next year!

smartboyz · 24-03-2019 6:13pm

luna4573 wrote: »

Maths: H5 (57%)
Irish: H2 (80%)
English: H1 (92%)
Spanish: H2 (86%)
Physics: H1 (91%)
Chemistry: H1 (93%)
Biology: H1 (95%)

Total points: 576

Let's start with the worst one, maths. I honestly thought that I had failed the paper so at least I passed comfortably enough. I want to get at least a H3 in the real thing though so I'm determined to work really hard at maths for the next few months.

I was expecting a H3 in Irish so I'm glad I managed to scrape the H2. The aural and my essay lost me a lot of marks so work is definitely needed in those areas if I want to maintain this grade.

I was so shocked with my H1 in English! I thought the exam had gone well but I was expecting a H2 at the most to be honest. I am a little scared I won't be able to maintain this grade so I'm going to keep working hard - especially on Macbeth, the comparative and Question Bs.

Hopefully I can get Spanish up to a H1 in the real thing. I made a few stupid mistakes in both the oral and the written so those need to be fixed.

The science subjects have always been my best three so I'm really happy with my grades in those.

If anyone else reading this has got their results please remember that it's only the mocks. It doesn't matter whether your results were good or bad. You can't burnout now, work hard for the next couple of months to ensure that you give the real exams your best shot.

P.S. There are only 98 days until the LC is officially over. You've got this!:)

Did you have DEB or ExamCraft mock papers. And fair play on those results

luna4573 · 01-04-2019 6:19pm

smartboyz wrote: »

Did you have DEB or ExamCraft mock papers. And fair play on those results

Thank you! Um I think that Chemistry, Irish and Physics were Examcraft and Maths, Biology, English and Spanish were DEB.

luna4573 · 01-04-2019 6:27pm

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.

luna4573 · 08-04-2019 8:13pm

Monday:
Relaxed after my Irish oral lol

Tuesday:
Integration past paper Qs

Wednesday:
Circulatory System & Blood past paper Qs

Thursday:
Financial Maths Qs

Friday:
Electrochemistry past paper Qs

Saturday:
Integration past paper Qs

Sunday:
Coiriúlacht Essay

I wasn’t as productive as I’d like to have been last week but at least I got a bit done everyday.

luna4573 · 15-04-2019 7:37pm

Monday:
Spanish reading comprehension, diary & note

Tuesday:
Spanish journalistic text & opinion piece

Wednesday:
Maths Qs on induction

Thursday:
Spanish Diary & Note

Friday:
Irish Reading Comprehension A (DEB 2019)

Saturday & Sunday:
Took the weekend off!

I didn’t get a huge amount of work done but I guess that always happens on the last week of term. Anyway, I have made an intensive timetable for the Easter break which I hope I’ll be able to follow. There’s only a few weeks to go until the LC so I really need to get my head down from now on!

smartboyz · 16-04-2019 7:04pm

If it's not any bother. Would I be able to see the study plan as I also need one and I'm not any good at making them.
Thanks

luna4573 · 16-04-2019 8:31pm

smartboyz wrote: »

If it's not any bother. Would I be able to see the study plan as I also need one and I'm not any good at making them.
Thanks

09:00 - 10:20 Complex Numbers Past Paper Questions
10:20 - 10:30 Break
10:30 - 11:50 Macbeth Essay 2014 (ii)
11:50 - 13:00 Lunch
13:00 - 14:20 Chemical Equilibrium Past Paper Questions
14:20 - 14:30 Break
14:30 - 15:50 Spanish Aural & Journalistic Text 2015
15:50 - 16:00 Break
16:00 - 17:20 Ecology Past Paper Questions

So this is what a typical day in my timetable looks like. Obviously you can change the length of the study blocks and breaks to suit you. Also I would recommend studying subjects you find most challenging in the morning because you’re probably more alert at that time. Lastly don’t forget to factor in time for relaxation. For example I stop studying around half 5 and give myself the evenings off to do whatever I want. Hope this helps!

luna4573 · 22-04-2019 3:05pm

Monday:
Irish Reading Comprehension B (DEB 2019)
Macbeth Essay Plan (Theme of Ambition)
‘La Educación’ Vocab Mindmap
Complex Numbers Revision

Tuesday:
‘An Triail’ Past Paper Q (DEB 2019)
Financial Maths Revision
Spanish Note & Diary Entry (Examcraft 2011)

Wednesday:
Spanish Dialogue Construction (Examcraft 2011)
Macbeth Essay on ‘A Compelling Scene’ (2004)
Proof By Induction Past Paper Questions

Thursday:
Spanish Journalistic Text (Examcraft 2011)
‘An tEarrach Thiar’ Past Paper Q (DEB 2019)
Logs & Indices Past Paper Questions

Friday:
The Electron Past Paper Questions
Macbeth Imagery Notes

Saturday:
It was such a sunny day I couldn’t bring myself to study😅

Sunday:
Full Chemistry Mock 2019 (DEB)

To be honest, I didn’t get as much done as I had planned to but I’m happy that I got these few tasks ticked off my to-do list at least. Also the weather is so lovely atm which makes it so hard to sit down and study! I never thought I’d say this, but I hope it rains next week. That would be the perfect study weather!

luna4573 · 07-06-2019 11:31pm

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!

luna4573 · 14-06-2019 11:34am

7 exams down, only 3 to go!

