I won’t exclude myself from the cramming and the stressing, but I will admit that the English Paper 1 exam, which marks the start of the Leaving Cert, was the last thing on my mind last Sunday as I stepped out on to Aughrim pitch with my beloved Wexford teammates as faced a determined Offaly squad in the Leinster Senior Camogie Final.

With agricultural science in UCD number one on my CAO list, the minimum amount of points I need in the leaving cert is 470 (that’s based on the 2015 cut-off point). Well I managed to notch up three points last Sunday as I played wing forward, so does that mean I need to focus on securing 467 points over the next three weeks? I’m afraid my two passions in life won’t complement each other in that regard. However, I believe they do in many other respects.

Great preparation went into winning the Leinster Senior Camogie title last Sunday and the successful outcome brought many delights to our panel. Likewise, great preparation has been put into the Leaving Cert D-day, tomorrow, 8 June. I won’t have a number on my back, but I will have a daunting exam number to memorise. Similarly, I won’t have the Wexford Jersey across my shoulders; I’ll be togged out in my school uniform. Despite this, the match did take place in Wicklow and it’s on Wicklow soil that I’ll be sweating it out tomorrow as I begin the completion of my exam timetable.

Hectic exam period

As I say farewell to fond memories of the Leinster final, I now await for tomorrow morning with a certain degree of nervousness, “threading, threading” across my brain, as one of my poets for paper two, Emily Dickinson, would say. I hope I’m as well marked throughout the next few weeks as I was on Sunday by Offaly’s half-back line. I wish to be on the ball with my answers through the course of the Leaving Cert as we were during the encounter. Finally, I dream of being as happy after each exam as I was when I heard the sound of the full-time whistle.

In terms of Camogie, the All-Ireland championship is next on the agenda, and in terms of the state exams, tomorrow marks the start of the hectic exam period.

I’d like to wish my opponents, I mean my fellow sixth year students, across the nation all the very best. May the wind, the questions, the test corrector, the referee, the umpires and the clock be ever in your favour. It’s our academic championship. Throw-in is at half nine tomorrow morning.

The first Leaving Cert Q&A starts tonight. Experts will answer your questions from 7pm to 8pm ahead of English Paper 1 and Home Economics tomorrow. Click here to register for free.

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