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Irish Times
a day ago
- Health
- Irish Times
Leaving Cert: last-minute subject-by-subject exam tips
The pressure is on – but it's not too late to make a real impact. These final days are all about smart, focused revision rather than cramming. Whether brushing up on key concepts or calming exam nerves, a few strategic moves now can boost your confidence. Here are some last-minute study tips from the experts to help you stay sharp and steady for exam day: English Tips from Conor Murphy, an English teacher at Skibbereen Community College Paper one: READ MORE Familiarise yourself with the exam paper and be conscious of the fact it was designed to lead you into the essay question. The comprehension question, A, reminds you of the various genres as well as genre techniques. B reminds you of the need for structure and purpose. Remember these elements when you attempt the final essay. Revise techniques rather than specific genres. There are so many different genres that can be assessed in B, and in the essay, trying to study each one will become overwhelming. Think about the techniques as moving from aesthetic to persuasive, stopping off at narrative and informative on the way. So, you are looking at things like using an appropriate hook, the power of the adjective, the use of aesthetic language, the various rhetorical techniques available. Then look at the question and, with the audience and medium in mind, plan with reference to these techniques. [ Classroom to College: essential Leaving Cert newsletter for parents, guardians and students ] Paper two: Ignore poet predictions. The poetry question is worth 50 marks, the main text (usually Shakespeare) is 60 marks and the comparative 70. Keep this in mind when you study. Narrow down the quotes you are learning off. Instead of having hundreds for the main text, look for a quote that will work for numerous elements. Look at a quote like the famous 'give me an egg, and I'll give thee two crowns'. How many elements can this be used for? The Fool, Lear, Goneril, Regan, Kingship, fertility, the concept of nothingness and a few other topics. This is why the quote is so often (over) used. Use this exercise as a way of revising Lear. Similarly for the comparative , narrow down the scenes you are studying to scenes that can be used when talking about at least two of the comparative modes. Obviously these will include the opening and closing of the text. When you have these narrowed down, zoom in on specific elements (dialogue, images, stage directions). These are your specific pieces of evidence needed to illustrate your essays. In general, test yourself on the various aspects of the course. Pick a topic and write down what you know, under headings, on a blank sheet of paper with all your notes out of sight. For instance: pick a poet, write down the name of all their poems, then the themes, then the recurring language techniques, then quotes. This will tell you what you know and what you need to go over. Students from St Michael's College, Listowel, Co Kerry with their Leaving Cert exam results last year. Photograph: Domnick Walsh Maths Tips from Eoghan O'Leary, maths teacher at Hamilton High School, Co Cork and head of maths at The Tuition Centre General guidance At this stage, I recommend focusing your revision on individual topics rather than attempting full papers. Concentrate on the topics you're most likely to choose in the exam. Avoid learning new topics you haven't already covered in class – it's time now to revise and refine, not to start from scratch. Revisit the formulae and tables book , and practice using your calculator, especially for operations that involve multiple steps. Also, write out a list of the formulae not included in the tables book and display them somewhere visible so they stay fresh in your mind. When the exam starts, my advice is to find a section A question you like and do it. It will settle your nerves. It could be counterproductive to read the entire paper at the start of the exam, because there is some much information. – Paper one: Functions, differentiation, and integration are unavoidable. They appear across both Section A and Section B, so they should be a big focus during your final days of preparation. Algebra often appears as a full Section A question and is also embedded in many other questions. Ensure you're confident with all the key elements. Sequences & series hasn't appeared in a majobig in recent years—it – ould be due this time. Also, be prepared for a long question involving logarithms and indices , which is quite common. Complex numbers reliably show up in Section A, but not in Section B. Students often ask if they should revise topics like induction, formal proofs, algebraic inequalities, and financial maths that don't appear every year. The answer depends on your target grade: If you're