As part of the Leaving Cert Diary series, with thanks to our friends at the Irish Second-Level Students' Union (ISSU), we hear from two young me who wrapped up their exams.
Leitrim student Thomas sat Physics & Chemistry while Sammy from Wicklow had a few ups and downs in Physics.
For Sammy Physics was a rollercoaster...
I started my day bright and early, catching the school bus for the for the last time (at least on an academic level) at around 8 o’clock. The night before, I’d done an online grinds session with Cheze Grinds, and I’d 100% recommend him - he was brilliant.
By 8:30am, I was in school, brushing over a few experiments I thought might come up. There was a bit of buzz in the room as I chatted with classmates, many of whom were in the same boat as me sitting their last exam. A lot of us agreed that we’d be happy enough just to pass.
We wished each other luck - I definitely needed it...
At 9:30am, the exam kicked off. I had my colours, maths set and pens laid out, and I wrote down my exam number for the last time. That felt strange.
Then I opened my exam paper, and I couldn’t believe it. Some lovely experiments had come up in Section A. I went with Snell’s Law, Laws of Equilibrium and The Principle of Momentum, ones I know fairly well. The other two options were the Filament Bulb and Tuning Forks.
Section B was a different story. A bit trickier. I thought the Mechanics Question and Question 6 (choice) were decent, however I did spend a fair bit of time on them. I had expected heat to be one of my stronger topics, but the question was tougher than I’d have hoped.
Pressed for time, I ended up finishing with Question 9 on photons and the photoelectric effect, and then quickly tackled Question 12(b) on an air conditioner. Honestly, I’ve no clue why I did that one, I don’t know much about air conditioners, but it was rude not to. Hopefully I scraped a few marks for effort.
Overall, it wasn’t the worst exam I’ve sat. Section A was lovely; Section B scrappier. Still, I’m over the moon that it’s done. It might not have been my best paper, but I genuinely cherished every moment of it.
I’m hoping to study Engineering in TUD, so I’ll definitely have to brush up on my Physics, but for now, I’m just glad I made it through and I’m absolutely buzzing for the summer!
Science sees out the exams for Thomas...
Two weeks into the Leaving Cert exams, I have my tenth and final exam ticked off – Physics and Chemistry. The Higher Level paper was very approachable with plenty of conventional elements.
In Section I – Physics, I chose questions 1, 2 and 4.
Question 1 asks students to answer 11 short questions from a total of 18. I was quite happy with this question; a lot of key questions were similar to past papers and set up students nicely for the rest of the paper.
Question 2 was based on mechanics, with questions focusing on momentum and kinetic energy. This was a rewarding question for those who had a solid grasp of the mechanics, experiments and calculations.
Question 4 was probably the question I performed best in: in part A, Boyle's law was examined. Students were asked to draw a graph with the data provided and will score highly here if they are confident in their graphs. I feel I did well in this question, with fundamentals of absolute temperature asked in part B, quite similar to previous years.
Regarding Section II – Chemistry, I opted for Questions 7, 9 and 12.
Question 7 corresponds to question 1, students are asked to answer 11 questions from a total of 18. There were many traditional parts to this question with a few parts that would have required a deeper understanding of certain topics such as Mendeleev’s periodic table.
Question 9 was the usual Acids and Bases question, a titration between a weak base and a strong acid was examined here. Candidates would have needed a thorough grasp of the titrations to be confident answering Question 9.
The final question on the paper, Question 12 gives students the choice of answering three parts from four. I was happy to see a straightforward ratio-moles question in part b. I feel I performed well in this section. Thermochemistry was examined in part d and was one of the easier heats of reaction questions compared to previous years.
This paper examined students’ knowledge of several experiments on the course, and a solid grasp was needed to gain full marks. However, there were plenty of traditional questions that candidates would have been pleased to see such as drawing graphs, thermochemistry and mechanics calculations. I hope most people will agree that today’s exam was a success – congratulations to everyone who finished LC 2025 today!
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The 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.
