Opening my results yesterday was undoubtedly one of the scariest moments of my life. Even though I knew I hadn’t done atrociously, these are the kinda thoughts that were running through my head as I began to rip apart that envelope. I had my “LC calculator app” at the ready.

So this was it. The moment we had all been waiting for. The product of  a year of pushing oneself to the limits, endless homework and long stressful study-orientated months.

I glanced down at the paper… and then I tallied my points up. I repeated said process three times to be sure. 555. There was no mistaking it. I had about 50 points more than I needed for my course (or so I should have, judging by entry last year). Here was my happy ending. Or perhaps, more aptly, my new beginning.

English: A1

Home Ec: A1

Business: A2

French: A2

Biology: A2

Irish: B1

LCVP: Distinction

Maths (pass): B1.

I was ecstatic. In all my months of studying, I had aimed for 525 at best. I had exceeded my own expectations and the feeling of combined relief and excitement was surreal.

To prospective Leaving Cert students- If I have any advice, it’s timing. Get it right. Whether it’s beginning a study routine, exam technique or even pencilling in a night out – it’s just a matter of finding the time to do it all. All work and no play will make you crack up. Fact. Don’t beat yourself up if you don’t get as much study done as you had intended way back in September, it’s never too late to throw yourself back into the LC ball game. Don’t listen to everybody else talk about their prison-like study hours… Do your own thing. It’s your life anyway, not theirs. You’ll get there. We all do. The Leaving Cert is a rite of passage and you’ll learn more about yourself in these two years than the previous four. Enjoy it.. or at least attempt to.

To Patrick Barry – Thank you for the opportunity you gave me by allowing me to blog for your website. Allhonours.ie acted as a medium through which I could vent my stress and exam concerns as well as hear from people experiencing the same thing. It allowed me to improve my writing abilities which I fully believe contributed to my A1 in English but most of all, it helped me document one of the most important years of my life.

To my fellow bloggers – I wish you all the very best of luck in college in September. We’ve heard so much about the amazing life of a university student, now it’s our chance to experience that for ourselves.

In my last post, I referred to the Leaving Cert as a domino that sets the rest of my life into action. Well, the path has been built. The momentum is present. All that’s left to do now is watch the whole show unfold… something I intend to enjoy ’til the last.

Sorcha x

It all finished with Biology. It was the last hurdle that stood between my ten month hermit-like existence and freedom.

It was one of my favourite subjects and so for me, Biology was a brilliant way to end the Leaving Cert. The paper was lovely (in my opinion) but I guess I should credit that to my excellent teacher and not entirely my own abilities. I actually found it to be the best out of all my exams, but then it’s a subject that has always clicked with me – it’s straightforward, no nonsense and almost completely composed of short questions. Although he who knows why male ducks migrate further south than females, please share your wisdom with those of us ignorant to the mannerisms of the duck community. I must have neglected those chapters in my last minute revision… But in fairness, it’s the kinda thing that’s meant on a David Attenborough documentary, not the Biology LC paper.

As for French, I found that relatively nice too. I mentioned before that I had spent time in France on an exchange, and so that really stood by me for the exam. However it has to be said that it was no help for the written side of things. I know I made some stupid grammatical errors, so if my results aren’t what I want them to be, I can rest assured it’s because of my opinion pieces. Structure is always the one to catch me out. Still, I was happy enough overall.

Moving on to Irish, it was a fair paper all round. I had left a substantial amount of work until it was too late… well, I thought I had. I guess the teachers are right about retaining information – somehow, most of it comes flooding back out of no where in the middle of an exam. Just as well too, because I lacked any form of motivation the night before. I was wrecked, my hands were numb from writing and in that moment I genuinely couldn’t have cared less what I said or didn’t say in the pending exam. Trust my rebellious streak to kick in days before I finish…

The following day, I didn’t have time to recover from all the writing in Irish as I had business to attend to. Literally. It was a paper I had previously struggled with, not because of it’s content but because of the timing allocated to the exam. Thirty two minutes for an ABQ? You must be joking. Forty is the average. But in such a structured exam, every minute counts. I finished it (thankfully!) with a mere three minutes to spare.  As far as the questions went, they were predictable enough. Not much on the EU front as far as I remember, but the break-even at the back was a nice treat.

