‘Steady as she goes’ with the exams
THE waiting was the worst part of the State exams and, a few days into the daunting trial, the students of Pobalscoil Chorca Dhuibhne, were well settled into the task in hand and motoring along nicely.
As always, English was one of the more nerve-racking prospects but the Leaving Cert students were happy with the papers and the poetry section in particular. Siobhán Ní Chinnéide said they had prepared for three of the four poets who came up so it was “easy enough”.
Sibéal Ní Dhuibh was happy with the English papers as well, saying that paper I offered a good selection of essay options and no unpleasant surprises turned up.
Ricky Ó Catháin reckoned that the tense leadin to the Leaving Cert was the hardest part of the whole affair and, with three days of exams under his belt on Friday, he was happy with how things had gone up to that point. However, he was critical of the whole structure of the Leaving Cert, which he considered to be over-rated, overhyped and a poor way of evaluating a student’s entire academic career.
PCD’s Junior Cert students were happy enough with their exams as well. Ríoghán Herkommer found the Irish exam much easier than English but he and some of his fellow students agreed that the aural Irish was tough going because they found the Galway accent difficult to understand. “It wasn’t a bit like the Irish we speak,” he said.
Gearóid Lyne and Seán Brosnan added that the Junior Cert was going well for them and, most of all, they were glad to have finally started the exams that had been hanging over them for so long.
PCD Príomh Oide Pádraig Firtéar was satisfied that “nothing too tricky” had come up in any of the exams. “The students are fairly well settled and they’re motoring away at the exams… We just encourage them along and try to keep a positive atmosphere,” he said.