I was thinking about trying to write something really inspirational, something you will remember. But quite frankly, who's got the time? So I guess we'll both have to settle for a short, hopefully amusing rant.
At the start of September, when we were all bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, enthusiastic and oblivious to the struggles ahead, the teachers spoke of these Christmas Exams which are now upon us. At the time we laughed, naively thinking "pfft, how hard can they be?" and "how much can we really cover between now and December?!" LOTS.
I feel like I've done more work in the first three and a half months of fifth year than I had for the entire Junior Cycle. We seem to move onto a new chapter every day in most subjects. Ms. Donohoe once told us we were spending too much time on logs and that we couldn't get "bogged down". Me to the girl sitting beside me, " we literally started this chapter yesterday".
The teachers are always telling us to calm down, that we're such a high strung and anxious year. But it's no wonder we're all so stressed with the way they're piling on the work. I don't know how I'm keeping up and if I'm honest, I'd say I'm one of the few who actually studies.
Last week, my little sister had her 1st Year, German Christmas Test. She was running around the house like a ball of stress, freaking out over this. She had been studying for what felt like weeeeks. Anyone would have thought it was her Leaving Cert. I was upstairs studying German myself and I could hear my dad (who hasn't a word of German) trying to help her and my God it was painful. So, being the good sister I am, I sacrificed my own learning to go down and give a hand.
"I'm never going to be able to learn it all! You have to help me!"
"Okay, relax. What's the test on?!"
"Sooo many topics, you won't even believe it!"
At this stage I was intrigued. They had been doing German for all of five minutes. It couldn't be that bad.
"Colours, days of the week, months, animals! So many topics!!!"
Words. It was a test on WORDS. Vocab. She was stressed over a spelling test. If she's stressed now, God help her when she gets to fifth year. Although I wonder where she gets it from?
A.L.