Finally, I got a taste of my long-awaited freedom. I haven’t gone wild as of yet. I’m waiting until next Thursday when all my other friends finish up before the proper celebrations kick in! These past few days I’ve only gone out for a quiet drink or two and I’ve mainly spent my time reorganising things so that my life can get back to normal. My study is now clean, my diagrams are ripped off the walls and the “Hang in there kitty” poster previously mentioned a lifetime ago in my posts has been laid to rest. This kitty has hung in there long enough. Now that her stint is over, she needs her sleep. I didn’t realise it until my exams were over, but I was definitely in need of a serious amount of me time. Sleep, relaxation, sleep again… a day or two was required to wind down before I could get properly pumped up. Nothing is as sweet as waking up the day after you’ve finished exams and realising that this is the first day of the rest of your life.

To finish this post, I’m going to refer back to my final moments as an LC student. There were only three of us left in the exam room as the supervisor glanced at the clock, then towards us again as we all waited in the silence of knowing what he was about to say. I zipped up my pencil case in preparation. My exam paper was neatly folded. I couldn’t hold back a smile. This man, this absolute stranger, was about to say the words that I had waited to hear since this year began. It’s over. It’s finished. You’re done.

I will always hold a sense of nostalgia towards the Leaving Cert. It’s not that I feel any particular ties to the subjects nor the study itself (funnily enough), but it represented a part of my life that is evidently the domino that sets the rest into action. I walked out the front door of my school, down the steps towards my freedom and I swear… I never looked back.

Sorcha x

PS) My Facebook – http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000484089032

The world is a beautiful place.

This may be because I’ve just FINISHED THE LEAVING CERT but I suddenly truly understand what William Wordsworth, Gerard Manley Hopkins and Louis Armstrong have been talking about. On my way home, I took delight in the heat, the seaside and even a piece of rubbish floating around. This view may diminish over time but once I put down the pen after History, it’s like the sun came out. Poetic, I know. Too bad English is over.

It hasn’t quite sunk in that I’M DONE (but if I keep saying it, it’s bound to stick) because I’m one of two in my school to finish today. I’m even finished before the Junior Certs. As a result, celebrations will be confined to my house tonight (wild, I know) but tomorrow I can go crazy with some friends. I know how much I’m rubbing it in but hopefully this will spur people on who have another while to go. Well, I really just want to keep bragging.

I suppose I better backtrack to the exams for a moment so I don’t get ahead of myself. Irish Paper 2 yesterday was nice and there were no major shocks, although I was a little surprised that an Cearrbhach came up as the compulsory story again. Being the only person I know that likes Lig Sinn i gCathú, I was sad to say goodbye to the Púca and the secretary, the mad gits. As for Business, I wrote at lightning speed for the whole three hours and all my hard work paid off in the sense that I knew all the answers bar some short questions but despite emerging with bruises on my hand, I could not get it done. I was gutted because I know I could have gotten the A I studied so much for otherwise. I was even talking in my sleep about how much of a tragedy it all was!

French today was lovely. As someone who is quite weak at the language, I was delighted with the written pieces in particular. I did the independence one, the diary entry and the one on social networking websites. Almost all of my material was what I had learned for the Orals, so it was great that things I didn’t mention then could be used now. I liked the listening too but have to admit I’m a bit worried about the couple who were too busy mushroom picking to notice their son was missing… I haven’t had time to dissect History in my head with all the excitement.

Oh wait, I just remembered Coleraine didn’t come up. That was a bit of a shock and the contextualisation question on the Apprentice Boys was a bit iffy, I thought. As for the Irish section, I can’t believe the economies didn’t come up! Anyway, I went for the consolidating democracy, an old reliable. The European was okay, although I hadn’t put in much work for it so I went for Mussolini. What was with the US questions? I laughed at how random it was that the moon landing and Vietnam were in the same question! None of my predictions came up but I tweaked my bus boycott essay to suit the Martin Luther King question. Of course, I didn’t get anything done but that’s a given with me and History. To be honest, my hand wasn’t able for it after yesterday. I jotted down some points in the last minute in the hope that the examiner will have pity on me. I don’t really mind with History because I never get very high marks but I hope I at least get a C3.

