Aoife Fitzpatrick is a Leaving Cert student in Scoil Chríost Rí in Portlaoise. From Cullenagh, near Ballyroan, she is hoping to study Global Media in the University of Galway. Her Leaving Cert subjects are English, Irish, Maths, Biology, History, Spanish and Economics.
Aoife will be penning a regular diary piece for LaoisToday over the coming weeks.
Ah, the Leaving Cert.
When I was younger, it used to just mean that we were guaranteed three or four weeks of sunshine, and maybe a trip to the beach.
Unfortunately, this year my friends and I will be the unlucky ones that all the grannies in all the churches all over Ireland are no doubt lighting candles for.
This year, we will all have to fully lock in for the next month of demanding exams. This year, we are the Leaving Certs.
Remember when you were in first year, and your Meitheal leaders were telling you to enjoy this time, because in the blink of an eye, you’d be just like them, getting ready for your final secondary school exams?
It seemed then like all that was a lifetime away, so far in the future we couldn’t even picture it. It feels like only yesterday I was in All Books, buying my Making History and Geography Now, absolutely appalled by the fact that we could use a calculator in maths.
But now here we are, coming off the high of graduation, mere days away from the exams we’ve been counting down to for months.
To everyone reading this who is sitting exams, please remember that a little stress is perfectly normal, healthy even. That little voice in the back of your head that constantly reminds you about the King Lear quotes you don’t know, or the notes on the draíocht in Oisín i dTír na nÓg you don’t fully understand, can be effective in motivating you to stop scrolling on Tik Tok, or filling your holiday basket on SHEIN.
Even more so than your mam revoking Netflix privileges until you’ve done at least an hour!
But when that stress becomes unmanageable, if it hasn’t already once or twice, it helps to go on a hot girl mental health walk or talk to someone.
Though it may not always feel like it, you always have someone in your life who wants to help, even if it’s just by listening to your little “menty-b”.
I know for me, it helps to just voice all my fears and worries. I don’t even want a solution or advice; I just want someone to listen. So, parents, siblings, friends, family, remember to be kind to your Leaving Certs. They’re kind of going through it right now.
Now, I am going to hope the powers of manifestation work, and put my hopes for what is coming up in each paper out into the universe (fingers crossed everyone!):
For English, I am hoping for an interview, a podcast or a review for the Question B.
Personally, I feel these are the easiest ones to do and, to be honest, require the least amount of thought! For the composition, I am staying far away from those personal essays most of you love for some reason!
I try so hard to not cross the line in them by being too personal that my personality never comes across. Instead, I’ll be looking to do a speech or an article, whichever one seems the easiest on the day.
As it is his last year on the course, I am banking on Gerard Manley Hopkins making an appearance. Although I’m not a fan of poetry, I like how Hopkins uses straightforward language; it makes any question so much easier to answer!
For Irish, my strongest area for aistes would have to be fadhbanna sosialtle so let’s all take a second to pray that this one comes up and not córas oideachas or córas sláinte.
Unlike some of my peers, I would be delighted if “Hurlamaboc” came up for the prós; I want to be Lisín Albright when I grow up, so I’m happy to write a page or two about her life as a D4 Celtic Tiger mom!
It will come as no shock that, like nearly every Irish student in the country, I want either “Géibhinn” or “Colscaradh” to come up for the filíochta. Looking at past papers, it seems that the questions that come up for these two poems are straightforward and easy enough to answer, even if you can’t remember the vocabulary you learn for them.
If too much area and volume comes up in the maths paper, you will see an Aoife-shaped hole in the wall because no matter how hard I try, I can’t understand how to answer those questions!
I mean, who really needs to know the length of an arc? However, if papers one and two end up being a mixture of complex numbers, financial maths, patterns, statistics and algebra questions, I’ll be singing from the rooftops (I swear I do have a life!)
At this stage in the game, I can remember the minus b formula better than my cousins’ birthdays.
So, as the 4th of June creeps ever closer, take comfort in the fact that in a few short weeks, you’ll be lying on a beach in Albufeira or Ibiza, the Leaving Cert but a distant memory.
My plan is to just take it one exam at a time. I cannot wait to check each of them off my timetable.
Remember to eat foods that will fuel your brain (Doritos, Haribos, Skittles, the usual), and to take plenty of breaks and rest (you won’t be able to write for three hours and 20 minutes if you can’t keep your eyes open!).
And finally, don’t be afraid to remind everyone that they have to be nice to you until you’re done your exams (I’m pretty sure it’s in the Bible).
Best of luck to all the Junior and Leaving Certs of 2025!
And to all the farmers, don’t worry about the lack of rain for the next few weeks. It will undoubtedly start lashing rain again on the 24th of June!
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