Obligatory question and one on smoking ban prove tough

MORE than 32,000 Leaving Certificate students faced into their French written and listening exams yesterday morning.

Jamie Grace did the higher-level French at Carrigaline Community School. Ahead of the aural exam, which proved tricky for many students, she had just finished the written paper within the time allowed.

“The comprehension pieces were hard, one of them was about the smoking ban. The letters and the email were okay but the obligatory question was also tough,” said Jamie.

She is looking forward to a break after today’s biology exam, as she wants to do well in chemistry next Tuesday. “I hope to study biochemistry in UCC and I find chemistry absolutely impossible. It’s not a requirement to get into the course but I want to do well in it for myself,” she said.

The exam stress will not be over for Jamie after chemistry, however, as she has music as her final subject next Thursday.

Another music student, Julianne Walsh is hoping to use her Leaving Certificate to get into a music production course in the autumn.

The aspiring musician sat the ordinary level French exam yesterday morning.

“It was a fair paper but some of the comprehension questions that we had to answer in French were hard,” she said.

Her friend Alan Murphy agreed the comprehension pieces were hard, especially one about French cinema.

“It was hard enough to get through but we had a lot of vocabulary prepared for the letter and other questions,” he said.

Alan hopes to do an art course in college and he has been happy with the exams, though he felt the English papers were dull.

After this afternoon’s biology, he only has one subject left, but he said he would wait until after art on Monday to celebrate.