Minister for Education Mary Hanafin said yesterday she would "certainly look at" moving the first English paper in the Leaving Certificate to an earlier date from next year.
Despite concern from school managers about the logistical difficulties involved, Ms Hanafin has previously said she would like to see the first papers in both Irish and English moved back from June to May.
However, speaking after meeting 100 of this year's Leaving Certificate students at her offices in Dublin yesterday, Ms Hanafin acknowledged that while most of those present had supported moving English paper one, there was less support for moving Irish paper one.
"They did indicate that they didn't see the same value in moving paper one Irish as they did in moving paper one English," she told reporters.
"I would give serious consideration, as they pointed out to me, to the paper one in English. They didn't seem to go with the paper one in Irish, but I think I would certainly look at the paper one in English for next year.
"I'm very anxious not to raise expectations for next year but I certainly would look towards it. I think the restructuring of exams in the first three days, I think that's possible at this stage."
The review of the Leaving Certificate timetable, which is an ongoing process, will also see attention paid to the mix of subjects scheduled for a particular day.
This is with a view to examining the possibility of pairing minority subjects with more popular subjects on a specific day.
In turn, this could help ease the stress on students by reducing the numbers who have to sit two "writing intensive" papers in a day.
However, Ms Hanafin appeared yesterday to rule out spreading the Leaving Cert exams over two years.
"I don't want a situation where students in fifth year are spending their time preparing for their Leaving Cert, and dropping all of those extracurricular activities, like they showed me that they did drop in sixth year," she said. "There's an awful lot about the Leaving Cert which is wonderful, but there's an awful lot about the stress, when you hear one girl saying I got through it but it was an endurance.
"The exam is not meant to be an endurance, it's meant to be a test of your skill - so why exhaust them completely before the first week?"
Yesterday's meeting with the "Class of 2007" heard a range of suggestions from participants as to how best to lessen the pressures faced by Leaving Cert students. Officials from the State Examinations Commission, which administers the exam, were also in attendance.
While there was some support from those present for the spreading out of exams over a longer period of time, others pointed out that this could serve to simply increase the stress on students by delaying the end of their exams.
It might also encourage them to "take their foot off the pedal", the meeting heard.
Ms Hanafin also heard differing views from those present regarding the benefits of holding aural exams at the same time as the oral exams, rather than after written papers in June as is currently the case.