So that’s it. Wow, how odd. No more navy nylon, no more Hitler or Gealt or Algebra. It’s strange. Now what do I do with my life? I’ve just spent the first few minutes of freedom writing a long blog post about exams. In my defence, none of my friends are finished yet, okay! I’ll post again in August when results and offers come out and whatnot…but that’s a worry for another time! I’ll say a proper goodbye then because I’m too happy right now to be sentimental. For now I’m going to throw out all my notes, sleep for hours on end, go to the beach and tan. Oh who am I kidding, I just go red and then back to pale white again! If anyone wants to keep up with the trivial events of my life, you can catch me on Twitter here. I might as well give myself a plug.

To everyone who still has exams, good luck! Finishing is fantastic so enjoy it, be safe and have a good summer.

After last Friday, I came in this morning optimistic for Maths Paper 2 (ordinary level). I didn’t think it was as nice as Paper 1 but it still went well. The trigonometry was a bit tricky but the probability was nicer than other years. Imagine how mad I was though when I realised that not only had I forgotten a compass, I needed a compass. I had no choice but to draw the circle freehand and it looked a lot like an Easter egg. Surely I’ll get marks for attempt, right?

I had enough time today between exams to get an ice-cream cone, go home and relax on the couch. Five minutes later, I was back in the car desperately reading over my Irish essays on the media and technology. Fortunately, going over them worked in my favour when we sunk into Irish Paper 1.

At first glance, I couldn’t hide my disgust at the essay titles. It was like all the bad ideas from previous years had accumulated and were put on this paper, as a last sting in the end of quite a bitter course. Next year’s gang are so lucky. Anyway, I diverted my attention away from Ceist 1 and tackled the comprehensions, one on a man teaching Irish in Poland and the other about Mary Robinson. I’ve always had the impression that Irish examiners have an obsession with Barack Obama and surprise, surprise, he had to sneak into Mary’s biography today. I thought the questions were difficult at times and didn’t like all the ones that said ‘and what does the author explain about this?’ It seemed to keep coming back to haunt me! I felt that they were asking a lot at times for a measly three marks.

When I went back to the essay titles, I noticed oh, no recession. Then I saw the speech about a lack of hope in Ireland at the moment and thought, well people are going to bring it in here anyway. Not wanting my work to go to waste either, I did the Aiste on social relationships in the age of internet. My essay on technology from English Paper 1 helped me out here, as I used most of the same ideas! Eh, I mean, it was totally original.

It must be said, that was the nicest listening comprehension I’ve ever done. I don’t think any of the questions were too challenging, except maybe in Cuid C. I liked how it was quite topical, although I think we all had a quiet laugh in the room about the mention of You’re A Star. Blast from the past much? Some of the questions didn’t require listening to the CD, like the ones on Des Bishop, Susan Boyle and the one asking what the website was (with ie on the end, it was quite clearly a website!).

From talking to friends, I think today was the nicest day for a lot of people.

Sadly, with Irish Paper 2 and Business tomorrow, I don’t know how much longer that happy feeling will stay. I’m now off to study my 13 poems, 5 stories and novel. Yes, next year’s Leaving Certs are being envied right about now.

After developing a claw-shaped hand following the two English papers, on Friday I welcomed my calculator and colouring pencils with open arms. That is, until I saw the Geography paper.

It wasn’t impossible, I was just disappointed with how different it was to other years. Other years were so manageable, other years the same things came up all the time, in their simplest forms. This year, I thought even the short questions were tricky. I was freaking out over the “does the information office have regular opening hours?” question. How was I supposed to know? Is this a famous information office? IS SOMEONE OUT THERE TRYING TO MAKE A SICK JOKE? Then I realised it said it on the legend. Phew, crisis averted.

I thought the physical questions were awful, considering the amount of essays I had learned. I couldn’t find any with three parts I liked, so I had to settle for the one where you described the feature on the map. I really hope there was a cliff where I said there was! Even the standard human interaction with the rock cycle asked for economic impacts, rather than a general summary. Regional was the section that the examiner really transformed, from the usual ‘tertiary activities in region X’ and ‘culture in region Y’, to questions such as criteria defining a region. I did that one, as I realised how vague it was and I’m pretty happy with my EU expansion answer, fuelled purely by common sense. The elective section was fine and as for the geoecology…words can’t describe my relief that the biome came up. Twice! I did the characteristics question.

