Exam Diary/Darren Hogan Collinstown Park Community College, Clondalkin Still no stress as the clock ticks relentlessly onward towards the weekend. The examiners have been scrupulously fair so far. I have no complaints.
Yesterday's ordinary maths paper was a dream come true for me - I even enjoyed it. Some of my friends were not so happy, but maths has always been a good one for me.
I don't bring any lucky charms into the exams with me but I always have a bottle of water and I forgot it for the morning exam. I hope that doesn't bring bad luck - you get very superstitious at a time like this.
In between exams I finally ate something (I still haven't got the whole breakfast thing organised) and attempted not to inflict an exam post-mortem on myself.
My friends and I are surprisingly good at walking away from the exams without looking back - it's better for our mental health.
We've kept the conversation light - football, summer plans and the Real World, i.e. that elusive life beyond the Leaving. Irish in the afternoon was an mhaith ar fad.
It wasn't that hard, and all the choices I got were very open for the essays. Both the comprehensions were easy to read.
There was one about Gay Byrne and one about Croke Park. I recognised Gay Byrne from Who Wants To Be A Millionaire, but only just.
I chose the essay about being passed a strange item in a night-club and being questioned by the police. Needless to say I went with a story about drugs - it was the obvious choice.
I finished up by throwing the drugs into a field on my way home and breathing a sigh of relief as I watched a documentary on the dangers of drug abuse on the telly at home with the folks.
I avoided the TV on Wednesday night and went instead to my friend's house for a bit of exam-free conversation.
Today's Irish paper II shouldn't be too bad, but I am looking forward to the weekend.
As the weekend is in the middle of the Leaving Cert it will probably be the least relaxing two days of my life, but at least the end is in sight.
And what's the sense in getting stressed? It only makes things harder.
I'll probably have nightmares about the dreaded accounting, though. Someone today told me that Leaving Cert accounting is more difficult than first-year accounting at college.
That's the kind of exam chit-chat I can do without.
