It was kind of nice to have the variety of maths and Irish. The English all day on Wednesday was very tiring. But with two subjects, it really wakes you up at lunchtime when you know you have to do something completely different in the afternoon.
The brain is better able to cope with maths in the morning, which is why we had paper 1 yesterday morning and then paper 2 next Monday morning. At least I hope there's some kind of scientific reasoning behind it.
Maths is especially important to me, because I'm hoping to get into the undenominated engineering course at NUI Galway. That course doesn't actually require a B in maths, but the points for it are really high - 480 last year - and I'll really need a B in maths for points alone.
And then if I don't get into Galway I'll actually need the B to get into any other college, so I need to do well to keep my back covered.
The maths paper 1 was quite nice - though of course there were some bits where we were sitting there saying "uh, what's that?" We're hoping paper 2 on Monday won't be horribly bad. Usually if you have a nice paper 1 you can expect a bummer of a paper 2.
On the Irish paper the theme of "Irishness" - "Eireannachas" - came up again, just like on the English paper, which really annoyed some of us. We all know we're Irish and it's an important part of us, but we're also moving in other directions now. If I were sitting that English paper, which was entirely about Irishness, and I had only been in the country for three years, say, I'd certainly be looking for some leeway.
The Irish paper also had a comprehension about a Slovakian athlete - that was a bit unexpected! That paper overall wasn't impossible, but it was challenging.
The first week is always the hardest. Today is my first half-day, which is kind of nice. In fifth year I nearly decided to do history, but now I'm so glad I didn't. My friend has history this afternoon, and my heart goes out to her. My handwriting is not the best, and you have to do so many essays in the history exam - at the end of three days of exams I don't know if I would have been able for it.
But the Irish paper 2, which we have this morning, is such a broad paper, with such an amount of stuff to learn for it, that there's no way we can relax. With the new format you can be asked anything - you can't cut any corners.
So it was another early night last night. I was going to go for a walk in the evening, but we had torrential hailstones here earlier, and I didn't want to risk getting pounded into the ground.