I was initially gutted with the paper but now that I’ve written it down, I guess it wasn’t so bad. What annoys me is the fact that I put in the work for that, especially for the physical section and I feel a little cheated by the SEC. Now I’m questioning the remark that all my hard work will apparently pay off with these exams, especially considering the fact that Maths, which I hadn’t studied for since Easter, went very smoothly.

I found Maths paper 1 (ordinary level) easy as pi. I think I’m allowed to boast a little about that. After all, people didn’t hesitate in telling me how spectacular their English papers went, when I’m still disappointed with my performance. Anyway, unless there is a major upset I won’t be counting Maths so it’s not like it really matters but it’s comforting to encounter a good paper. Unfortunately the same can’t be said for our friends in higher level. Hopefully paper 2 will be better and at least most people seem to feel the same way about it. I know it doesn’t make up for the whole thing but I’m sure the marking scheme will be sympathetic. The bell curve wouldn’t allow it any other way!

I’ve spent the weekend having some much-needed sleep and very little else, although I had planned to tackle some History and Irish. Everyone seems to be banking on an essay on the recession for Irish but I’d prefer something on the media. In the mocks I steered away from the common choice and went for ‘young people listen to pop music too much’. I made quite a strong argument for listening to bands such as Arcade Fire and I think I was marked favourably for being the only one to do that essay. The examiner must have been a rock fan!

Good luck tomorrow everyone.

I know I said I wouldn’t blog again until the Leaving Cert was over, nor had I any intention to until I saw everyone else updating as their exams unfolded and so I decided I’d drop by and leave my own little post too

English was a beautiful paper for me all round. Who knew how accurate the country’s predictions would be? Diary entries for the question B, Claudius, Frost, Boland, Dickinson, Theme or Issue… I don’t mean to rub it in for anyone who thought it was tricky, but that paper could not have gone any better. I was thrilled! I did Frost out of sheer loyalty – he has never failed me yet in coming up in an exam, so I felt it’d only be fitting to choose him out of my prepared Dickinson/Boland/Frost combination. I was a tad surprised that neither Wordsworth or Hopkins came up, I assumed at least one would’ve appeared (and Hopkins would’ve been quite a nice one too), but I guess the examiners needed to keep some element of surprise to the exam… Again, I don’t mean for any of this to sound cocky, things just really worked in my favour.

My English was followed by Home Economics and although that exam was an overall reasonable paper, timing got me in the end. I literally was writing frantically up until the very last minute. Maybe it was a sign that I shouldn’t have been so thrilled with myself about English? I was really hoping that Home Ec would be a good paper so I was disappointed that I set my pace too slow. I managed to get it all done, and I guess post-mortems are never of any help,  but I can’t stop wondering if I’ve done enough to get the results I was looking for. In a situation like mine where I need every point going just to scrap into a course, one grade lower than planned can be potentially devastating.

Finally there was Maths this afternoon. I do pass myself, so I can’t empathise with those of you who suffered that disgusting paper earlier in honours, though I’d say paper two will make up for the trauma of today. I’ll stay optimistic for you all, even light a little candle or two for all you mathematical geniuses – from experience I can honestly say that the prayers, the medals, the daily drowning of myself in holy water – it’s all been of great help so far. Divine intervention next week? Please and thank you! Although God can work in mysterious ways – here in Donegal we got a scare the night before the Leaving Cert began – we were told that despite it being June, we were due another bout of snow. Imagine. SNOW. I almost died. It only lightly featured the following morning thankfully… had it been otherwise I may have gone into cardiac arrest there and then!

My weekend shall be spent enveloped in Irish and French with some Business and Biology thrown in for good measure. It helps that the weather has taken a turn for the worst – no sunshine, just an abundance of downpours and a general state of overcast skies. I’m loving it! Pathetic fallacy? Possibly. However this time next week my Leaving Cert experience will all be a thing of the past – even thinking of its close proximity seems incredible. Perhaps the sun will come out again then? I live in hope.

