TO THE BOARD OF EDUCATION
Theres really just 3 simple words for them and thats I HATE THEM! The leaving cert is just like the Hunger Games, either you don't stick to the structure of things and you lose, or else you win, but still end up being absolutely drained beyond belief from the months of stress, unnecessary cramming of useless information and panic that goes along with it. School is the most degrading, creativity destroying and confidence shattering experience of anybody's life. Like can i just ask when is anybody ever going to need to be able to write a poetry essay in less than an hour outside an exam situation? I mean if you want a well thought out, reasonable, well written answer then give a few hours and lots of tea. Giving forty minutes in an exam you'd probably be lucky to get 'Sylvia Plath was sad.' and that would be the people that are actually good at english. Forty minutes is not a adequate amount of time for anybody to give you an intelligent, well rounded answer. It's not realistic and in no way does it or will it reflect on anybody's skill at the language. This will just be a short thank you for making me learn a 42 chapter biology course, preparing for an irish exam with the lack of capable irish teachers in the country, for giving us an entire paper on project maths 2 years after we were introduced to it and trust me IT IS NOT EASIER!
Then i come to colleges, hello universities that you think you will never be in. You go to an open day and you ask how many points you need to come here and there like oh well just 825370! but those points are easily achievable if you just put your head down and study hard and never miss a day of school but then they hold the god damn open days on school days which doesn't make any sense? but then again I shouldn't complain about that because I'm pretty sure 17 and 18 year olds will not go to college open days on a Saturday!
The teachers
I won't go bad mouthing them all because well i liked most of them most of the time but to be honest there the reason school life is so hard. Its a friday and they always say 'have a good weekend' but yet they give you so much homework you won't be able to leave your house. Monday comes and there like 'why do you look so tired? Out partying i suppose?' or you get ' Your're rushing your homework, take your time! Lay it out specifically like this, and i want it neater!' but yet they give you two comprehensions, a two page long list of words to translate and make sure you know every single one of them for a test tomorrow and no they do not care you have like 6 other subjects as well. I don't understand why you would give us homework on something we never did. In maths i had the worst teacher anybody could have and she would give us questions for homework that 'we done in class' and i would get home sit down and I'm doing them and thinking to myself wow I'm actually good at this and BOOM i get to question 4 and its completely different then what we've done? like no I'm not Einstein i don't know how to figure it out from just knowing something that i got thought and it took me 10 different explanations and examples to actually understand the first part and there's 12 other parts to it. I always wonder if teachers actually ever realise that some of the students sitting in their class have serious mental illnesses and are collapsing under the pressure they put on them. Or they wonder the real reason most of them didn't do their homework was because they were looking at it crying because they didn't even know how to 'TRY' it. What annoyed me the most in school about teachers was when they wouldn't let you go to the bathroom because 'too many people went already' , we all know its because your disturbing the rest of the class blah blah blah but seriously none of those people were me and our bladders aren't connected so just because they peed already does not mean i don't have to pee?
6th year and the leaving cert
Moving on, to the future 6th years: at the start of 6th year you will say I'm studying 4 poets thoroughly because you don't want to be stuck in the exam but you will really do one and hope for the best. The leaving cert isn't even as bad as the teachers make it out to be honestly they say its this big thing but you walk in on that day and its literally feels like a summer exam. There is a few good things about the leaving cert. You can blame absolutely everything on it and its never questioned like gaining a billion pounds and stopped caring about your life and no longer having hygiene standards(it does happen by the way). You could be morphing into a fungus but its ok because your doing your leaving cert. Also when your asked to do chores its a perfect excuse.. 'will you put these clothes away,empty this dish washer' 'sorry mom can't have to study leaving cert ye know' and its fine. Or your parents ask you what your doing up in your room and you say homework some study and then they tell you how wrecked you look and your like ye I'm tired but i really have to go back up and finish it and you slowly go back upstairs to your room where you've been sitting in bed on the internet since you got home and your school bag is lying beside you just to be careful she doesn't come in and theres no books out. You will become a major procrastinator.. like the best in the world. Most people deserve a medal for it including me! You engage in a whole bunch of distraction tactics including shopping online or cleaning your wardrobe (anything to get out of studying). You will contemplate the unfairness of it all and being very stressed without actually doing anything about it. Sure my excuse was theres no point studying when I'm stressed it won't go in. You will hate mondays so much you'll purposely search quotes about them and You will have fatigue lots of it. You will be sick of reading irish by the end of the year & then you eventually realise that the leaving cert is far too hyped up by the media, teachers and Irish society in general! You will probably write cannibalism instead of catabolism in biology and you will more than likely say orgasm instead of organism. You won't be sure if your calm because you studied enough or because you actually eventually gave up. You will get them days where you want to study but you are too tired to focus or concentrate and are on the verge of a melt down because you really know nothing for your exams. You will panic in class when everybody knows the answer to the questions except you. You will probably feel like vomiting whenever you think about your leaving cert( i bet you do now). There will be people who say ' oh, I'm so unprepared, I've barely studied!' But realistically, they've probably done more than you have, not for lack of trying though. You will study, and then realise how cripplingly unprepared you are and you'll panic and can't concentrate and it's and endless cycle. Also even if they are not studying there probably 10 times more smarter than you so they can easily afford to wing it(something i unfortunately never learned how to do). You will get told that the leaving cert is one big national competition of who has the best 'read and regurgitate' skills. But i personally hate the system and you will too. You will feel worthless and insignificant, Your future will feel utterly bleak.
But honestly everything will be ok, theres always other options. If you want to do really well start studying as soon as possible but remember to take breaks. Whatever you end up getting in August is meant to be. The leaving cert system is not for everyone so don't panic last minute if you feel like you haven't done enough, you can only do your best. Its your life and your future if you want something that much you'll work for it. It is tough but it goes so quickly you don't even realise. The most saying you'll ever hear is 'ill light a candle for you' and there will be a stage where you actually ask someone to pray for you more than once!. It always annoyed me when grown ups would say how hard the leaving cert is or how it was overhyped. Basically there was nothing they could of said to please me because yeah , it was both of them things but when you're smack dab in the middle of it thats not necessarily doing you any good.
Im going to finish of by saying BEST OF LUCK to next years 6th years and anybody doing the leaving cert in the future. I feel for you's and GOODLUCK to all my mercy girls getting our results on wednesday. I hope you all get what you want. Sending virtual hugs and lots of them! *hugs*
xoxo
CJ