Maths Paper 2: This paper was definitely more challenging than paper 1 for sure. To be honest it was the level of difficulty I would expect from a HL Paper. I definitely didn’t get the cube question or the second probability question right at all but I did make a decent attempt at the other short questions. As for the statistics long question, I couldn’t get my head around the second half of it at all. However the first and last long questions were quite doable and I think I got them mostly correct. After paper 1 I thought a H2 was going to be achievable but after this paper I’d be really pleased with a H3 tbh. Overall I’m happy because I did my best.

Irish Paper 1: Ok so this paper was almost a disaster. The listening was fine bar that lighthouse announcement (it’s always the Donegal accent that catches me out!). It’s in the essay section that I almost made a stupid mistake. I decided to do the title “Athruithe chun feabhais ar an saol in Éirinn le déanaí” thinking that it meant “Changes to improve life in Ireland”. So I basically went on about the health system, homelessness and the education system and all their faults and how they could be improved. But as I was writing my conclusion I realised that I had completely misinterpreted the title! It actually means “Recent improvements for the better in Irish life” so it wanted me to talk about the good things that have changed recently in Ireland not how to improve the bad things! Thankfully I had just enough time to write another essay title so I quickly did the debate. It wasn’t my best work as I was rushing in the last half an hour to get it done but at least I won’t get a zero on my essay now! I felt really annoyed at myself afterwards for making such a stupid mistake but I feel okay about it now. I’m not counting Irish for points anyway and I’m pretty sure I did well enough in the other components of the exam to pass it overall.

Irish Paper 2: This was a good paper. The comprehensions couldn’t have been nicer to be honest. I was also really happy that Dís came up because it was the one prose I had studied properly. It was surprising that An tEarrach Thiar came up in the poetry section but I think I managed to write a semi decent answer on it. The An Trial question was a super general character question which was lovely. So yeah I was pleased with how this paper went after the slight disaster that was paper one!

Biology: This was a doable paper. Some of the section A Questions were quite different from previous years (i.e. the red blood cells question) but I think I got them mostly right. Section B was lovely with no surprises or strange questions. I did all the long questions bar one as I had loads of extra time. I have to say the long questions were a bit strange this year in the sense that they very based on recalling specific terms or names. I felt like I wasn’t writing as much as usual as there weren’t that many ‘explain’ or ‘describe’ style questions. I personally think it was a bit unfair as it was the type of exam that rewarded rote learners who can recall specific terms without even knowing what they mean over people who actually know how to explain biological concepts. Or maybe I’m just bitter because I know I made a few stupid mistakes haha? Anyway overall I am happy as it could have been a lot worse!

luna4573 · 20-06-2019 11:22am

Spanish: I actually didn't mind this paper. The comprehensions were grand. I found the dialogue kinda tricky but I think I got it mostly correct. The note and diary entry weren't too bad either. The opinion piece was about zoos which I don't think anyone was expecting tbh. I think what I wrote was okay, definitely a lot better than what I wrote in the mocks anyway. The aural was also grand (bar that announcement about the monkeys...). Thankfully my school didn't have any issues with the tapes being muffled or anything so there’s that I guess.

Chemistry: Considering that this is one of my best subjects, the paper didn't go as well as I thought it was going to. The experiment questions were okay (except for the BOD calculation which I completely messed up..). The long questions weren’t nice at all in my opinion. They were quite different from other past papers because they were strangely worded and looking for really specific bits of info. I’m disappointed because I put a lot of effort into chemistry and now I don’t think I’m going to get the grade I want. I was relieved though when I came out of the exam and everyone else said they found it tough too.

Physics: This was a good paper. The experiment section was lovely as pretty much all of the predicted experiments came up. The long questions were alright theory wise but I found some of the calculations harder than usual and had to spend some extra time figuring them out. Overall it was fine though and was a nice paper to finish on.

I thought I would feel so relieved once my exams finished but instead it feels weirdly anticlimactic. Like I don’t know what to do with myself now that I have no more studying to do haha. Anyway, no matter what grades I get in August, I know I did my best and am proud of myself for just getting through these exams. Now all I have to do is try my best to forget about them and enjoy my summer!

Ismail Elhassadi · 28-08-2019 2:05pm

i wonder how she got on

luna4573 · 11-09-2020 10:44pm

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.

Luna’s 6th Year Study Log

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