Patrick O'Briens Exam Diary: I spent most of Wednesday watching the highlights of the World Cup. Everyone kept telling me it was one of the great matches - indeed, one of the great moments in our national history! The general pandemonium on the streets, and all around, made it more difficult to trudge back up the stairs and think about yesterday's challenge.

Yesterday was a relatively relaxed day for me as I was taking ordinary-level papers in both maths (paper 1) and Irish (paper 1). There was a sense of solidarity among us all that we are stuck with the Leaving Cert at a time when the national pulse is racing. We are told there will be other World Cup years, but that is small consolation.

The maths paper was fairly tricky in comparison with other years. That was the general view. Some of the questions were quite unexpected. I have to admit I was thrown by one or two. I don't feel I had prepared for them. I was disappointed in some ways with my performance, but since I am no mathematical genius, I don't feel in the least traumatised. As I am not aspiring towards an A grade or whatever, I felt more relaxed. I felt under less time pressure yesterday than during Wednesday's English exam. I felt I could do the exam at my own pace.

After the hard slog of Leaving Cert higher-level English, it was comforting to be able to rest your hand - and your pen.

During the lunch break, I came home, supposedly to gather my thoughts. In fact, I spent much of it watching the France-Uruguay match on TV. It was good to be normal again - even if only for a short period!

At 1.30 - half-time in the match - I headed back into the exam hall to confront ordinary-level Irish. From reading the paper, I immediately realised it was a fairly straightforward exam. It presented few problems and there were no surprises. Indeed, the two hours 20 minutes allocated to this exam seemed more than a trifle generous - certainly compared to other papers. Many of our class even drifted away from the exam hall early. I left after two hours.

After that, I completed the aural test. In comparison to the written paper, this was very tricky. You listen to small snatches of conversation and you have to answer questions. One of them was actually about the World Cup - how some guy feared the Cameroon team and all of that. At least, it was interesting!

Overall, though, I felt this was all very tricky. If your concentration lapses for one minute it can really damage your prospects. To be honest, I did not feel I did that well. I felt I was casting around for a good deal of the answers. The truth is, I was probably bluffing.

In conclusion, this was another long day. Today, I am sitting the second Irish paper. This is more learning-based, so I spent last night catching up on all those wonderful Irish texts!

The one good thing is that I will be finished at 11.50. I can sit back, relax and watch England and Argentina. It will be great to be back in the real world .

I plan to take it easy for the weekend - at least today and tomorrow. It will be back to the books on Sunday in preparation for geography on Monday, French on Tuesday and business on Wednesday. I am doing higher-level papers in these subjects. My focus is even now on these exams. These are the ones which may decide whether I get the points I require. English has gone reasonably well. But the challenge is to pick up the points from my other three honours subjects. Right now, I cannot wait for the weekend to begin. This has already been a gruelling week.

Patrick O'Brien, a student at Stratford College, Rathgar, was in conversation with Sean Flynn.