It’s hard to believe that a year has passed since the class of 2012 received their Leaving Certificate results.
Across the county, thousands of pupils experienced one of the most daunting days in a student’s life.
By Caoimhe Ní Chathail
Tomorrow, the very same will be the case for the class of 2013. After a stressful year, those few weeks of exam chaos and a summer which seemed to disappear in the blink of an eye, results day is almost upon us.
Donegal Daily took the opportunity this week to interview some of these students from various schools in Donegal who will tomorrow find out just how hard they worked!
In order to maintain a sense of privacy for the students, we have only included their first names.
Over the next week they will be interviewed three times; before results, after results and after the first college offers; an insight into the beginning of the future for some of Donegal’s teenagers!
Gavin:
Gavin describes 6th year as ‘the fastest year of them all’, a sentiment which seems to be the first thought of many past pupils!
He started studying at the end of November and after so many months of hard work, found that the exams ‘sounded scarier than they turned out to be’.
Alongside his study, Gavin remained active to ward off fear which was affecting those around him. His biggest problem throughout the exams was Maths Paper I, where as he put it himself, ‘they messed up’.
Gavin plans to study Maths & Computer Science and as he awaits his results knows that he no longer has any effect over them! His aim is to remain calm and not to allow any anxiety to rub off on others.
Síofra:
Síofra describes the hardest part of 6th year as ‘the normalising of a low-level, chewy sort of stress, the vague feeling that even if there was nothing to do, I still ought to be doing something’ and not in fact the exams.
The monotony, the learning of the same thing over and over, ‘until formulae became as ingrained as the twenty six letters of the alphabet’ was another thing. Síofra describes ‘civilian life’, as she puts it, once the summer arrived, as more difficult than she thought it would be.
She found doing nothing to be terrifying after ‘nine months of having information constantly “on demand”. Síofra has decided to leave the results ‘in the lap of the gods’.
As she says, ‘I’ve done my bit, I’ll leave the rest of it to the Curve. All I can do now is hope.’
Shane:
6th year went well for Shane, in his opinion. His biggest challenges were, ‘getting the projects done in time and getting study time in’.
The beginning of the exams were nerve-wracking, but as they went on Shane found it easier to deal with any nerves. He says that the exams ‘went much better than I had expected.’
Shane was quite confident about his results but he is now finding that ‘the nerves are creeping in again.’
Martina:
Martina believes that 6th year ‘isn’t as bad as it’s made out to be’. She does however admit that she was fortunate enough not to be under too much pressure points-wise and so the worst part of her 6th year experience was ‘the constant nagging from mum about not studying enough’!
Martina advises future Leaving Certificate students to work consistently throughout the year so as to avoid enormous amounts of pressure at the end of the year, ‘slow and steady wins the race’.
She feels excited for the results after many weeks of waiting, ‘Hopefully I have done myself justice. Time will tell!’
We wish Gavin, Síofra, Shane, Martina and all those receiving Leaving Certificate results tomorrow in Donegal and all around the country the very best of luck. Ádh mór oraibh uilig!
Tags:
