Leaving Certificate students were “getting sick in the bathrooms” after this year’s “horrendous” maths paper one exam, parents told the Minister for Education, Hildegarde Naughton.The Irish Times obtained a sample of dozens of emails received by the Minister from students and parents regarding this year’s Leaving Cert exams.The vast majority of the emails obtained under the Freedom of Information Act were complaints about the higher-level maths paper one, after which one parent said their daughter was “traumatised”.They told the Minister they had to “seek advice from a pharmacist at the weekend to calm her”.Another person, who included Taoiseach Micheál Martin in their correspondence, sought the “names” of those who prepared the maths questions, alongside their qualifications, professional background and teaching experience.“The person who set this paper needs to be questioned,” wrote another parent.The identities of those involved in State exam preparation are protected under the Education Act 1998.One of this year’s candidates remarked how the exam was an “unprecedented shock”, arguing it was “far more difficult than any past paper”.Some criticised the “complex” wording used in questions, with one saying they were being used as “experimental subjects for a new Leaving Cert approach”.That pupil said they devoted “countless hours” to studying maths, but feared they “did not even achieve 10 per cent in this paper”.[ Leaving Cert maths, paper one: A song and dance about a bum noteOpens in new window ]A spokesperson for the State Exams Commission (SEC) said this year’s maths exams were “of the same format, structure and style” as previous papers and “fully in line with the subject specification”.Those involved in preparing the exams are “experts in the subject” and experienced teachers, they said, adding that the papers were reviewed by subject experts to assess their suitability, including the level of demand on candidates and clarity of language.Another student, who said they would normally achieve a H1 or H2 in the subject, described it as “horrendous”, saying they left feeling “extremely distressed”.“During the exam, I became so overwhelmed that I spent a significant portion of the time in tears,” they said, adding: “I looked around and over half the girls in the exam halls were the exact same.”Several sought a deferred sitting of the exam or a recalibration of marking, while parents sought reassurance their children would not fail.One parent said their daughter’s classmates were “breaking down crying and getting sick in the bathrooms as the paper was impossible”.“These are the reasons people leave Ireland to study abroad and never come back,” wrote another student, who said they were “truly disgusted” by the paper.The student said they and their classmates applied for Post-Leaving Certificate courses after the exam “as the chances of getting into college after such a paper have now dropped for many of us”.Passing the subject is an essential requirement for most third-level courses.Another sought an apology to all students “wrongfully expected to complete this test”. One parent wrote that their daughter was “genuinely excited to sit this exam”.“When I collected her after the exam, I was met not by the confident and enthusiastic young woman who had walked into the exam hall that morning, but by a devastated child in tears.”The SEC said all correspondence received is brought to the attention of the chief examiner and is “considered in the refinement of the draft marking scheme”.“The approach taken by the SEC to the development of the final marking schemes ensures consistency in the marking and fairness to candidates,” the spokesperson said.