Source: esmellis/Twitter

THE JUNIOR CERT kicked off with English Paper 1 and Paper 2 yesterday.

All the usual suspects appeared on Paper 1 — reading comprehensions, functional writing, personal writing and the like — but this year, there was a twist.

There were loads of emojis.

The paper kicked off with an emoji-laden reading comprehension. Students were invited to read an article excerpted from New York Magazine about the evolution of emojis and answer a series of questions on the text like, “According to the above passage, what are the advantages of using emoji in private texts and emails?”

Source: amy

So far, so good.

But then they came up again.

In Section 2, students were given the option of composing an essay beginning with the line, “Finally the reply I’d been waiting for came through. I opened the text and saw that it contained no words — just a solitary emoji.” (Oh my God, which emoji, though?)

Source: amy

Needless to say, people could not cope one bit.

Some saw it as the end of days

Whoops! We couldn't find this Tweet

While others saw it as a cringeworthy attempt to be down with the kids

“What do kids like? Emojis? The Janoskians? Do kids still like The Janoskians?”

Whoops! We couldn't find this Tweet

And others just regarded it as a sign of the times

Question about emojis on the #juniorcert English paper 1, welcome to 2016 — megg (@_M_egg) June 8, 2016 Source: megg /Twitter

Was it for this, etc.

Padraig Pearse didn't die for the junior cert English paper to be about emojis 100yrs later — Aoife O'Grady (@aoifeogrady) June 8, 2016 Source: Aoife O'Grady /Twitter

And the Junior Cert students were having none of it

Whoops! We couldn't find this Tweet

Still, though. You wouldn’t say no to a few emojis in Irish or Maths, would you?

Whoops! We couldn't find this Tweet

Godspeed, everyone

DailyEdge is on Snapchat! Tap the button below to add!