EXAM DIARY:ECONOMIC COLLAPSE hasn't done much for the national mood, but yesterday the recession was good for something. It popped up on the Irish paper and gave us all something to write about. It was a bright spot on an otherwise dreary Monday – my weekend was a vexed affair that left me wretched heading into maths 2.
Last-minute studying can be the worst or the best. It either consists of me clutching the edge of the dining room table for dear life, crying into my business book wishing that it was all a dream, or, of me taking in more information in 20 minutes than I ever did in a month of school.
I got whiplash as I went from learning aiste phrases for the ‘culu eacnamaíochta’ to remembering EU policy I had forgotten to learn and then back to trying to figure out where to put the urú. But worst of all were the long expanses of time during which I roamed from the kettle to the computer to the TV and back again, somehow finding myself without the willpower to study right in the middle of my Leaving Cert. It was a strange phenomenon; although Facebook confirmed that I was not alone.
And then came Monday morning. Round two of the Projects Maths fistfight that had ended with me cowering on the ground on Friday evening, begging for it to stop. I wasn’t left cowering yesterday; there were points at which I even felt hopeful about my grade – until I remembered the struggles encountered on paper one. A hurried lunch break followed the paper, people formed groups to learn essay phrases – most popular ones included the recession, the state of the country and young people. And so it began again, we shuffled back into the hallway, slouched into our seats.
I looked immediately at the ‘aiste’ phrases. Oh dear. Skip. Down to the ‘alt’. Pass. Then to the ‘díospóireacht’. There is was – it’s hard to be hopeful about the future of the country – the RECESSION.
The learnt-off phrases, the seanfhocails – they would all be used, albeit with slightly less accuracy given the nerves and the absence of reference material, but it was what we’d all been hoping for. It was a long day. Today will be even longer. There are more exams to come, more study to be done. It’s all becoming quite intense and my resources to deal with it are dwindling. For some of my friends the end is in sight but I have over a week to go. Right now, it’s looking like the longest week of my life.
Carin Hunt is a student at Wesley College, Dublin
