It was always going to be a day of high drama; six years of schooling summed up in seven or eight letters on a flimsy slip on paper.
For many, the exams and the long wait for results were the first real taste of adult pressure, and it showed on some fraught-looking faces arriving at Oatlands College in Stillorgan this morning.
Some tore open the envelopes on the steps of the main school building eager to end weeks of nervous anticipation.
Others retreated away from the general melee to secluded corners to mull over their results in private before phoning mum or dad with the news.
“I still can’t believe it. I’m genuinely shocked,” said Luciano Van Rheenen from Blackrock after achieving a whopping 590 points, joint best in the school.
Principal Keith Ryan said the students had put in an “exceptional” performance, bucking the national trend with strong results in maths and science.
One of the controversies in this year’s examinations was the higher-level maths paper 1 which many felt was the toughest and most challenging in years.
“At the time, it upset students and knocked many off their exam pattern but fortunately it doesn’t seem to have impacted the results,” Mr Ryan said.
At nearby Newpark Comprehensive School in Blackrock, there was a palpable sense of relief with many students saying they were simply glad to have the exams behind them.
Despite achieving the school’s top marks with 580 points, Sorcha O’Sullivan, from Dublin 8, said she was still unsure if she would make the grade to study medicine because of a poor showing in the HPAT exam for medicine.
Her fallback position was psychology and linguistics at Scotland’s prestigious Edinburgh University.
“I won’t be doing it again,” said a relieved Conor Jennings from Cabinteely, who achieved the required level of points to study sports science in the UK.
School principal Derek Lowry acknowledged it is an “emotional time” for students.
“One of the difficulties you have is that students can do extremely well in the exams and yet fall short of the points they require.”
“Most can’t separate doing well in the exams from what they want to do career-wise and that makes for an anxious few days.”
At Loreto Abbey in Dalkey, students had been arriving since 8.50am to put an end to weeks of anxious waiting.
Despite achieving 525 points, enough for her first choice of philosophy, economics and sociology at Trinity, Katie Murphy, from Dalkey, had clearly found it a struggle.
“It was probably the worst year of my life. It was really stressful. I hope I never have to do that again.”
School principal Robert Dunne said there was a broad range of academic ability in the school, and it was important to celebrate everybody’s achievements.
Addressing expectations, he said, was the key to managing what is undoubtedly a stressful time for students.
A clearly relieved Ita Linnane said her daughter Kate had been extremely stressed in the months leading up to the exams but in the end she had got what she wanted, achieving 490 points, enough for nursing at UCD.
“I could have pushed her into the sea for the trauma she’s put us through these last two years. Hallelujah, its over.”
