Exam Diary:Having done well in maths paper 2, Miroslawa Goreckagets ready for the tough biology exam
When I started this diary, I thought it would be a great chance to raise the profile of hard-working Polish students struggling with the Leaving Certificate system. It has become something else. Therapy! In my media-free apartment, it's easy to become obsessive about genes, rivers, tragic flaws, differentiation and publicly limited companies. Getting it all off my chest every evening at 5pm is better than going to a psychiatrist.
When integration goes wrong, it is a nasty business. No, I am not talking about multiculturalism here, I'm taking about higher maths. Question eight was unexpected, catastrophic and ugly. Usually, there are two functions to be differentiated and I can do it in my sleep. Instead there was only one. One? How do you integrate one function with itself? Luckily, I'm not the only one who felt this way about question eight, so I'm hoping that the examiners will be soft on us. I need my A1 in maths and after Friday's tough paper 1, a bit of sympathy is required.
Apart from the integration question, paper 2 went very well for me. I think I am unusual in this as all of my friends were very unhappy with it.
I was the only one who came out smiling. In this situation, it's good to be different.
I'm glad that I didn't waste too much of my weekend sweating over geometry. I chose instead to concentrate on business. It was not much fun on a hot day either. Business is not pleasure to me. I chose it as a subject because I felt I could cover the course in the 18 months available to me. I did, but it's so boring I can't keep it in my head. I'll never be rich.
I started out with geography, but I gave it up after a couple of months. What's the point in learning about Italy and the Paris Basin? What about the rest of the world? Seriously though, I'm used to geography that's a little bit more comprehensive. The emphasis here is different.
In Poland, we had to learn about every river in Europe. We were expected to know all the major world capitals and mountain ranges. The Irish syllabus is too specialised and I wasn't learning about the world, so I dropped it. I was glad that I had today when I saw the geography students heading in for their stuffy afternoon in the exam hall considering plate tectonics. I went home for a nap.
The next hurdle is genetics in tomorrow's biology exam. I am a big fan of genetics, but it is a very complicated subject and can be a tough question in the exam. I'm very glad it's taught in Ireland. Isn't there some problem with teaching Darwin in some American schools?
It's such an important part of biology and I think that regardless of your religious beliefs, everyone should learn about the genes and natural section. Even if the world was made in six days. If it was, don't you think it could be covered in a two-year geography syllabus?
