With the Leaving Cert around the corner how can students stay sane, and what can parents do to support them ?
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The Pat Kenny Show. With Timber Living Log Cabins. Saturday and Sunday from 10am. On Newstalk. Conversation that counts.
Well, years of schooling have prepared them for this. And yet, as the date inches closer, it's up to them and their families to ensure they perform at their best. What are we talking about? The Leaving Cert, which begins this coming week. Counsellor and education columnist for The Irish Times, Brian Mooney, is with me today. Brian, good morning. Good morning, Pat.
What should students focus on as the Leaving Cert approaches?
Now, I can remember, even though all those years ago, I can remember the unease, the sense of trepidation I had in the weekend before the Leaving Cert. Yeah. It's a very fearful time. You know, you've spent two years working on seven or eight subjects and now it's here. You know, now it's here. I mean, you've had a few hints. You've had your mocks back in probably February. You had your orals over Easter. You've put in a few projects in relation to subjects where there's a project element. But now you've got English paper one on Wednesday morning and you're thinking about Macbeth and you're thinking about Shakespeare and you're thinking about your poets and which ones are going to come up. And you're a bit nervous, yeah.
Now, the question of what to study at this late stage, you've got limited study hours. Do you kind of hone to perfection the stuff you almost know to perfection or do you go scrabbling around trying to find stuff or knowing where the stuff that you are weak in lies? Well, look, the Leaving Search is a marathon. And, you know, if you're running a marathon, you know, in a sense, a couple of days before the marathon, you're not trying to get any fitter, in a sense, because you've done it. You've prepared for it. The knowledge, the actual knowledge you have in your head is probably not going to be enhanced in any way over the next 48, 72 hours. It's how you use it. And it's how you process the exam paper when you go into it.
Yes, you're absolutely right. It's, you know, you're doing seven or eight subjects. It's over three weeks. You've got your Irish and your English and your maths kind of concentrated in the first few days. So should you concentrate on them? Absolutely. And then it spreads out. You know what I mean? You could have three or four days between, you know, your second last and your last paper and the previous. So don't even worry about the subjects. Okay, so park those. Park... Absolutely, because you're going to have loads of time. So, you know, right now, obviously, you're going to be focusing on English paper one. And obviously, some people will be doing, you know, one of the minority subjects in the afternoon.
But effectively, for most people, it'll be a half day and then they will have an opportunity to prepare for the next day's paper. So be strategic and, you know, make sure that you, you know, you understand the structure of the paper. You make sure what, in fact, you know, you're preparing for. And the most important thing, Pat, is... When you go into the exam, read the paper fully before you start the paper and go to the back of your answer book and, you know, be jotting down over a matter of two or three minutes. Your first thoughts. Your first thoughts. Because what's going to happen is as you settle into, whether it's the essay or whatever. your brain subconsciously is going to be working on the things you haven't remembered.
And as the thoughts come into you, flick to the back of the answer book, write down the key word or whatever, so that as you go through the exam, by the time you get to the end of it, you will have effectively drained your brain of all of the knowledge you have. And of course, the most important thing, as both you and I know from people who write and do journalistic work, if you write something, reread the damn thing before you step up from the exam hall, if you have the few minutes. Yeah. Now, question, Brian, at the moment, marking papers, I know a lot of teachers don't like doing it, but for some it is a handy little earner. It is. Is AI going to take over that?
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