Aaron Donohoe

Despite my over enthusiasm following my liberation from the formal Irish Educational System, I am now at a point in my life when I question myself with Now What Do I Do?

I am very much undecided and open to anything thrown at me, college, jobs, courses, apprenticeships, etc. I am presently doing feck all, aside from interviews for jobs, and trying to earn some money by dipping my hand into the web design font – which unfortunately when compared to last year has well and truly dried up.

So, as a result I have applied for countless amounts of jobs, spanning many different niches. I’ve been offered one job selling Sky Digital – however when I learned that it was a commission role with my first 3 weeks unpaid I not-so-nicely declined. I’ve been shortlisted for a few other jobs following interviews, and it’s now just a case of playing the waiting game. I’m eager to get working as I haven’t a fucking penny to my name!

Whether I get offered a place in college is another story. As CAO applications are at an all time high, with limited places and education cuts, going to college could be off the cards, but I’m hopeful. I won’t be making any decisions regarding my future until August at least.

So with the jobs being scarce, and my place in college being uncertain, it could be the dole queue for me.

Excuse my blog tardiness. If it weren’t for Steos gentle persuasion I wouldn’t have bothered. So here’s my exams to date:

English Paper One: Went quite well. Interesting theme of Decisions, but the questions could have been better laid out as they were a bit vague in places. Text 1 was two arguments for or against the closure of zoos, Text 2 was an extract about , and Text 3 was of course photos – which I duly ignored. Did Text 1 Question A (Question B was a script for two animated zoo animals having a conversation wtf?), Text 2 Question B (Speech to a group of parents stating that Older Teenagers should be given the freedom to make their own decisions). Creative writing was a bit all over the place, I didn’t particularly like any of the titles so I just wrote about the first one – my experience in the past few years of Education. Overall I feel it went okay. Paper Two will be a royal cunt though.

English Paper Two: Massive fuck up. Was postponed until Saturday because some 30 English Paper Two’s were handed out instead of Paper One. Today was officially everybody hate Louth day – even though it wasn’t the students fault they spared no delay in dishing out what was coming up . So alternative papers have been arranged for Saturday morning – there goes some Maths Paper Two & Irish Paper One study. A lot of students have been going mental, but myself I see it as an opportunity to cram some more and re-assess my poetry choices and Macbeth themes. Discussion over on boards.ie. Update: The dopey superintendent has been named and shamed. He is now in hiding to avoid media attention.

Okay, had it on Saturday, despite my reservations about it, and my Que Sera, Sera attitude towards it going in, I feel I did okay on it overall – despite having to cut my prescribed poetry section short. Did approximately 15 pages, which includes 3 pages for unseen poetry (overkill!), 5 pages on the Comparative, 4 pages on Macbeth and 2 1/2 pages on Walcott (had to cut it short).

Maths Paper One: Surprisingly went quite well, answered 7 out of 8 (only supposed to answer 6 – but was unsure about one of them), left exam centre around 11ish after going over my answers with a fine tooth comb for about 10 minutes. Had to wait until 11:30 to get the exam papers back, so pissed off the attendant for 20 minutes! Was a nice exam, not too difficult but no overly easy. Paper Two will be a challenge!

Maths Paper Two: Went okay for the most part. Some bits I was a bit stumped on, but forged through them nonetheless. There was no avoiding Trigonometry though – did Q1, 2, 5, 6, 7, 9 in case you were wondering. Q6 & Q7 were lovely questions, however the last part of Q1 was a bit iffy and anyone I’ve talked to left that one out too.

Irish Paper One: Was a decent enough exam, even if it did include a comprehension about Des Bishop. If I ever have to read another Irish comprehension about him again I will go insane. In the Name of the Fada…FUCK OFF! Personal writing section was easy enough, apparently I was in Australia having a fine old time with the fine looking Austrailian girls who attatched themselves to me

Aural went well, even if we had a massive gap between it and the written section. Spent some time relaxing in the sun out in the massive courtyard smack bang in the middle of the school. It wasn’t a great thing to do as I couldn’t focus for the Aural!

