Exam diary: Teacher's words of wisdom guide me through maths

After a morning spent practising complex numbers and integration, I surfaced around lunchtime to get the geography verdict. A quick chat with a few friends informed me that the biome reappeared (whatever that is), the Haitian earthquake appeared and the influence of climate popped up too. There was, I'm told, a good mix and choice of questions.

I arrived at the exam centre ready to take on the challenge that was higher level Maths Paper 1. My wise maths teacher's advice - 'always think, "attempt marks"' - would guide me through this exam, as no amount of preparation can ever prepare you for maths. I dealt with it okay, I guess.

I attempted everything. If I didn't know what I was doing I used the formulae book to write down something relevant but apart from that and a few little tricky bits in complex numbers and integration the paper in general was okay.

I was beginning to wonder if the shock exclusion of Eavan Boland from Thursday's English Paper 2 would transfer to other subjects like maths, with an exclusion of algebra or de Moivre's theorem, but alas, it wasn't to be. I was taken aback by both differentiation questions - they were relatively easy - but an obsessive compulsive disorder with product and quotient rules was evident.

If I were to be critical, it would be that Paper 1 contained a lot of trigonometry and in the integration question, knowledge of compound angle formulae (which usually appear only in Paper 2) was needed to gain vital marks.

I am, however, thankful that no mathematical application questions appeared - 'the real life situation questions' - as not only do they not reflect real life situations but confuse me about what I am actually meant to be doing. One does wonder if the influence of Project Maths helped remove some element of 'hardness' from Paper 1.

My motto throughout the exams is that I start on an A1 and it's up to me to keep it - and while I feel I have not kept my maths A1 I haven't failed either so I'll keep my head up!

I have always counted maths and applied maths as my seventh and eighth subjects so not to worry, and Paper 1 has always been my weakest maths paper. As my friend keeps telling me, a study showed that girls preferred Maths Paper 1 and boys, Maths Paper 2, so I guess I'll just have to wait until Monday to prove that one true!

I'm looking forward to Irish and French, which I need to secure my college place in either TCD or UCD for law and politics. First, a break for the evening, catching up on 'Waterloo Road' and then a weekend of trigonometry, vectors, probability, further probability and Gaeilge lies ahead, before an action-packed Monday.

- Peadar Lamhna is a student at St Macartan's College, Monaghan

Irish Independent