aiming for a H1 , it's worth covering everything to maximise choice. If your goal is a H6 , your time is better spent mastering the more likely and manageable topics, rather than struggling with abstract material. One commonly overlooked topic is area and volume , which can appear with algebra, differentiation, or integration. Even if it doesn't feature prominently in paper one , it's highly likely to come up in paper two. -Paper two Paper two is typically more predictable than paper one. Section A usually includes one question each on: statistics, probability, the line, the circle, trigonometry, and geometry . Section B often features: Two questions combining statistics and probability Two questions involving trigonometry, geometry, and area & volume Students often struggle to revise for Paper 2 because they find several topics difficult – especially probability and geometry . My advice: focus on the core skills in each topic, as these often appear in combination with others. Should you learn the geometry theorems, constructions, and trigonometric identity proofs ? If you're aiming for a H1, yes. But if you haven't already learned them in school, it could be counterproductive to do so now. Focus instead on the questions you're more likely to attempt in the exam. In the exam: Make sure your calculator is in the correct mode (degrees or radians as appropriate). Double-check your answers for correct units and appropriate rounding (decimal places or significant figures). Remember: A score of 539/600 = 89.83%, which equates to a H2. You need to score 540/600 to earn a H1. You don't want to lose a grade over a rounding error. Fle photograph: Eric Luke / The Irish Times Irish Tips from Séadhan de Poire, Irish teacher with Dublin Academy of Education Top tips for the run-in to exams? 'For higher level Irish, start to simplify material to make sure it actually makes sense. I've corrected the State exams, and I've seen a lot of students try to learn material that's too difficult for them. They then try to reproduce this material in exam settings and because they don't understand what they're writing, there's loads of mistakes in it and it ends up making no sense. 'What I tell a lot of my students is to focus on having simpler Irish that they understand and that they can use instead of trying to learn things off by heart. Especially for Irish paper one, for the essay.' Hot predictions? 'For Irish paper one, it's all based off current affairs so there's no magical list of topics. You kind of have to be following what's in the news in and around November, December and January time. That's typically when the paper's set. 'Based off that, the topics that I'm looking at with my own classes this year would be politics, because of the elections that took place here and abroad, the education system, the Irish language, the housing crisis and a little bit on technology. A tip I'd give students is you can overlap a lot of material between those different topics. 'For example, if you're talking about politics and problems – well, housing is a political issue. You don't have to learn five brand new essays. You learn a couple of paragraphs that suit different titles and then you try to fill in the gaps afterwards.' File photograph: Eric Luke French Tips from Elizabeth Lyne, director of The French Leaving Cert paper is 2.5 hours, encompassing the reading and writing tasks. There is then a short 10 minute break, after which students complete the aural or listening section of the exam. For the reading comprehension , students have to read two texts and answer questions based on those texts. The first text is usually journalistic in style and tends to address current issues. The second text is usually an extract from literature, and is more challenging. My top tip is to start with question six as this is asked in English and may give an indication as to the subject matter. Read each section carefully, underlining key parts of the questions, so that you know exactly what you are being asked. For the written section, my top tip is to keep your French clear and simple . Make sure that your opinion questions have an opening, main point/counter or supporting point/personal point and conclusion. Finally, while it is impossible to predict what will appear on the paper, I suggest focusing on climate, refugees, artificial lintelligence, school uniform, study of foreign languages, science as a 'male' subject, circular economy, screen dependency, disposable vapes, over-tourism and emigration Students at Rathdown checking their Leaving Cert results. Photograph: Jason Clarke Photography. Spanish Advice from Katie Lenehan, French and Spanish teacher with Dublin Academy of Education Top tips for the run-in to the exams? 