Exam diary: Roland Kamepko

The end is nigh. One more exam to go: physics on Monday. Then I’m done.

I think the Leaving Cert puts so much pressure on students. I’ve always been very academic, so it’s less of a drain on me, but not everyone is academically brilliant – I have seen my classmates worried and stressed.

Many students have strengths and interests and intelligence not reflected in the schoolbooks, but we’re not tested on this. Instead, academic learning is elevated above all else. All those other skills that we learned at my school, such as teamwork and communication, don’t count. This is not right.

Time for myself

In the run-up to the exams, I was putting in about six hours a day and, with the weather so good, was making sure to get some time to myself as well by going for a walk or a cycle. But sometimes you just need to flake out in front of the TV, so I've also chilled out in front of my favourite show, Arrow.

My favourite subject so far has been French. I grew up in Togo in west Africa. Ewe (pronounced ev-ay) was our first language, but French is the national language. Then we moved here when I was 12, and I learned English and also took up Irish in school.

You won’t be surprised to hear that I have high hopes for French. Sometimes people think that native speakers such as me can just breeze into the exam hall and sail through the French paper, but I have worked hard and made sure to keep up my language skills. I’ve done well in my mocks and I’m really hoping for that A1. Indeed, I’ll be disappointed if I don’t get it.

The paper itself was manageable and the questions were relevant, particularly where we were asked about how multicultural Ireland has become.

Maths paper two

I was most apprehensive about Irish paper two but it actually went really well. On the other hand, I went into maths paper two feeling I would get a B and it turned out to be more difficult than I expected.

I’ll spend the next few days heavily focused on physics and I’m hoping that the extra time will boost my grade. I want to get enough points to study biomedical engineering at CIT. Before that, there are 16 students from my class of 25 heading on our Leaving Cert holiday. We’re off to Magaluf in Spain, a time-honoured destination for young Irish people.

Increasingly, what I’ve heard about the place isn’t great, but I know we will have fun. It will be bittersweet: this will be our last time together as a class.

Who knows where life will take us, or when we will see each other again?

Student diaries concluded