As I’ve said before, I wish nothing but the best of luck to everyone next week. United we stand guys.  And as for the sun… well a very intelligent little red-headed orphan once claimed that it’s always on the cards for tomorrow, and that therefore the sunshine and happy times are merely only a day away. Story of our lives right?

Sorcha x

EngLiish iz ovr so i cn t@Lk loiik dis nw yaaa?

No, I’m joking. Despite happily throwing away my English notes today, I wouldn’t go so far as to talk like the people on Facebook whose statuses I have to hide from my news feeds. Poor grammar is a pet peeve of mine (along with the phrase pet peeve), yet there I was this morning, drinking my cup of tea with Emily Dickinson.

I had prepared her, Boland and Frost and had no qualms about limiting prescribed poetry to those three. I knew at least one would come up and in fact, all three did. I was delighted to see Robert there, as I love his poetry and the question was really similar to the one on my mock paper (EXAMCRAFT or DEB-who cares anymore?), asking for the hidden layers of meaning in his poetry. The one I had done in February was about there being more meaning to his poetry than the theme of nature and I was actually able to quote the statement they used today. It rarely happens but the mock company was spot on.

However, the Hamlet questions were not what I wanted, although Claudius seems to have been on the tongue of a lot of people the past few weeks. You see, my English teacher is so awful that we read the play and honestly, that was it. We never touched themes so I went for the popular choice. I don’t think that was a great essay and would have liked something more vague that I could waffle about.

The unseen poem was fine and I made myself out to have a poetry fetish in my personal response. I spent too long on this and the other two questions though and left myself very little time for the comparitive. It was foolish of me because it’s worth the most marks, yet it’s famously neglected in favour of poetry, which you can actually fail and still get an A1. I had prepared General Vision and Viewpoint and Cultural Context, the latter came up. I don’t know about other people but I thought the question about values and attitudes making the reader uncomfortable had an air of Vision and Viewpoint about it? Anyway, I tried to quickly write up some nonsense but am really disappointed that I only managed three pages.

As for Paper 1, it feels like so long ago. I know I can be as long-winded as Polonius sometimes so I’ll try to keep this short. I did the comprehension on the train journey and started the Question B on the talk to the book club but after a few lines deemed it bland, so I switched to the article on a place you want to go to. I did it on Paris and in it made myself out to be a bit of a maneater. You don’t even want to know. I thought that other years the theme of the paper never had much bearing but agreed with the guy on the radio who said that they kind of forced it on us this year. I saw ‘mystery’ on every page and the word even cropped up today.

The composition choices were really nice and I went for the one on technology. I could tell straight away I would have stiff competition, as it appeals greatly to our Facebook generation. What a time for me to suffer from writer’s block, as I sat there clutching at straws for an hour. I felt like I was trying way too hard to be funny-story of my life, really. I don’t work well under time constraints or with a lack of biscuits. I glared at the supervisor as she devoured her tea and cookies in an effort to summon her over.

No such luck.

It is a little like Christmas Eve. There’s tension and excitement, albeit of a different form. Putting in last minute preparations, all most of us can think about is what awaits us tomorrow morning. Will we be disappointed, surprised or get exactly what we wanted? I hope the State Examinations Commission will be as kind as good ‘ole Saint Nick anyway.

People approach these last few hours before exams start in different ways. Some spend the day engaged in self-induced panic attacks. Others stay up studying until unsightly hours, kept awake only by energy drinks and suspicious calming tablets. I, on the other hand, am having a relaxation day.

Am I crazy? Quite possibly. I had a Courtney Love moment yesterday when struggling with a geoecology question and I’m not sure if I’ve fully calmed down yet. However, it’s a tradition of mine to relax before big exams, in order to recharge my batteries for the gruelling week ahead. Don’t get me wrong, there’s still so much I don’t know but at this point I think my brain deserves a rest. I’d advise people to adopt a similar approach. Don’t tire yourself out before the Leaving Cert has even begun!