'The biggest piece of advice I would give is to recognise the importance of your reading comprehensions . They're worth 30 per cent of the final grade. They're worth even more than the oral exam is and potentially it's something that students forget about because they have so many other things on. 'For the listening papers, I'd also try to sit a full listening paper each week ... They're quite practical elements that you can do. For the written paper, I'd recommend making sure you have a solid introduction and conclusion learned off for your opinion piece. And have 15 to 20 pieces of vocab for each topic that you're planning on covering for the exam, so it nearly becomes a game of jigsaw.' Hot predictions? Though she prefers to steer clear of the term predictions, Lenehan encourages her Spanish students to focus on papers from 2008-2014, which may crop up again this June. She lists a range of topics to cover – emigration, social media, AI, money, changes in Ireland and the environment. Common mistakes to avoid? She says she had 'crippling' OCD during sixth year and learned the hard way how important it is to look after yourself. 'Absolutely, study has to be a priority, but it doesn't have to be the only priority. [Students] need things like friendship , fresh air, good food. They need to sleep. Try to surround yourself with people that have a similar work ethic, or that have the same target grade as you, and try to encourage each other.' Students discussing their exams at Trinity Comprehensive School, Ballymun, Dublin. Photograph: Dara Mac Dónaill Biology and chemistry Advice by Caoimhe Ní Mhuirceartaigh, biology and chemistry teacher Top tips for the run-in to the exams? 'The marking scheme for both biology and chemistry papers can be quite word-specific. You need to ensure when you're answering a question that it's not waffle and you're hitting the short, concise points. 'For biology especially, you need to know unit one and unit two really well. You can maximise your marks by focusing on the areas that are very repetitive. Knowing the non-negotiable topics that come up every year and are worth a large portion. In biology, the two most important topics would be genetics and ecology.' Hot predictions? Both subjects, Ní Mhuirceartaigh says, have quite obvious trends. Topics she thinks may appear in the short questions section of the biology paper include food, ecology, genetics and enzymes. For questions on systems, it is worth preparing human reproduction – particularly the menstrual cycle – and the human defence system. For experiments, the food test has a high chance of appearing along with the ecology experiment. On long questions, ecology, genetics, enzymes, microorganisms, photosynthesis and respiration could all be worth some focus. Ní Mhuirceartaigh describes organic chemistry as the most important area to conquer in advance of sitting the chemistry exam. Given you can feature it in three of your eight answers on the paper, it can account for 38 per cent of a student's final grade. Common mistakes to avoid? 'Make sure the study that you do is effective. You're not just reading over notes at this stage – you're assessing yourself. That can mean exam questions. It can mean doing quizzes online, mind maps, flashcards. There are loads of different ways to assess yourself but don't just be sitting reading through notes.'
Irish Times
3 days ago
- Health
- Irish Times
The rise of extreme Leaving Cert study regimes online: 5am alarms and marathon cramming sessions
'Any hour I had, I was studying ... My downtime was a bit of Netflix in the shower,' says Colin O'Donovan, a grinds tutor and TikTok influencer currently advising students on how to prepare for the Leaving Cert exams. The quote is from a recent video in which O'Donovan explains how much study he committed to secure 625 points in the Leaving Cert in 2019. For all of sixth year, he says, he did 'nothing but study to guarantee perfect results'. Plenty of current students are also sharing their extreme study regimes online, detailing exhausting cramming schedules, sleep deprivation and ominous countdowns to individual papers. READ MORE 10 hour study days were light work It may work for some, but experts in education will likely tell you these are mistakes to avoid. Can extreme study routines work? Eoghan O'Leary is a teacher in Hamilton High School, Co Cork, and head of maths at The Tuition Centre in Bandon. In two decades at Hamilton, he has seen plenty of students achieve maximum points, but none have followed an extreme study routine. 'Some of them have been academically very able and you wouldn't be surprised at them getting 625, or 600 in the old days,' Mr O'Leary says. 'Others have been all-rounders who would have balanced their sporting commitments with their studies and still have performed very well. 