Countdown to the Leaving - 10 study tips to help get you there

With only 10 weeks left to the Leaving Cert, you might be starting to feel you've got a mountain to climb, but don't panic - take a deep breath, follow these 10 steps, and you can greet the upcoming exams with cool, calm confidence, writes Brian Mooney

Get motivated

Between now and the middle of June, you alone will determine the quality of Leaving Certificate result you receive. What can you do over the next 10 weeks to improve the grades you would achieve if you did the examination today? You can do quite a lot, in fact. Firstly, ask yourself one simple question. What do you really want to do with your life, following the Leaving Certificate? If you do not have a goal that is realistically achievable, you will not be motivated to put in the effort to reach your true potential.

Find the right direction

If you are seeking to go to college, with the aim of having a career in one of the professions, you will by now be aware that entry to many professional careers is achieved by completing a level 8 undergraduate degree, followed by a one-year postgraduate programme. You may not be aware that, following the development by the National Qualifications Authority of the 10-level system of qualifications, no matter what your academic ability, you can now begin your studies at the appropriate level of your capacity, be it a level 5 Fetac award, a level 6 certificate or level 7 ordinary degree award, from an Institute of Technology, and progress onto the same career as those starting at level 8 degree level. So the gap between where you may be now and what you need to gain entry to a course that will allow you to progress onto the career of your choice is probably very achievable, if you plan and implement an effective schedule of preparation for the exam over the next 10 weeks.

Count up the points

You have taken your mocks and recently received the results. Do not be surprised if you did not get every desired grade. There is still a lot you can do between now and June, and the teachers who corrected your papers do not want you to be brimming with overconfidence, so they probably marked your papers tightly. Go to the Leaving Certificate point's calculator on www.qualifax.ie and enter in the grades you achieved in each mock paper. The calculator will show you how many points you would currently achieve through the CAO application system. Allowing for a realistic improvement on your mock results between now and the beginning of June, which courses that you applied for in January, or will apply for when the change of mind option opens up in May, are within striking distance of your performance to date? What is the gap between your current points score and what you will need in August? How do you intend to bridge that gap over the next 10 weeks? Use your mock results to focus your study.

There is no point in saying that you will simply work harder. Identify exactly how much you are going to need to improve in each subject to reach your points target for the grades that you need in that envelope in August. Once you have identified the gap to be bridged in each subject, take out your mock paper, and discuss with your teacher the areas you need to improve on. Identify specific problems that are causing you to lose marks. Make a list of those problems and put it on your bedroom wall.

Ask the old questions

The only way to improve performance in the Leaving Cert at this stage is through tackling individual questions on the past examination papers. Always compare your answer against the marking schemes which were used by the teachers who corrected those questions in the Leaving Certificate. These marking schemes are available on the State Examinations website at www.examinations.ie. You should have by now a series of prepared answers on a whole range of past and possible 2007 examination questions. Ensure that you cover all sections of each examination paper, so that your improvement over the next 10 weeks is balanced across all your subjects. Utilise your teachers fully in this process by presenting them with the fruits of your work, and ask them to critically evaluate how you are approaching the questions you are attempting. If you follow this approach, you will find that the errors that suppressed your grades in the mocks will begin to disappear from your answers.

Learn by teaching

What is the most effective way to learn anything? Teach it to someone else. Having to present the answer to a particular topic, to a group of like-minded fellow students, is by far the most effective way of consolidating your own understanding of a topic. It can be very useful to have a once-a-week revision session, where each one agrees to prepare and present the answer to a question or series of questions. The real trick is to immediately re-present the questions your fellow Leaving Cert students have just presented, to test your understanding of what you have just absorbed. This consolidates your understanding of the material, and makes it far more likely that you will be able to recall it accurately in the examination in June. This technique is very useful in keeping your morale high, as each person in the group acts as a spur to each other's work.

Focus the study group

Do not attempt to cover too much material in one study group session. One presentation from four participants is more than enough. Agree that each student prepares four copies of their presentation, so that each person leaves with four questions covered, which they have had to explain to the group. Always have a parent on the premises when you are working. It ensures that you will remain disciplined and that they can deflect any distractions such as phone calls from friends or disruptions from other members of the family. It should be a golden rule that all mobiles are turned off for the duration of the weekly revision session.

Train for the marathon

The next 10 weeks is not a hundred-yard sprint - it is a marathon, so you must pace yourself and your work to ensure that you enter into the exam fortnight mentally and physically prepared for the series of long days of writing ahead. This reality should shape your entire weeks' activities, down to the smallest detail. You need to maintain your strength and health. You must maintain a balanced healthy diet, avoiding excess use of confectionary, sugary drinks and junk food, which will only reduce your capacity to concentrate for long periods effectively.

You must maintain your personal fitness, through regular exercise and involvement in sport. Such activity is a very effective method of balancing the three to four hours study you will need to do each day from now until the exams.

Plan your personal study

Have a study planner on your bedroom wall, on sheets of poster paper, with each day marked out, over the 70 days between now and the first exam. Identify when you intend to study each day, and allow yourself the occasional day off, to reward yourself for the work undertaken to date. Try and do your after-school study relatively early in the evening, and avoid late-night study sessions at all costs. They are very counter-productive in that your brain is probably too tired to absorb anything, and you will be exhausted in class during the school day, and thus incapable of learning effectively.

Set out your study day

Set out a specific set of topics or questions each day for study or revision. It will help to focus you on your work. Start with the subject you least enjoy studying, thus ensuring that you do not avoid the questions you really need to focus on. Always write down the key points, after reading a maximum of 10 to 12 lines of text. After completing a chapter, organise your points into a simple graphic presentation, such as a spider's web or mind map, to consolidate your understanding of the topic and provide you with a simple method of revision later, as well as the materials to present to your study group, if you join one. Take a short break between each topic, of no more than five to 10 minutes, and never study for more than four hours, as any information taken in after that will not be retained.

Embrace the stress

It is inevitable that a certain level of stress builds up as the examination approaches. This is healthy as it spurs you on to give the examinations your best effort. If the stress begins to overwhelm you, do not bottle it all inside. Talk to those closest to you, especially your parents. Listening is the greatest gift they can give you over the weeks ahead. Finally, always remember that achieving high grades in the Leaving Certificate shows that you are good at taking written examinations, nothing more. The grades that you eventually achieve are in no way a judgment of the value or worth of you or any young person facing into the difficult weeks ahead.