Irish Paper Two: I was more pessimistic than optimistic about this one, considering it’s only worth 18.3% overall. I gave it my all, and did well in the poetry section – Gealt & Jack, and got through a bit about An Bhean Óg, but as far as Lig Sinn i gCathú is concerned…no comment.

Business: My hand is still aching me. I just couldn’t stop writing. That’s a good thing right? Go through 16 pages, answered all questions on Section 1, 2 on Section 2 and 2 on Section 3. Was writing right up until 4:30 when I said enough was enough and called it a day – mainly because I was dying for a piss and was falling asleep.

French: As predicted, it was a fairly straight forward easy exam. Four comprehensions, CV & Filling in Blanks, Postcard, Diary Entry, Message & Letter buttoned up in under an hour. All those years of slogging through HL French before moving to OL paid off. The Aural was a little tricky, but I’m confident that I did really well in it. Had a massive gap between the written and aural so chilled out outside in the courtyard and caught some rays.

History: I was dreading this exam, the only exam I was worried about – aside from English Paper 2. I prepared well enough in my opinion for it, and last night focused on the GAA, Anti-Semitism in Germany, Killing Home Rule with Kindness and Bus Boycott, unfortunately the only one that came up was the Bus Boycott for the Document question which was a safe bet to be honest. I adapted what I studied for the European course with the “How Dictators used propaganda/terror to maintain power” – there was a lot about anti-Semitism in there! The de Valera question was nice as it was quite broad, make what you want of it with regards to his management of the economy & Anglo-Irish relations between 1932 & 1945! The 1913 Lockout wasn’t great for me as I hadn’t prepared it in great detail so I left it until last and got most way through it when my pen ran out of ink – so I called it a day as my hand had taken on a claw like status. Overall, I don’t feel I excelled really well in it, but I did better than I thought

Accounting: My final exam, and one I wasn’t particularly looking forward to, but I thought it went surprisingly well – Section 2: Interpretation of Accounts was a lovely question, couldn’t see much wrong with it, checked ratios when I got home so I’m sure it’s near to full marks for that question. Cash Flow Statement was another nice question, considering I only got to learning how to complete a full Cash Flow Statement on the morning of the exam I felt it went very well, got hung-up on the final section of the statement, but got through it. Absorption Costing came up on Section 3, was a nice question, costing is a fail safe question which doesn’t need much to get it right. And finally, Section 1, I was hoping and praying for a Departmental or Manufacturing account, as I hadn’t prepared Sole Trader. What came up? A Sole Trader! Got through it, did my workings fine, my Trading & Profit & Loss Account was okay, and my Balance sheet for the most part was grand…even it if didn’t balance!

Friday 5th: Maths Paper One

Saturday 6th: English Paper Two

Monday 8th: Maths Paper Two, Irish Paper One & Aural

Tuesday 9th: Irish Paper Two, Business

Wednesday 10th: French, History

Monday 15th: Accounting

LIBERATION!

Finally the Mocks are done and dusted, they went quite well, much better than expected. It’s good to get a dry run in before the main event, sort of like a driving test – you always have a pre-test before going into the real thing, every other exam is no different, if you can’t do what’s required outside exam conditions with no pressure, how should you expect yourself to do it in the stressful situation which an exam centre entails.

I’m sick of comparing opinions with regards the mocks, for the past two weeks, all I did talk about was Mocks, Mocks, Mocks. Well no more, I promise. Normal Services, and the Friday Feeling will return NEXT week – that’ll gimme some time to recuperate! There may be some posting on the Orals exams, and how my driving test might clash with them – it’s something I’ve to enquire further about it.

Other than that, I’m eagerly anticipating the results, to compare how I thought I did, to how I actually did. Some subjects I’ve just to keep drumming away with, whilst others require some further study and others might require level dropping. All will be revealed next week.

It’s good to make a post on a proper computer – using that WordPress iPhone app was a real pain in the arse, as I can barely text on the iPhone, let alone publish or edit blog posts!

