The stress and anguish of many Leaving Cert students are evident from responses to a discussion forum on the exams.

The forum on the skoool.ie website - which has been developed by The Irish Times, Intel and AIB - has attracted scores of e-mails.

To date, 63 per cent have expressed their unhappiness with the exam this year and 37 per cent say they are satisfied to date. The following is a snapshot of opinions on the forum. Most contributors give only their first names or post anonymously:

"Maths [higher level paper] 2 was a disaster, I have lost my A solely because of it, an absolute disgrace. In comparison to 2001, it was pure evil . . . and I must say that this opinion is held generally by an almost unanimous majority of my peers. The exams were fair, tough, maybe a bit surprising; with the exception of maths 2 which was the pure manifestation of torture." - Dec.

"How the hell are we supposed to get A and B with the way maths is examined at both higher and ordinary level. It seems wrong to give a hard exam when they are complaining about the standard of maths . . . message to the Department: get your act together. Students are under enough pressure!" - Shaney.

"Oh My God!!! Does anyone else feel like this is all a bit unreal? I actually think that the exams have not been really bad so far, well - except for maths. Good news. We are through in the World Cup. Remember, summer sun, rain and late nights await us - and we're gonna have a fantastic summer!!!" - Anon.

"Who ever thought that history paper was easy has issues! It was much more challenging than last years . . . I have to figure out how to get a B2 in biology, so I better go, best of luck to all you lucky ducks out there and my sympathy goes to anyone out there who was insane enough to choose chemistry, a fleeting moment of madness on my part." - Foighn.

"This was my first half day so far and I'm wrecked. The French paper was grand - at least I think it was French although I couldn't be sure after the aural (it could have been Greek)." - Nathan.

"What's with the complaints? Every exam so far except maths 2 has been so nice! The history was a breeze - Lemass and the Tsars, two questions everyone hopes for were there and totally straightforward." - Anon.