Leaving Cert: Cillian Fahy

After straight As in his Leaving Cert, he made headlines when he sold his exam notes on eBay for €3,000

NIGHT-BEFORE RITUALS

Tonight – the night before your very first exam is the most important period across the whole exam season.

You will probably have trouble sleeping, so anticipate this and hit the hay earlier than usual. Remove any distractions which might keep you up. Make sure your phone, laptop, and iPod are all off so they don’t distract you.

Tonight, write a checklist of what you need for each exam: calculator; highlighter; pens etc.

Use this list to prepare everything. In the morning, you don’t want to worry that you have forgotten anything.

Consolidate and revise what you already know – rather than learning new material. Make sure you know everything to exam standard. You may have time to learn off some new material, but mainly focus on revision of answers you are prepared for.

HOW TO GET THROUGH THE EXAMS THEMSELVES

You can use the clock on the wall, but having a watch which you can put beside you gives you more control.

It’s all about timing. Immediately open up the paper, and write the time at which you intend to start each question beside it. You should already know the rough timing you intend to allocate to each question. This saves you from having to calculate how long you have actually been on any particular question, which is an unnecessary distraction.

This way you know that at, say, 10.15am, you need to move on – and when you see that time approaching, you get ready to stop.

In the exam, plan for every question that you can plan for. This is valuable because it allows you a little break in between each question to get your head focused on the new task, and it also makes your ideas much clearer.

If you get stuck on a question, move on and then come back to it.

Don’t get bogged down and waste time.

HOW TO HANDLE GAPS BETWEEN PAPERS

Know your gaps firstly. Print out your timetable, highlight your exams and stick it on the wall.

Write out a brief study plan of what you are going to do for the gap between each paper. It will be difficult to study then, so it is important that you have a study plan to motivate you. Also, you can use the brief time it should take to write the timetable as a quick break.

It’s important that you still sleep regularly for the gaps between exams. Don’t think because you don’t have an exam the next day that you can pull an “all-nighter”. It will disrupt your routine for your future exams.

It may seem tempting, but do not take a day off if there is a gap. Although it may seem like forever, it isn’t. So push through them and put in the effort. If you are given a gap, then use it for study.

HOW TO ALLEVIATE STRESS AND FATIGUE

Treat yourself. Keep up your chocolate bar rewards or whatever you have been using.

Focus on forgetting about exams once they have occurred. What’s done is done. You are bound to have made mistakes, but so will everyone else. By focusing on the past exams you are only distracting yourself from doing well in your future ones.

Most importantly, do not analyse the paper once you have done it!

Parents should ask about the exam, but don’t go into too much detail. That will only add more stress, as it will cause students to analyse their performance.

Do take breaks. You need to keep your mind sharp. You might want to allow yourself to watch 30 minutes of your favourite TV show, or chat with a friend. Whatever you do, keep an eye on the breaks. Don’t let them get out of hand.

Cillian Fahy will be running a maths summer course during August in Galway, Cork and Dublin for next year’s Leaving Cert. See cillianfahy.ie