'There's none of the students I can think of who would have followed a routine like that successfully. I would say it is almost mythical. I'm sure there are people out there doing it but whether it's successful for anyone, I'm not quite sure.' The rise of TikTok study stories O'Leary runs a 21-day maths challenge, which revises the whole maths course over three weeks of daily one-hour lessons. This week, he asked students if they felt they had been influenced by TikTok and other social media accounts advising them on study methods. A significant number said they were affected by videos promoting 10- to 12-hour study days, all-nighters and 5am alarms. They mentioned feeling peer pressure too, particularly around anecdotes of friends taking on marathon study sessions in the library or using productivity apps like Flora to track and compare the hours they spend working. Some students say they have been influenced by videos promoting 10- to 12-hour study days, all-nighters and 5am alarms. Photograph: iStock Danger of burnout Though he is not sure how many of his former students have adopted an extreme study routine, O'Leary has seen the danger of burnout among those that place too much weight on the final few days before exams. It may not seem helpful to those that feel underprepared at this stage, but cramming can be dangerous. 'The vast majority of people – it's a stressful time but they get through and they're out the other end of it in a couple of weeks,' Mr O'Leary says. 'There are a few students I can think of who possibly didn't perform as well in the exam as one would have thought. [ Classroom to College: our expert guide to navigating the Leaving Cert for parents, guardians and students Opens in new window ] 'I would say, if they had perhaps had a more balanced, steady routine, it would have served them better. We all know people can leave things to the last minute and then try to cram in too much, and I do think that can be counterproductive.' Prioritise sleep 'I would say, to any student of mine, to prioritise rest,' O'Leary says. 'If you plan to get up at eight o'clock in the morning to do your first exam in English – well if you want to get eight hours sleep, you have to be asleep by midnight. And then you want to be winding down maybe from 10pm. 'In the hours before that, from the time you get up in the morning until 10pm, what you want is a balanced routine. A mixture of studying but also exercise and diet is very important. To eat well and to stay away from things like caffeine drinks and so on.' How can parents help with exam anxiety? From the survey O'Leary ran with his maths students, most reported feeling nervous, stressed or afraid. Comparing yourself to other students online doesn't help, and oftentimes, neither do well-meaning parents, explains Dr Clare Finegan, a lecturer in education, guidance and counselling at Maynooth University. 'My [advice] for parents would be to see this as a milestone, not just for young, budding adults, but one for parents equally to transcend,' she says. 'My recollection of being in this bubble as a parent remains very visceral even today. It was like being wrapped in slimy cling film for what felt like forever, in order to keep yourself together and appear supportive. 'There's a slow dawning emerges that there was actually no sense to all the hype and that somehow, you've been conned. There's almost a sense of guilt at what you've put your students or children through. 'The dawning is that not only is there an endless choice of career pathways – there are more sensible, mature [routes to those careers].' Dr Finegan worked as a teacher, guidance counsellor and psychotherapist with children for years, and has seen the impact of anxiety and stress on students approaching their Leaving Cert exams. They tend to understand the situation better than parents, in her view, and as such warrant a level of trust. 'What I would suggest is that really, parents should look after themselves and make themselves scarce if they are feeling stressed,' Dr Finegan says. 'If that means being silent and saying nothing, then they'll be in a better place to be able to do that. At the end of the day, it's about entrusting the child with going through this journey of resilience and coming out the other end. And supporting that journey regardless of what the outcome is.' Comparing yourself to other Leaving Cert students online doesn't help, and oftentimes, neither do well-meaning parents, says Dr Clare Finegan. Photograph: Dara Mac Dónaill What can you control? Over the years, Mr O'Leary has found that one pearl of wisdom seems to stick with his students more than any other – 'if you don't know what to do, do what you know.' It is a piece of advice that can be useful for any exam, job interview or dilemma. In a Leaving Cert context, days out from the start of exams, it might encourage students to focus on their strengths, and to tackle problems incrementally. Even if you are faced with an unfamiliar question or title in a paper, you might know how to take the first step towards answering it.