Then again, I don’t think I could take the whole day off without feeling guilty, so I’m going to do a bit of Maths. I’ve neglected it in recent weeks, as it’s my only pass subject and therefore I’m not expecting to include it in my points in August. Despite that, I’d like to do reasonably well (as in, not fail it) and the nice thing is there’s no real memorising involved, just practice. Then I’m going to listen to Countdown to 806 so I don’t fall into total denial about tomorrow. I got the podcasts other days and found the Geography one particularly helpful. I listened to yesterday’s episode live but ended up sitting through thirty-five minutes of Biology and ten of Applied Maths, avidly waiting for History which was squeezed in for a couple of minutes at the end. I don’t even do the other two and felt I had learned more about them in the hour! Wow, I really love to moan.

Then I’m going to write out time plans for each subject that I can consult beforehand. The evening before each test, I’ll be quickly revising the main topics, obviously with the exception of today. English Paper 1 is something that I actually enjoy (okay, I’m officially crazy) and I’m already fluent, which is half the battle. I know which composition I aim to write, which is the serious and/or light-hearted article and I’m hoping for a speech or talk for the Question B. To get my imagination in the right place, I’m going to watch one of my favourite movies, 500 Days of Summer, tonight. After all, what better way to get my creative juices flowing than artistic imagery, hilarious jokes, inspirational quotes and a killer soundtrack?

I don’t know how often I’ll be posting over the next week so I’ll just go with the flow. Before we get our teeth into it, I want to wish everyone the best of luck. Remember, this is just a detour on the way to a beautiful summer!

But damn, I really wish it was Christmas Eve.

Well, at this stage I just want everything to be over with. I’d go in and do my exams tomorrow if I could.. (Not really, an awful lot of cramming can be done in a week). But I WANT MY LIFE BACK! Anyone else feel like that? Please don’t tell me that I’m the only one who looks like the walking dead. If the walking dead had skin like a frying pan that is.. My little sister drew a picture of me, and when I asked her what the hell was all over my face, she replied in her seven-year-old innocence “Your spots.” Yeah, I hit the face wash pretty hard that night. Add to that, the only clothes that fit me these days have elasticated waistbands, the dark circles under my eyes make me look like a non-sparkly version of Edward Cullen, and my new hairstyle is the ‘getting outta bed & leaving my hair whatever way it was when I get up’ and you can see why anyone who speaks to me has a high chance of getting their head bitten off.  And obviously there are NO connections whatsoever between all of the above and the fact that I’m still munching my way through Easter Eggs.. I can totally empathise with Hamlet, I wish this “too-solid flesh would melt” too. I think I probably sound quite shallow & vain here. But I don’t even have the energy to care, I spend all my time either studying or talking about study-related things so if I want to have a rant on my LC induced rotten-ness, then I shall.

In other news.. Well, the end of 6th year. Guess it’s pretty significant, no? Our Grad was two weeks ago, and it was.. Memorable. The mass was so lovely, and we all wrote out hopes/dreams on a sticker, on a balloon & then released it into the sky afterwards, which was pretty nice. Afterwards, we abandoned our parents with their tea & cake to change in the school bathrooms & stuff, and it all went downhill from there! We had a local nightclub booked, with a bar extension til two. It was absolutely brilliant! Until.. By the time some of us arrived, they had run out of tequila & sambuca. Then they ran out of most other shots. Then all 150 of us got food for 30. Plus the bouncers locked the doors, and wouldn’t let anyone leave – not even girls who were going home early. It all culminated when we got kicked out before half twelve. Now I admit, we weren’t perfect – glasses were broken, and girls did smoke in the bathrooms. But glasses are broken on any night out, and while I hate smoking & think smoking in bathrooms is rank, they weren’t allowed use the smoking area. Plus, we were told “There are underagers getting alcohol” but ID was never checked. But hey, what’s done is done. On the upside, my Biology teacher made me beans on toast for lunch the next day! Our teachers are great for food.. I’ve had pancakes with Nutella, ice cream, Death By Chocolate & loads of tea over the last week of school, it is BRILLIANT! Plus we got our yearbooks last Friday, embarrassing pictures aside, it’s nice. The messages written in it are cute, & I will admit – I cried on the last day. I was fine when we got our yearbooks, fine as we signed shirts, fine as we sang the songs from our grad again (Someone Like You & Turn It Up) but one thing that made me cry? Reading the message my German teacher wrote in my yearbook.. I am a creep, I know. But it was nice.

