The 113,500 students beginning their Leaving and Junior Certificate examinations tomorrow have been urged to adopt a "can do" approach.
Asti president Sheila Parsons said: "It is very important to have a positive attitude, an 'I can do' approach, then you will do justice to yourselves. Remain calm and upbeat," said Ms Parsons.
Over the June bank holiday weekend, the 4,500 superintendents involved in supervising the written examinations were given the boxes containing the three million examination papers that are required by candidates over the 13-day exam period.
Almost 4,000 examiners will be involved in examining the work.
The most significant changes in this year's exams are the first examinations in the revised syllabuses in Leaving Certificate history and geography, and Junior Certificate science.
Candidates in these examinations have already completed practical coursework leading to their final grade.
For Leaving Certificate students taking history and geography,the final written examination is worth 80 per cent of the overall mark.
Candidates taking the examination in the revised science syllabus may have already accumulated up to 35 per cent of their final grade through the completion of the practical coursework element of the exam.
The exams run until Thursday 22nd June for Junior Cert subjects and Friday 23rd June for Leaving Cert subjects. The written examinations in the Leaving Cert applied programme finish on June 15th.
The results of the Leaving Certificate examinations will be available on Wednesday, the August 16th. Results of the Junior Certificate will be available in mid-September 2006.
This year's exams will involve 90 examination subjects, and the States Examinations Commission say 1.8 million individual tests will be examined.
