It was a short week for all our Leaving Cert students, but keep it positive. You can officially say the first week of the Leaving Cert 2023 is done!! And it seems that many are glad to see the back of Maths Paper 1...
Here are 6 ways to manage your Leaving Cert stress - take a read and relax this weekend...
We also had Geography in the morning and you can see how Mohammad got on in the video up top. Then we get to Maths with Olga, Conall and Shannon. Read on as they share their thoughts.
For great Leaving Cert tips, advice and more on RTÉ Learn click here!
With thanks to our friends at the Irish Second-Level Students' Union we will continue the Leaving Cert Diary series throughout the exmas.
It's the place where young people tell us what they thought in their own words.
Olga and her friends found Maths a bit of a shock
So, it's done.
The paper was honestly awful. I sat the Higher Paper this afternoon. A lot of my classmates (including me) found it really difficult and I quote, "a mixed bag". A lot of the questions seemed like they should be common sense, and maybe with more study they would've been.
Nevertheless, it is finished now. I'm so happy the proof that Root 2 is irrational came up and I was very pleased with the Financial Maths section - especially seeing my own name in there!
Lesson learnt - revise - even the terminology. I assume it was difficult to drop the points for this September, so after a nice English Paper this was definitely a shock.
Conall is half-way there...
With half of the Maths examination done entering the weekend, it's a weight lifted off our shoulders. Today I completed the honors level mathematics paper.
Overall the paper was reasonable. Financial Maths came up as a long question, a topic tipped to show up. Some questions were much easier while others were more challenging as expected. I was delighted to see proving root 2 as irrational came up, a learned off proof that can guarantee marks. I found that calculus permeated the vast majority of questions and tested the many rules surrounding them.
With regards to long questions, the final question, involving pyramids proved difficult and abstract for many of my peers. I believe many students will have found this to be the same also. This year we saw many questions asking to explain what is actually happening in the questions, such as the rotation of complex numbers. Function graph translations came up, a topic that hasn’t been on in a few years, I am glad I studied it this morning.
There is generally mixed opinions about the paper so far, but I believe it was a fair paper. I enter the weekend generally happy with how it has gone. However the challenge is not over yet with Maths Paper 2 on Monday morning, which will ultimately decide our fate. Let’s hope for a nice unit circle question, along with a beautiful proof question.
There were some not-so-pleasant surprises for Shannon today...
Well, the other shoe had to drop at some point, I suppose. Quite frankly - I'm reeling. As someone who values their skills in maths, to open the paper and find myself stuck on the first question was a rude awakening. From what I’ve seen (heads in hands) and heard (cries of outrage), I’m not alone in my opinion that that was a very nasty Maths Paper 1.
The first shock came as I opened the paper, flicked through and found that my nightmare had come true: for the first time in a good number of years, Financial Maths had come up. As it turned out, the question itself wasn’t awful, but it soured my mood as I began trundling through finnicky limits questions, millions of integrals and proofs that wouldn’t prove.
Everything I thought I could expect from Paper 1 fell through: for me it was an exam of curveballs (my fellow students, what was that margin/ markup question?).
We can only look to the future and hope that Paper 2 brings less surprises. Good luck to all!
For everyone revising you can CLICK HERE for more great resources!
BUT, it is the weekend and make sure to get outside and get some fresh air. Have a nice weekend everyone!
