Smiles all round as Gorey students get busy writing
THE ‘weather exam’ did not live up to its expectation as dull clouds rolled in when 4,140 Wexford students entered school examination halls last Wednesday for their first day with English Paper One.
The nerves seemed to have settled for many students who left the halls relaxed and happy after English went very smoothly, with options that suited everyone’s needs.
For the first time, new school Creagh College, Gorey will have their very first lot of sixth years complete their Leaving Cert Friday, June 23.
Student Jordan Curran, who would like to do beauty therapy after school, didn’t face any problems when she first opened her exam Wednesday.
‘ The options we had for the composing section were very good, I was able to apply some of my life experiences to create and write a story,’ said Jordan.
Rachel Hempenstall, along with many other of her peers, did not have great sleep the previous night as she was worrying about what was waiting for her the next morning when she opened that paper.
‘I don’t know why I was nervous, I didn’t have any problems at all. Everything went great for me,’ said Rachel, who will attend Kildalton College to study horse riding.
Nerves were absent for Creagh College student Nod Dunne as he found paper one to be easy but is not looking forward to paper two of English.
Nod was very happy with how he did in his exam and he hopes to get enough points to go to Waterford Institute of Technology to do Visual Communication in Graphics.
Many students, including Brendan Barnes made use of their time and stayed until it was time to go, in case they wanted to add anything extra into their pieces.
‘I was very happy with the exam, it went better than the mocks. I stayed until the end and kept reading over it all. I hope the rest of the exams go like this for me as I really want to do computer forensics and cyber security,’ said Brendan.
Over in Gorey Community School the feeling about the first day was the same as those in Creagh College, nerves were a lot better when they got day one done and over with.
Even though Probhalcar Rawat forgot a question, which was only worth a small percentage, he was still very pleased with his English paper and did not come across any problems.
Lily Heinrich-Doyle was delighted that they were given two questions this year in the composing section to write a speech.
‘Never has there been two questions relating to a speech, it is normally just one so I was very happy with that,’ said Lily, who wishes to study drama.
Meanwhile, student Megan Lawlor was certainly feeling sore after writing 13 pages in her exam but found it went very well for her.
‘I think I did OK, it was simple enough. The essay style question in the composing section was definitely a lot easier than the time of our mocks,’ said Megan.
The class of 2017 have been answering long questions, writing reams and enduring the pain of hand cramps daily since the start of the Leaving Certificate with English, Irish, Home Economics, Maths and Geography.
Students will finish June 23 after exams such as Biology, French, German, Business, Physics and much more, with results released Wednesday, August 16.