Tough paper raises the temperature

Presentation School, Ballyphehane, Cork: Sweltering heat, school uniforms and a peculiar phrasing of questions does not a happy student make, with many pupils at Presentation Secondary School in Ballyphehane, Cork, describing yesterday's lower and higher levels maths papers as difficult bordering on "deadly".

Higher-level student Lisa Field expressed concern about the phrasing of a number of questions, describing them as "weird", while her friend Michelle Conroy said section C was very challenging.

Jennifer Harte, who hopes to go on to study speech and language therapy at University College Cork, said yesterday morning's higher-level maths paper was far harder than in the mock exams. That said, Jennifer got 94 per cent in her mocks so she is hopeful that her exams results will be favourable.

Meanwhile, Julie O'Sullivan (17), who took the pass paper, said she also felt better when she came out of the mocks earlier this year.

"It was very hard. With question four and complex numbers I didn't know what they were on about. Everything that came up was hard. The heat in there was unbelievable."

Kerry O'Regan, who is aiming to study nutrition in college, said the maths paper was "not too hard - not too easy". She experienced minor difficulties with certain questions but was relieved to have another paper out of the way.

She admits to looking forward to June 22nd, when the Leaving Cert will be just a memory.

Fellow student Tara Gamble said the lower paper was "do-able" as topics she revised over the last week turned up as questions yesterday morning.

Lindsay Murray, whose chosen career is in office information systems, echoed the sentiments of all of her classmates by saying that she just wasn't sure how she was going to do in yesterday's paper.

"I want to do office information systems at CIT. I hope to do well but I just don't know. It is hard to say. Everything came up that I wanted."

However, most of the talk yesterday was not of maths or even the upcoming home economics or social scientific papers, but of the glorious sunshine.

Students spoke of being "cooped up" when they could be enjoying the weather.

One student, who declined to be named, spoke for many when she described the Leaving Certificate as "the one last thing I have to do before I am free . . . Your head would be pounding in there [ the exam hall] from the heat. But this is all I have to do. Once I get through this, the summer is all mine."