Today, the Class of 2023 literally had to mind their own business in the morning, before showing some artistic flair and knowledge of the arts in the evening.
That's right, Business and Art were the main events today and thanks to Cian and Gráinne (Business) as well as Olga (Art) for telling us how it all went for them.
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With thanks to our friends at the Irish Second-Level Students' Union we will continue the Leaving Cert Diary series throughout the exams.
It's the place where young people tell us what they thought in their own words.
Cian only has one exam left...
For me, business is always one of the most intense exams. I have to set my watch 5 minutes ahead just to make sure I can complete the paper. Thankfully I did!
Overall, I think there was a nice range of short questions with good choice - 8 out of 12. However, the 'tick the box' questions were lacking this year!
The Applied Business Question was accessible however it was slightly surprising to see ‘sources of long-term finance’ given that this is often under Unit 4 of some textbooks, however, this year’s ABQ was focusing on Units 5, 6 and 7.
For the third question on economic variables we would have been striving to follow the one point for five marks rule - a thirty marker - six points. Unfortunately, it didn’t seem like there was six to be found! I would hope this will be reflected in the marking scheme.
For Section 3, the range of questions were of varying difficulty but with some nice choice! Two calculations questions as part of Q7 & Q8 were a nice surprise to us as well as a ratio question in the short questions. I particularly happy that a break-even analysis featured for 25 marks.
EU questions were very prevalent this year to mark 50 years of Ireland’s membership. The EU featured in the shorts and in two out of the three parts for Q3. These were questions I was really happy to see.
Overall, I was happy with the paper and I am delighted that I only have one exam left!!
Gráinne thought the extra choice helped in Business
Another day, another paper and Leaving Cert Business 2023 has come to an end. I thought the paper was a challenging enough paper. I thought the short questions were manageable and the extra choice would have helped students massively.
The ABQ was not too bad though Section A and C of the ABQ were a bit tricky as Economic Variables has not been traditionally asked as an ABQ question and may have caught students out. Ratios, tax and the break even point Chart would have suited the students who learn towards the accounting and numbers part of the Business Course but those who tend to shy away from those sorts of questions may have been caught out.
I found some parts of the long questions to be tricky but thought there were most definitely questions on the paper for everyone. One of the most challenging parts of the Business paper is finishing it due to time pressure but I hope the extra adjustments would have helped all students in answering and finishing the paper today. All in all definitely not the easiest Business paper ever but not the hardest either. On to the next!
Olga was very happy with Art...
Hey, Olga here! Today I sat the Higher Level Art exam for my Leaving Cert. I found the short questions very fair, loads of choice was available. I was also very happy with the Pre-Christian Ireland question, I managed to ramble to the point I needed extra paper!
The argument of the Stone Age people's spiritual beliefs was very fun discussing. I also chose Q8 for my European Art, which I was also very happy discussing though i wished for a Gothic aspect. Nevertheless, it's done and it's the first paper I've been pleased with for a while. I think overall it was very doable!