Irish Times
13-05-2025
- General
- Irish Times
Meet the TikTok teachers – and their surprising predictions for the Leaving Cert
Final preparations for Leaving Cert exams are well under way and many students are frantically seeking last-minute tips and tweaks to maximise their performance in the coming weeks. The good news is that it is never too late to take on board advice from the experts. TikTok offers a less traditional avenue for study tips – and it's where some teachers are building huge audiences by leaning into the platform's snappy format. Some of them share their thoughts with The Irish Times on how students can best approach the crunch period. Their predictions may surprise and their advice on common mistakes could be crucial on the day. READ MORE Maths TJ Hegarty, maths teacher with Breakthrough Maths @breakthroughmaths Junior Cycle trigonometry shortcuts 👌🏻 Top tips for the run-in to exams? 'A Roy Keane quote: 'Fail to prepare, prepare to fail.' Have all your bits sorted. Have your battery in your calculator checked. Have a clear pencil case. Pens and pencils organised. And I would start eating a healthier breakfast. 'Just the things you wouldn't think of. Everyone will give the standard answers of doing exam papers and all that. The thing you can control too, which no one talks about, is your preparation of your physical space. Take that pressure away.' [ 'Early mornings worked best. I was at my desk at 4.30am': How I got 9H1s in the Leaving Cert Opens in new window ] Hot predictions for maths papers? 'A couple of things will almost certainly be on it. For the Leaving Cert, there are four big focus points. Paper one will always be algebra and calculus – in particular, logs this year. Paper two for higher level will be a focus on trigonometry and statistics. Guaranteed questions. 'For the Junior Cert , which they're all yapping about, if you want a more tangible tip I can almost guarantee that you'll see trigonometry, SOHCAHTOA or Pythagoras' theorem. They will be 100 per cent on the exam.' Common mistakes to avoid? 'You should take a Mars approach to studying. You should zoom 30,000ft away from the exam itself. What are the six or seven big topics on each exam? What are you weak on? Make sure you box them off and then just take it day by day. 'You have that written somewhere. The six or seven topics for English, for geography, maths – write them down and then you have to cover them once a fortnight. Break it down into two-week chunks. You're touching on each topic once within that fortnight block.' Irish Séadhan de Poire, Irish teacher with Dublin Academy of Education @sdpgaeilge 🛑⏱️Last minute tips for the Irish oral ☘️🤩 Top tips for the run-in to exams? 'For higher level Irish, I would be telling them to start to simplify material to make sure it actually makes sense. I've corrected the State exams, and I've seen a lot of students try to learn material that's too difficult for them. They then try to reproduce this material in exam settings and because they don't understand what they're writing, there's loads of mistakes in it and it ends up making no sense. 'What I tell a lot of my students is to focus on having simpler Irish that they understand and that they can use instead of trying to learn things off by heart. Especially for Irish paper one, for the essay.' Hot predictions for Irish papers? 'For Irish paper one, it's all based off current affairs so there's no magical list of topics. You kind of have to be following what's in the news in and around November, December and January time. That's typically when the paper's set. 'Based off that, the topics that I'm looking at with my own classes this year would be politics, because of the elections that took place here and abroad, the education system, the Irish language, the housing crisis and a little bit on technology. A tip I'd give students is you can overlap a lot of material between those different topics. [ 'It's impossible': Will teachers be able to stop cheating for new Leaving Cert coursework? Opens in new window ] 'For example, if you're talking about politics and problems – well, housing is a political issue. You don't have to learn five brand new essays. You learn a couple of paragraphs that suit different titles and then you try to fill in the gaps afterwards.' Common mistakes to avoid? 'For Irish, the poems and the prose – students will really focus in on them and be worried about the marks. I kind of laugh a bit when I break it down for them. A poem is worth 5 per cent of your grade whereas an essay is worth 17 per cent. The two reading comprehensions they do are worth 17 per cent. They're the two questions they should spend more time on than anything else. 