Character-Building: Ten Experiences That Sum Up The Leaving Cert

We've all been there, taken the Rescue Remedy and lost weeks of sleep worrying about our choice of poets. The Leaving Cert is a rite of passage for every Irish person, and it's the toughest exam any of us ever face. Here are ten experiences that sum up doing the big L.C. 1. “Léigh anois go cúramach, ar do scrúdpháipéar, na treoracha agus na ceisteanna a ghabhann le Cuid A.” BEEP. Irish is one of the world's most beautiful languages, but that sentence still has the power to have us breaking out in cold sweats. Heard by every Leaving Cert student for what seems like the last hundred years, it ain't going anywhere. It's a rite of passage. And in a strange sort of way, we've grown to love it. 2. Highlighters   By the time the exams come around, there isn't a sentence left un-highlighted in any Leaving Cert textbook. Everything is important. And we didn't listen to anyone who told us otherwise. 2. Buying every Less Stress More Success book Fondly known as Less Success More Stress, we couldn't get enough of these magical, magical books during our Leaving Cert. Again, we highlighted every page to the point that we were blinded when we opened it the night before each exam. 4. Having candles lit for you In the days and weeks during the run up to the Leaving Cert, there isn't a candle left unlit in Ireland. The last thing most of us read before we headed into the exam hall was the always reassuring 'Granny / Grandad has a candle lit' text from Mam or Dad. 5. Spending more time making study timetables than studying If there were CAO points going for beautifully-designed Leaving Cert study timetables, most of us would have walked away with a solid 600 points. Easily. 6. That one person who asks for extra paper in every exam How much do you really have to say about King Lear? Seriously? Go home. And just shut up. 7. Not being able to find the right page in the maths log book... And the fear that your calculator would stop working during Maths Paper 1. 8. The post mortems after every exam "What did you write for question two? Which three essays did you write?" "I only wrote two??" Despite being warned by everyone not to talk about the papers, we spent time going through every question with our classmates. You either floated away from these conversations on a cloud of confidence and reassurance, or sloped off with a pit of dread in your stomach. The risk was never worth it. But we always took it. 9. The night before English Paper 2 It's roasting outside, the rest of your family is sunning themselve and BBQing. You have nightmares that a female and Irish poet won't appear on the paper in the morning .The struggle has never been more real. 10. The person who leaves the exam way too early Worrying as it's a friend who's clearly having a bad day. But oddly comforting to know that someone's paper is going worse than yours. Don't forget the CAO change of mind deadline is Wednesday 1st July. The Waterford Institue of Technology is home to 70 CAO courses, 10,000 students, 60 clubs and societies, 500 employer links,  130m research funding, and a world of possibilities.