Anyway, I’m still getting up at 7AM to go into school to study so it’s bed for me.. About 4 hours earlier than normal. Maybe the extra beauty sleep will improve my looks? I’m trying to be optimistic..

BTW the title is a reference for a friend. I don’t talk like that.. I swear..

I’ve always had a love-hate relationship with school. As a first year, I was the one who refused to rebel against the uniform – the nerd with her shirt buttoned fully up and her tie neatly in place. In second year again I played the role of the nerd; the one who studied and got good results and the one who didn’t venture out to teen discos for fear of the unknown. In third year I typified the stressed student, swotting over books for hours on end, learning Irish essays that could twist to any situation, somehow believing that whatever I obtained at Jr Cert level would greatly affect the rest of my life. I spent my junior cycle in school in a happy sense of innocence, trudging my way through studies and counting down the days until summer.  I didn’t realise how easy-going school actually was until I advanced to senior level, but then again thats life – nobody ever realises how good we have it until it’s gone. Nobody ever understands what it’s like to have no real concerns until some greater reason for stress and worry plants itself in your life. Then we panic and look back on the “good old days” where answers were two lines long and extracted directly from the paragraph word for word.

In my senior cycle I quickly became sick of the study routine, the perfectly worn uniform, the falling to pieces schoolbag. After TY things suddenly became alot more serious, it began to dawn on me that I wasn’t studying for my Christmas exams, I was studying for June 2011 – papers which would stand by me for the rest of my life.

In September of sixth year, I remember quickly glancing through my exam papers, bemusedly thinking how difficult some looked and how exceptional I was going to be at every subject in nine months time. I assumed that somewhere down the line, I would suddenly become an expert in all the subjects and be able to answer all the questions without hesitation. I believed that there’d be a eureka moment, where everything just clicked. Looking back on it now, sixth year was nothing like I expected it to be. Yes, there were the “clicking” occasions,  but these weren’t brought on by instant divine intervention, more so by hard work and hours of pouring over essays/writing out pages upon pages of answers.

This year was an experience to say the least. Over the past few months I have added several “firsts” to my school routine, things which in hindsight seem drastic and perhaps unhealthy, but also appeared to be a necessity at the time. I  have been the student who stayed up until 3am working on questions. I have gone into a class in tears because I was too tired to finish my homework the night beforehand. I spent two weeks solid getting up at 5am just to do well in class tests. I skipped so many social occasions that I was dubbed “The Hermit”. I gave up exercise. I took up exercise. I dropped it again. I went off my beloved Twitter and knocked back my time on other social networks. I studied until bedtime, going for weeks on end without watching any television. I’ve been close to the brink of exhaustion this year but now that it’s almost over, I feel a sense of achievement. Currently I’m not too stressed about the looming exams. I still feel as if there’s so much left that needs to be done and yet I simultaneously realise that there isn’t enough time to get everything I want to do covered, although given another few months I’d probably still say the same thing. I’m not panicking. I’m staying optimistic. I’m trying to keep my focus going for just a few brief weeks longer…

Yesterday was my last day at school. I assumed I’d cry but I didn’t. The truth is, leaving secondary school behind us isn’t the end, it’s the beginning. Those who have stood by us for the past few years aren’t going to leave simply because they’re destined for different universities or courses. The friends we’ve made who are meant to stay in our lives, will do so.  The lessons we’ve learned, the memories we’ve made and the growing up we’ve done will all stand by us throughout life… So in a bittersweet way, the Leaving Cert isn’t just an exam, it’s a rite of passage. It’s one of those things we need to work through in order to be equipped for the real world. It’s our passport to reality.

I doubt I will have any time over the next few weeks to blog again, so I’m taking this opportunity to wish everyone the best of luck in their exams and I sincerely hope that you all have a brilliant summer ahead. I promise to blog again once my exams are finished on the 16th (I do believe I’m one of the earliest to finish?) and maybe then I’ll have an even more grounded view of this Leaving Cert process. One thing I’m looking forward to doing once this is all over, is re-reading my posts on this blog from September onwards. It’s easy to forget the different stresses and opinions I had from the beginning right through until the end, and it’ll be something which I can keep as a constant reminder of the year that counted for so much towards the rest of my life.

See you all on the other side.

Sorcha x