Leaving Cert: Students count down to start of final exams
Michaela Ibrahim, Marcus Bryan, and Saoirse Walsh at Bishopstown Community School are among the students who chatted with Jess Casey about the Leaving Cert exams which begin on Wednesday. Picture: Larry Cummins
This week, it will be all hands on deck for thousands of students across the country as the State exams kick off on Wednesday.
For many, the Leaving Cert exams can be far from smooth sailing but Cobh student Warren Devlin is feeling calm, cool, and collected when he speaks to the .
A Leaving Cert student at Coláiste Muire in Cobh, Warren is hoping to study nautical science at Munster Technological University (MTU) come September at the college’s National Maritime College of Ireland in Ringaskiddy.
“The end goal is to become the captain of a ship, that’s the career path,” he says.
“You’d work your way up from second officer to first officer. You’d work your way up the ranks from there.”
Life at sea comes easy to him. “Since I was in a nappy I’ve been on the water. My real passion is fishing, I’m big into it. My dad and my granddad got me into it since I was young, it’s been a passion.”
“I have my own boat, and I’d be out on it every day I can. Unfortunately, as you’re blessed with all the great weather in the run up to the Leaving Cert, I really can’t be out in it much,” he laughs.
When it comes to the exams next week, he’s most confident about technical graphics and geography. “I’d be happy with them two. On the contrary, the ones I’d be the most stressed with now would be the likes of maths and physics.”
“The maths course is up the walls until the last day really and there’s so much to do. You are never going to understand everything but you just go in on the day and try your best, I suppose.”
Just up the road at St Aloysius’ College in Carrigtwohill, final study preparations are underway.
The sunny spell has been both a blessing and a curse for Leaving Cert student Emily O’Regan, also from Cobh.
“I try my best to get out,” she says. “I love walking with my flash cards, sometimes my friends will come with me as well so we bounce questions off each other.
“It does get pretty tempting though to stop the study and just get out in the nice weather sometimes,” she laughs.
A creative at heart, she hopes next year to study interior architecture at MTU. “I’m really hoping that I get it. It’s pretty much my dream course.”
When it comes to exams, she’s interested to see what the art exam brings. “It’s a new enough exam, and it’s only worth 30% so it’s a handy one to go into.”
“I enjoy maths but I just think it’s a massive course so it’ll be a hard one to do.”
To account for disruptions due to covid, adjustments have been made again to the Leaving Cert exam papers this year. Emily thinks these amendments have served students well.
“I feel that it’s a good thing they’ve also now been given to the fifth years. They are good amendments, they make the Leaving Cert a bit nicer, if you could say that.”
Angel Metro from Midleton also believes the amendments have worked in favour of students.
This includes a reduction in the number of ‘Sraith Pictiúr’ in Irish, from 20 to 10, as well as key changes to English paper 2.
“The comparative for example, we did literary genre and general vision and viewpoint. I was never able to wrap my head around literary genre so having the option was so helpful for me, and the poetry, you could narrow down what poets to focus on.”
Angel is hoping to study medicine next year at University College Cork (UCC), and chemistry and biology are her favourite subjects. She is most confident about chemistry.
“I feel a lot more prepared in that subject than others.
"Over the past couple of years we’ve been doing a lot of exam questions and familiarising ourselves with the paper.
"The trends that come up are easy to identify.”
Amy Bennis, Midleton, succinctly summarises how many students are feeling when asked about how the final few days of study are going: “Ah sure, it’s getting there.”
For English, her favourite subject, she hopes to see some “really nice” essay prompts as well as her favourite poets Derek Mahon and Elizabeth Bishop on the exam papers this week. “They are two poets that I really enjoy.”
“I love writing short stories and I’m passionate about writing in general so I hope there are some interesting prompts for the Question Bs and for the essays themselves.”
Her love of the subject has inspired her first choice of college course, a BA in English at UCC. She’s slightly more nervous when it comes to maths.
“Honestly, it's not my best subject and there are a lot of topics in it. I’m not really a mathsy person myself. I’m more into English and languages and maths is just a subject I find quite complicated.”
For Bishopstown Community School student Saoirse Walsh, however, maths is one of her best subjects.
“I’d be fairly confident about maths. I really like maths, and we have a great teacher, Mr Fitton. If we had a problem or there was anything you didn’t know, he’d help us out.”
After school, she’s hoping to study financial mathematics and actuarial science at UCC.
Her strategy for study has been simple but effective. “I like studying with my friends — we all go to the library together. I’d do two hours on, an hour off, and followed a designated timetable because otherwise I’d procrastinate.”
If she could change anything about the Leaving Cert, she’d add a lot more project work.
“I had project work for two of my subjects and it’s taken a lot of stress off the exam.”
Her fellow student Michaela Ibrahim, Wilton, also likes studying in the library with friends.
She’s nervous about maths, but more confident about the Biology exam. She also has Computer Science already under her belt — the exam was held in May.
“It went better than I expected, I was happy with it.” A native Greek speaker, Michaela will also sit the Leaving Cert exam in the non-curricular language.
She’s currently between two minds on what she’d like to study in college, either something science-related such as pharmaceutical biotechnology in MTU, or psychology.
Overall, she’s very happy with her experience of the senior cycle. “I made great memories, great friends and my teachers were supportive all throughout it.”
Also at Bishopstown Community School is Marcus Bryan, who was brushing up on engineering when he spoke to the .
“I’m confident enough about engineering and maths, and French as well.” Marcus hopes to study mechanical engineering at MTU next year.
He’s not as confident in Chemistry and Irish. “They are a good bit behind my other subjects.” If he could change one thing about the Leaving Cert, he’d shorten the curriculum in some subjects.
“I definitely think some things need to be taken off the Chemistry and Physics curriculum.
“We’re cramming a lot of stuff at the very end of the year, it feels a bit rushed compared to the start of the curriculum. Other than that, I’m pretty satisfied with it. I have good teachers.”
• Leaving Cert and Junior Cert exams begin on Wednesday, with English as the first subject to be examined for both.
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