Ten things you’ll only know if you sat the Junior Cert exams in Ireland

Remember that ‘pointless’ exam you did that took up half of your Summer and prevented you from going out to any of your friends for a whole month?

Oh the Junior Cert days; when the sun was splitting the stones and you were cramped up in your bedroom trying to drill a 'people in history' essay into your head, but really dreaming of the fun packed days ahead…

Here are 10 things you’ll on know if you sat the Junior Cert exams in Ireland

1. The dreaded “BEEEEEEP”

It come from the Irish aural exam followed by ‘Léigh anois go cúramach ar do scrúdpháipéar…’ which every student knew off by heart at this point!

13/09/06 Students after they received their Junior Cert Results from their school, Loretto College, Stephen's Green, Dublin (Collins Photo Agency)

2. Waiting for your Music exam

Being delighted that you finished your exams in one week, only to realise you have to wait another 10 days for the music exam, so all the studying for this is left for those ten days (or even the night before!!!).

09/09/2009 (L TO R) CUS students Matthew O' Driscoll from Sandymount, Matthew McCann from the Navan Road, Andrew Neary from Ranelagh, Niall Foster from Hollystown & Rob Du Preez from Swords celebrate their Junior Cert results at CUS Collegeon Leeson Street (Collins Photo Agency)

3. CSPE Exam

When you open the CSPE exam, don’t have a clue who the people in the picture questions are and realise the one subject that you depended on for an A result has gone out the door….

04/06/03 Junior Cert students at Loretto College on Stephen's Green Dublin. (Collins Photo AGency)

4. "Let’s just hope this doesn’t come up"

Going with the good old saying of - "let’s just hope this doesn’t come up" and the sigh of disappointment to yourself when it actually does.

15/09/04Junior Cert Students Ellen Sherry and Laura Hallinan pictured at Loretto College this afternoon in Dublin. (Collins Photo Agency)

5. Hand cramps

The agonising pain of hand cramps during the two and a half hour English exams.

Nonetheless, you have to deal with them because it is your goal to actually finish the exam!

Can you answer these GCSE-style questions? (Getty Images)

6. You didn't get the same answer as your friends

When all of your friends are discussing one of the answers they got in the maths exam and you just know your answer had almost ten numbers after the decimal point and contained ‘pie’ when all they got was ‘2’.

15/09/04 Junior Cert students pictured at Loretto College (Collins Photo Agency)

7. The balance sheet doesn't balance

Finally getting to the end of the long, challenging, overwhelming balance sheet only to find that it didn’t balance and you just sit there feeling depleted by this business paper.

High school students take the philosophy exam (Getty Images)

8. Overusing that one Shakespeare quote

That one quote from your studied Shakespeare play that you can recite perfectly, however this is the only one you know and completely over use it in your essay.

9. Plan your Junior Cert night

Making sure your Junior night is planned to a ‘T’ (location, outfit, supplies etc) - but forgetting to bring a calculator in for your maths exam!

It looks like it should be easy, but even a maths teacher says there is no solution (Getty)

10. You're never asked about the Junior Cert again

In the end, no matter how much your parents nag about the importance of doing well in your exams, after results day you are never asked about these unnecessary exams ever again!