"That's not fair". It's the common call of the teenager when things don't go exactly the way they anticipated, and the cry has risen once more.
ut care must be taken we don't fall into the trap of 'the boy who cried wolf'. This time it's not about whether someone is spending too long on their phone, or has left their bedroom in a mess. It's about futures, and the shape those futures take has been entrusted to schools and widely documented teacher-assessed grades.
The Department of Education and examining body CCEA have stressed there will be no repeat of the algorithm nightmare that haunted last summer's results.
They insist robust plans are in place to ensure a level playing field. But what sits in place of the usual summer of exams is, according to students, a late spring of exams.
CCEA has provided past papers for schools to use as a way of assessing their pupils. Fair enough. They also issued guidelines to schools not to overuse these tests. Again, fair enough. But only as far as it goes.
Rules may be rules, but guidelines are just that, merely guidelines. What may seem an attempt to create a level playing field has instead created a field of humps and hollows, potholes and hills to climb. Trust is placed in each individual school to do the right thing by their pupils.
CCEA said there was "no pressure or requirement to complete any particular form of assessment".
"Teachers are being asked to use a range of evidence and their professional judgment to arrive at centre determined grades for their students, assessing them only on what they have been taught," it said.
"This evidence can be drawn from a range of sources as set out in the CCEA guidance. Schools have complete flexibility to use other evidence that they consider is most appropriate for their context.
"The Department of Education has also stressed there is no requirement for all pupils to take multiple assessments in every subject."
But in the background are the words of Education Minister Peter Weir, who has insisted all through Covid that he feels exams are always the best way of measuring achievement.
The feeling amongst many pupils is those words may have been taken too much to heart. Instead of the gradual return to the classroom, the mental adjustments needed and the assessing of what level pupils have reached during home learning have been replaced by the need to test.
Most vocal among them has been Cormac Savage (17), the president of the Secondary Students' Union. He said some pupils are more ready to sit them than others, some schools are more inclined to use the tests than others. It is every school for itself.
"There is an immense negative mental health impact on some pupils. Some are facing up to 30 assessment tests," he said.
"Students had been breaking their backs to achieve good grades while schools were closed, believing exams had been cancelled.
"This could have been avoided. Last year we were told exams would go ahead. Had a decision been made in November to cancel, there would have been plenty of time to do these assessments through the year.
"Some students even went straight into assessments on their first day back. Every school seems to be using different levels of examination. How can it be fair?"
According to Koulla Yiasouma, the Commissioner for Children and Young People, that is down to schools being given too much leeway.
"If we could turn back the clock, perhaps some form of compulsory guidance should have been in place rather than just guidelines," Ms Yiasouma said.
"Schools have been given too much freedom to decide for themselves how to approach the grading system and we're seeing a huge variation across schools on how they are approaching them with pupils.
"For some children to go back into school and face assessment on their first day, then face up to 30 tests under controlled conditions over the next few weeks, is madness when we're supposed to be easing anxieties, not increasing them.
"This is not how it was supposed to be and it's very distressing to watch."
The negative impact remains foremost in the thoughts of Mental Health Champion Professor Siobhan O'Neill.
"Schools should aim to minimise the use of tests in highly controlled 'exam-like' conditions," she said.
"Exams are stressful at the best of times and performance is affected by anxiety.
"The mental health effects in young people have been compounded by uncertainty about assessment processes and a sense of injustice and unfairness about the lack of a standardised approach across schools.
"I am concerned that the pandemic has already amplified mental health and social inequalities, and that again those young people who live in poverty will be worst affected, with mental health issues affecting their performance and the repeated use of testing in highly controlled conditions leading to poorer mental health."
More concern, then, that the attempt to level the grading playing field has fallen flat.
Given the situation, there has to be an element of trust placed in schools to put the interests of their pupils first.
But there also has to be a hope that the trust afforded isn't misplaced and another summer of exam grades chaos doesn't lie ahead, with too many pupils failed by the system rather than their own efforts.
