My Leaving Cert/TV presenter Ger Gilroy: I did my Leaving Cert in 1995 in Scoil Eoin in Athy. By the time the week arrived I was resigned to my fate. I got that sort of clear vision that you get before the hangman.

To be honest, I must attribute my coolness to the school. I knew I had been well taught and would probably be fine.

I wanted to study pharmacy or actuary - they were both high-scoring courses so I was aiming high.

In sixth year, however, I went to the Higher Options Conference in the RDS and discovered that I could take film as part of an English degree. I immediately ditched my plans to go into medicine or finance and relaxed a bit. Too much, as it turned out.

It never crossed my mind to take a course in journalism, even though I was already writing for the Kildare Nationalist at that stage. It's difficult to make sensible career decisions in the middle of your exams.

My parents are very relaxed people and while they gave me great support, they never put much pressure on me. They trusted me, which gave me an excuse to do nothing.

The day of the exams arrived and I had no shocks and even a few triumphs.

French and chemistry went especially well. The one that did throw me right off kilter was English. I was expecting to do really well in it, especially since I was planning to take an English degree at college. Perhaps I relaxed too much.

If I could go back and do it all again I would take Spanish - that's a language I've been trying to learn ever since.

I've travelled in so many Spanish-speaking regions that I kick myself that I didn't avail of the free lessons when I was in school.

Mind you, I'm in Germany at the moment covering the World Cup and I've been able to use my French to interview some of the footballers. The worst advice I got in the weeks and days running up to the Leaving Cert was not to cram. I did cram and I think it was great habit. It saved me for some of my exams.

Ger Gilroy of Newstalk 106FM, will be reporting for RTÉ from the World Cup.