EXAM DIARY:NOW I may be flirting with disaster here, but as I woke up this morning in my baroque princess bed, I felt like I had 200 points tucked under my pillow.
Looking back on the Leaving Certs I have known, this week compared favourably. I was more relaxed, better prepared and even had time to worry about my appearance.
Yesterday I went for a beatnik Audrey Hepburn look, which made me feel just playful enough to invite myself out to lunch before geography. Tiffany's has yet to open a branch in Co Meath but Mum was kind enough to treat me to a full Irish in a posh cafe. I think it set me up perfectly for earthquakes and population densities.
Fortunately, I didn't have to waste a sunny morning solving quadratic equations because I kissed goodbye to Leaving Cert maths last year. This meant I had plenty of time last night to hike through the syllabus, which is rough terrain for a girl who likes to wear Louis Vuittons.
You could say that me and geography have a history (well, you'd be grammatically incorrect but English is done now so hold the red pen). Last year, I got into a sweat over a tropical rainforest and I think it cost me a grade. A grade is all it takes to put me back on the hamster wheel for another year - I was only a few points shy of my target last time. When you're dealing in such small numbers, every question counts.
But today, geography and I got on famously. I won't be kept out of medicine by an ecosystem this year. If I am, I'll just try again.
Some of my friends didn't get the points for medicine two years ago, but entered third level with the intention of going the postgraduate route. The thing is, if I get in this year, I'll still be qualified a year ahead of them.
It might seem crazy to do the Leaving three times, but when you're playing the long game, you have to think laterally. Maybe you can be too rich or too thin, but I don't believe you can be too educated.
I've been chatting to a friend of mine who made it into medicine, and the more I hear about it, the more determined I become to get my 590. Medical students have all the laughs. He gets to play Hide the Gall Bladder and engage in femur fights. If that's the future of medicine, count me in.
But really, it's not just the promise of grisly parlour games and bone fencing that keeps me coming back to the Leaving Cert. Essentially, I've spent 16 years in the school system and I want everything that's coming to Laura Brady. There are 600 points up for grabs and I didn't hang around teachers all these years to come away with anything less.
If I leave secondary education with a full bag of points, I can do whatever I want. Medicine seems like the trajectory for me, but if I don't like it after a year, I can take my maximum points elsewhere. I want to be able to slip a tip to the maître d'of third level and waltz to the best table in the CAO bistro.
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Laura Brady is a repeat student at the Institute of Education in Dublin