On a final note, as per usual, I’m fidling with the blog theme again. Developments with the sidebar are Work in Progress, so excuse any crazy happenings going on over there ->

I am savouring my last days of the holidays at present, as come Wednesday, my marathon starts. I’m not saying I’m the most busiest person on the planet, and I’m not complaining about it, I’m just saying that I’ve a few busy months ahead of me – and following that my life will really kick into a high gear!

The main thing on my mind, and the seemingly sole topic on this blog – it’s my Leaving Cert. It has been drummed into my head that this is it, if I fail and I’ll have to walk the streets with my head in shame – people will boo and hiss at me, women will tell their children not to look at me in-case they catch the FAIL, I’ll be branded and spend my days mopping the floor of Burger King on O’Connell Street. I’ve been getting really anxious and worried about it over the Christmas – so much that I’ve been unable to study (!). I know that at present I could never tackle it, following Transition Year I got into a really lazy mindset, which carried on for most of 5th year. I suppose I’m lucky that I can pick up things really easy and I can waffle on, but remembering things is something that I fall down on. I cannot remember quotes to save my life, despite actually studying them constantly – unless it’s in song form!

I’m eagerly awaiting my results from the Christmas exams – I can expect NG for Business & LCVP as I was absent due to illness, but the others I shouldn’t have an excuse for, well maybe for Maths as we never used Exam papers before and the entire paper was lifted from them (still not an excuse). It will be a major eye opener for me – I’m getting the head really stuck in. So much to the fact that I’m willing to put up with the unbearable warez of Supervised Study!

I’ve yet to fill out my CAO form, under the recommendation from the school as they want to guide us through it. Right. It’s a simple online application form, I fill out dozens of them a week, it’s all there in black and white – how hard can it be? I’ve sorta made up my mind regarding courses. NCI in the IFSC is really appealing to me, but so is DCU due to the fact that it’s so local to me, but DIT is on the doorstep of the City Centre. To combat this, I’ve found three courses, one from each that are identical – I’ll be applying for them all. There’s my conflicting interests. I love Business, but I also like Computing and Engineering – luckily with the Business & Engineering there’s a computer course based around them, but there’s also the points, the dreaded points. If I max out and achieve all I think I can achieve I’ll walk away with 450-500 points. I’ve left a safety net, of Level 6 courses – I don’t perform well – I want to DO something, some people I know will happily sit at home on the dole if they don’t get a place in a course, I couldn’t. Unlike some I have ambition.

On top of all this, the début TeenCamp Ireland is on midway through January, the 17th I believe. I’m unsure if I’ll be able to attend, as I’ve so much stuff to catch up on – I’ve to get my car on the road, I’ve another driving test coming up (practice, practice, practice!), I’ve to get Leaving Cert Blogger on the road, and I’ll be easing myself into a study pattern. But I will try to attend. If I’m able – I’ll be there. But if I’m unable – I send my regards. But it would be nice to put some faces to the names!

Remarkably my resolution was to cut down on my online time, which will mean that blogging will be quite infrequent – but I don’t expect my Twitterings to suffer! I’ve copped on big time, no more slacking – the heat is on, I can breath easy come the 19th of June!

As you may know, I’ve been out of action for the past week – mainly busy with exams, revision, studying, and other Christmas marvels. Today is my ‘day off’, so I used it to catch up on some neglected work – I’ve some coding work to catch up on and a template design to finish over on Photoshop. Now that the work is done, and I’ve fed and watered myself I’m sitting down with a mug of coffee to plot my progress on my Christmas exams – mainly for my benefit as well as to coat the interest of my readers.

Meant to publish this on Saturday – but messed up on the publishing. Appologies.

Irish: Went quite well. Was much easier than I thought, got my points across using simple Irish with some funky phrases thrown in. Reading comprehensions were quite easy, and my story didn’t stick to the plot at all – the line we had to incorporate into our story went like: It was late, a car pulled up, at that point… Mine wasn’t conventional but apparently I won’t lose points as my story came around to the point – albeit unconventionally, and I used a good variation of verbs.