'Then when it comes to focusing on the prose section, they can end up just writing summaries and including every event that happened in the short story. I tell my students I don't want a summary when I'm correcting State exams. I just want to see relevant information that helps you answer the question.' French/Spanish Katie Lenehan, French and Spanish teacher with Dublin Academy @mslenslanguages1 Aaaaahhh I've finally made a Youtube ☺️☺️ I'm absolutely terrified but the full video is up there and i give you even more ideas on how to get better grades in the opinion piece question 💖 lysm x Top tips for the run-in to exams? 'The biggest piece of advice I would give is to recognise the importance of your reading comprehensions. In both papers, they're worth 30 per cent of the final grade. They're worth even more than the oral exam is and potentially it's something that students forget about because they have so many other things on. 'I'd probably recommend doing a minimum of one of them a week, if not two. For the listening papers, I'd also try to sit a full listening paper each week . . . They're quite practical elements that you can do. For the written paper, I'd recommend making sure you have a solid introduction and conclusion learned off for your opinion piece. And have 15 to 20 pieces of vocab for each topic that you're planning on covering for the exam, so it nearly becomes a game of jigsaw.' Hot predictions for French and Spanish papers? Though she prefers to steer clear of the term predictions, Lenehan encourages her Spanish students to focus on papers from 2008-2014, which may crop up again this June. She lists a range of topics to cover – emigration, social media, AI, money, changes in Ireland and the environment. For French, there is a slightly longer list with some overlap – phones in school, AI, the importance of voting, education reform, vaping, protests, young people and money, gender equality, emigration and housing. [ Leaving Cert 2025: How much lower will students' grades be this year amid deflation? Opens in new window ] Common mistakes to avoid? 'The first common mistake I see is absenteeism. They just withdraw from school completely and convince themselves that they're just going to study at home. Apart from the study element, they're still teenagers and they still need to be around each other. This isolation thing doesn't do you any use in terms of how good you feel going into the exams. 'I had such crippling OCD when I was in sixth year, and I learned the hard way how important it is to look after yourself. Absolutely, study has to be a priority, but it doesn't have to be the only priority. They need things like friendship, fresh air, good food. They need to sleep. Try to surround yourself with people that have a similar work ethic, or that have the same target grade as you, and try to encourage each other.' Biology/Chemistry Caoimhe Ní Mhuirceartaigh, biology and chemistry teacher with Dublin Academy @ Higgly requested!📚🧬✨️ H1 Guide to Leaving Cert Biology! Any questions let me know Top tips for the run-in to exams? 'The marking scheme for both biology and chemistry papers can be quite word-specific. You need to ensure when you're answering a question that it's not waffle and you're hitting the short, concise points. 'For biology especially, you need to know unit one and unit two really well. You can maximise your marks by focusing on the areas that are very repetitive. Knowing the non-negotiable topics that come up every year and are worth a large portion. In biology, the two most important topics would be genetics and ecology.' Hot predictions for biology and chemistry papers? Both subjects, Ní Mhuirceartaigh says, have quite obvious trends. Topics she thinks may appear in the short questions section of the biology paper include food, ecology, genetics and enzymes. For questions on systems, it is worth preparing human reproduction – particularly the menstrual cycle – and the human defence system. For experiments, the food test has a high chance of appearing along with the ecology experiment. On long questions, ecology, genetics, enzymes, microorganisms, photosynthesis and respiration could all be worth some focus. Ní Mhuirceartaigh describes organic chemistry as the most important area to conquer ahead of sitting the chemistry exam. Given you can feature it in three of your eight answers on the paper, it can account for 38 per cent of a student's final grade. Common mistakes to avoid? 'Make sure the study that you do is effective. You're not just reading over notes at this stage – you're assessing yourself. That can mean exam questions. It can mean doing quizzes online, mind maps, flashcards. There are loads of different ways to assess yourself but don't just be sitting reading through notes.'
