The first day of exams can be a nerve-wracking time for teachers as well as students

IT WAS a case of one exam down and nine to go for most students at Malahide Community School at lunchtime yesterday.

English Paper 1 was reportedly a fair test of their comprehension and writing skills but school principal John Molloy still appeared anxious to hear it first hand from some of the 200 or so students who sat the exam.

Was it nerves? “Of course,” Molloy said. “Its probably the most important exam these students will face in their lives. There’s far too much pressure on them and we do everything we can to ease it down. But it is still a very tense day.”

Shortly after midday, 2½ hours after the exam got under way, students began to trickle out of the school gym to the car park where a small cohort of teachers stood waiting.

“Good,” said one student as she emerged. “A-plus,” said another, giving a thumbs up.

Matthew McGarry, originally from Liverpool, said he was happy with his first Irish State exam. “I thought it was pretty good, the first paper. I thought I did pretty well,” he said.

“Its a bit easier than the A-Levels. You do a lot more subjects. There are six instead of three, so you dont have to learn in quite as intensive detail.”

Alanna Hollings, originally from Australia, said she thought the exam was going to be much tougher. “The essay choices were interesting. I wrote a travel piece about going to Japan.”

Unlike most of her classmates rushing home to relax before English Paper 2 this afternoon, Alanna, who hopes to study photography, had to face a home economics exam just two hours later. “I did really well in the mocks. I hope all that information I crammed in my brain over the last few months can just come out,” she said.

Oisín Klinkenbergh said he was happy with the Paper 1 essay choices. “I wrote a talk about indispensable things in life . . . Food, friends and family.”

This was along similar lines to the school’s head girl Aisling Byrne, who hopes to study music at Trinity College Dublin. “I wrote a speech about things I find indispensable – so I wrote about my mum and compared her to objects and material things you think are essential.”

Aisling said the time constraints that come with English Paper 2 were something of a worry but that she intended to have a lie-in and “not stress out too much” before today’s round two – a strategy which Molloy said he fully agreed with. “The hard work has been done. Honest to God – just relax, eat, sleep and do very little else,” he remarked.