My Junior Certificate Journey With Highs and Lows.

Year 2021 marks the completion of my Junior Cycle Certificate and I will like to share my experience from Year 1 to Year 3. Let’s start from the beginning. I will be explaining how I excelled in my studies after lows in the journey, and will give you some tips on how to do well in the junior certificate exams. I will also be sharing what mistakes I made, so you can avoid them.

29 August 2018 — My First Day in Year 1 @Edmund Rice College, Dublin, Ireland:

The day I graduated from primary and started my secondary school life.

I nervously started Year 1 with dreams and plans in place. I want to become an astronaut because of my curiosity and love for planets, stars, asteroids, meteors and all other celestial objects. I want to see how it looks like above the Earth’s atmosphere. Indeed, a big goal!

Starting secondary school was little overwhelming. New classmates, new surroundings, new teachers, and new challenges. I was lucky to have some friends from primary joining the same school. Gradually, nervousness was a cloud far away in the sky. As the days passed, lessons became interesting and friendships start blossoming. With this, I answered myself  one of the biggest question that anyone would ask before starting a new school “ Will I have friends in secondary school”? Yes, be kind, polite, friendly and before you know, you will have friends!!

I started getting better and better at the routine of secondary school life and even won awards in various competitions and subject weeks.

Year 2 and 3 in the shadow of Covid-19:

Year 2 also started with a bang; new students joined our school; I made new friends; field trips; celebrations in schools; assessments and assignments. My group of friends grew larger and I was really enjoying. This all kept me busy. Exciting, happening, thrilling until the beginning of pandemic.

Covid-19 knocked all of us hard! Online lessons replaced the fun of going to school and the lock-down prevented me from seeing and spending time with friends. At first I found the work load was manageable and I was doing well, until, I got complacent.  

I started leaving things until the last minute and lost a grip on my work load. I was unable to keep up with the class and fell down through the ranks.

I became depressed and showed little commitment or enthusiasm to carry on. I kept falling until 3^rd year and the lower grades in Christmas exams were alarming enough to wake me up from the slumber. This was a major let down but also a major event that pushed me to try harder (I’ll elaborate more on this later).

I pushed myself hard. I started following the routine, a timetable, started managing my time well and as a result I got better grasp of subjects and better grades followed.

Must read:

How to be better at time management.

How to make a timetable.

I prepared very well for Junior Cert Mock Exams. I revised and revised. To my disappointment, it was cancelled due to another Covid-19 spike and lockdown.

All my hard work paid off and I got good grades in the final exams. I am proud of results and majority of being Junior Cert exams, I got great results that I’m proud of the grades; majority of which being A’s.  

But how did I do it? How did I turn around what seemed like a straight path to disaster?

Well the Christmas Exams of 3rd year pushed me and drove me to do better; To prove than I’m better than this and that it wasn’t a fair example of my abilities as a student, I kept working and got help from my parents, teachers, and fellow classmates. With these I was able to make a complete U-turn and get back on track.

I’m thankful to those who believed in me and those who helped me to get to where I am today.

Top tips to achieve good grades:

• Keep pushing yourself
• Stay focused and committed
• Take help if you need it
• Set goals and be time-efficient
• Put in the hard-work daily
• NEVER give up, NEVER back down

In terms of starting a new school, I would suggest making good friends that you can rely on and go to if your ever in need of something; be that advice or even physical help.

Keep going in the right direction and keep pushing yourself to be better and overcome procrastination.

Remember: If you keep on putting the effort and stay committed to doing well in studies, eventually you start seeing a change. Believe in the process!

Never give up! Never back down! Hard-work and determination always pays off!