Exam Diary: Day of truth, but weather was the biggest surprise

Beep, beep, beep. Morning Ireland, this is Wednesday, June 9. The headlines - 57,000 students will begin their Leaving Cert Exams today. D-day was here - or was it?

Opening the curtains, I was greeted by a surprise - rain. The Leaving Cert couldn't possibly be starting in this weather! It's meant to be sunny. It's meant to make us sixth years sit in an unbearable hall in stifling heat, but unusually for June and for the beginning of the exams, it's cold, miserable and depressing - like ourselves.

I headed into school for 8:45am - a lot later than my normal 8:00am start. I was greeted by students frantically revising their stylistic features - and one unlucky student who had forgotten his pencil case.

At 9.30am we got Paper 1 handed to us. THE FUTURE in big bold letters was staring back at us. What an apt title, I thought, but I couldn't wait to see what was waiting within.

Politics did come up, but in the wrong section for me. I rejected the visual text immediately as it wasn't 'visual' enough for my liking and was more like a novel than a picture question.

So I moved to Al Gore in Text 2 and had to rewrite his argument in my own words, say which of his many quotes made the biggest impact on me, and finally what styles in his writing made him a good speech-writer.

Next, I decided Sharon Ni Bheolain would be the person interviewing me in 50 years' time, and let's just say my choice of career was different but I explained my childhood experiences and influences well, I think!

Next up was the essay, and I only had to read Q1 and no others to decide which one I'd be doing. My essay about dramatic arts included my bumpy relationship with Shakespeare, my role as lead female (long story) in the TY musical and my involvement with my local drama society.

A quick text to my friend Claire, who was sitting Home Economics, returned that iron, savings, budgeting and fish came up. Family conflict also came up, with education and poverty in the elective not throwing up any surprises.

The short questions, however, left a few people scratching their heads, although overall it was a very user-friendly paper, apparently.

Now, English Paper 2. Being forever the patriot, I'm hoping Monaghan's own Kavanagh comes up, but I'm also looking at Yeats, Longley and Boland. My inbox has been clogged up with people asking about poetry questions and predictions so much so that Kavanagh, Boland and Yeats are now coming up in predictive text . . . oh dear!

Peadar Ó Lamhna is a student at St Macartan's College, Monaghan

Irish Independent