English: I have to admit, Shakespeare isn’t my strong point. I’ve always struggled to understand the ‘ye olde Englishe’ used in his texts. But I feel I made up for it in the comparative (my strongest point in my opinion) and the poetry – I had to write a letter to Michael Longley about my experience in studying his poetry, couldn’t find a way to include as many quotes as I would have wanted, but could have been worse.

History: As I have two History teachers (one to cover the two Irish and Document course, the other to cover the European course), I had two tests in one. I had 2 hours to write two essays from a choice of 6 (3 on Irish & 3 on European). On the Irish I chose what the Eucharistic Congress and/or Belfast’s experience during WWII did for Ireland’s image – quite an easy essay which I had done before. For the European section, I chose the essay on whether Mussolini did or did not achieve a Totalitarian Government – I couldn’t remember some of the dates, but felt I did well in it. History is an exam in the Leaving Cert which I’m not worried about, as it’s quite predictable and if you don’t want to work you can at least learn a load of Essays off by heart and get through the exam.

Maths: Being honest it wasn’t as planned. We haven’t done much work on Exams papers – infact none that I can remember. But the entire exam was lifted from the exam papers. I’m able to remember formulas and question formats but when it’s the first time seeing the layout it gets confusing. Gave it my best and attempted every question – Trigonometry was a complete bitch though.

French: Went very well. It was very simple, as it’s stuff completed in class – two letters, two postcards, two messages, two reading comprehensions and a C.V. – stormed through it all in 40 minutes. Coupled with the Oral Test which accounts for 20% of our overall grade I feel I did very well.

Accounting: Was a complete train wreck. I studied for it, but couldn’t perform on the day. I got the Final Accounts okay, and the Costing but the Interpretation of Accounts I didn’t do great in. I’ve been considering dropping to Ordinary Level as I’ve more than enough Higher Level subjects to get into college and earn the points. I don’t want to break my back and still fail Higher Accounting, so dropping is a good call in my books – been considering it since last summer.

Business: Test on Monday morning – will do a write up about it once I get home.

LCVP: Same as above, test on Monday afternoon – will do a write up about it once I get home.

Yes the rat race has begun – officially! Today was my first day back as a 6th year, the final rum in my publically funded education – following this we’re released into the real world to fend for ourselves – be it in work, college or being on of those free loaders who want to go travelling for a year! Despite the occasion it was a normal day – albeit a half one!

The first official day back was last Tuesday, although it was just to get timetables and the ‘speech’ – basically it’s the most predictable talk about how important this year is and so on…like everyone hasn’t been saying that to us already!

Anyway, it’s good to be back – into some routine! The only downside is having to get up early in the morning…

Well after thousands of leaving cert students have been gnawing in anticipation at the bit in anticipation over getting their results all come to end this morning when the results were handed out. Some were ecstatic with their overly joyous outcome and I’m sure some slipped away quietly having not achieved what they wanted.

Although luckily everyone I know who patiently awaiting their results did exceptionally well. Some got way better results then they thought, especially Mark Walsh who got an astounding 510 points out of a maximum 600! Congrats Mark!

So I’ll expect to be invited into town this evening to share in the celebratory occasion – and rightly so, they should get absolutely ‘Gee-Eyed‘ (excuse the expression) as the stress in the run upto the exams as well as during them I’m sure is immense.

Unfortunately, I won’t be celebrating this year. I’ve to wait for another year before I can truly celebrate. Come September my epic journey to ‘The Leaving’ will begin – I’m not nervous, more eager. I kind of do and don’t want to leave school – I do want to get into college/work to start my life as I want, doing something I enjoy, I don’t want to leave so many friends (although remaining in contact and going for the obligatory pint in Doyles will suffice!), I like the childish, immature craic we have in class and I’ll really miss the teachers and tutors who have been great craic over the years – so come August 28th I’ll be savouring everything and anything!

Have a drink from me guys