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Leaving Cert Diary: Past three days have been hell but end is in sight

Isabel Dwyer, pictured in a classroom in Scoil Chriost Ri last week.
Isabel Dwyer, who was our Leaving Cert diarist for this year

It’s been just over a week since the exams began and they’re already starting to finish up.

The past three days were a bit of a blur, and are all mashing together as I try to recall the details.

Nevertheless, there are parts of the Biology, French and Irish exams that I won’t be able to forget for a while yet.

Before all that, Maths Paper 2 on Monday marked the end of my official dealings with algebra and trigonometry and the like.

I might not know how to claim tax refunds or how to get a mortgage, but the SEC’s choice of subject material means that I at least know the Empirical rule… kind of.

The first Irish exam was that afternoon, and I think most were happy with the essay titles that came up.

Paper 2 was tricky enough for time on Tuesday morning but ‘Géibheann’ made an appearance in the poetry question for the first time since the course was changed in 2012, which had everyone in even greater form.

The preparation for Biology had been a bit frantic with the amount of chapters to cover for it, so it only made sense that everything descended into quiet chaos in the hour before the exam on Tuesday afternoon.

Some people prayed, some crammed the stages of photosynthesis, and some tried to do both.

I thought the questions were a bit of a mixed bag, and some were more vague than usual, so it’s hard to know how it went. I suppose I’ll have to wait till August 16th to find out.

Yesterday I just had French, and I was more than amused by the presence of a girl called Ysabel (yes, with a ‘y’) on the listening paper who told us about how she likes to raise goats.

Maybe I should just follow suit and give up the idea of this writing craic.

Thankfully 16-year-old-me chose not to pick History as one of my subjects and although I definitely would’ve enjoyed doing it, being able to crawl into bed at 2 o’clock in the day yesterday while the exam took place was honestly well worth it.

Even though it’s easier to be jealous of those that are already finished, anyone that sat 10 exams in just seven days deserves a round of applause.

I still have one exam to go (Music) but it’s not till this day next week, so our family celebrated last night in the only way Irish families know how; by eating Chinese food.

Tchaikovsky awaits, but first I’m off to heat up some leftovers.

Isabel.

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