In the first of a two-part series, Orla Houlihan, the most successful Leaving Cert student of 2008, tells Gráinne Fallerthat homework is the key to a successful set of marks, about knuckling down and about switching off and putting the books away

KERRY STUDENT Orla Houlihan seems bemused by all of the interest in her Leaving Cert success. She had no inkling beforehand that she had done as well as she had. "Honestly, I hadn't a clue," she insists.

Having taken nine subjects for the Leaving Cert, as she read down her list of results, she realised that she had managed to get an A1 in every single one. "It was in complete shock. It was all a bit of a blur, to be honest," she says. "I was just checking that the results sheet was mine, that there hadn't been some sort of mix-up." There was no mix up and Houlihan, a student in the Intermediate School Killorglin, realised that she had just become the top Leaving Cert student in the State.

The decision to do nine subjects simply came out of an inability to choose. "I always loved science and languages and maths," reveals Houlihan. "I couldn't decide between them."

Applied maths was on offer in the school and she did music on Saturdays. "I'd find it very difficult to do well in a subject that I wasn't interested in," says Houlihan.

Her subjects - English, Irish, French, maths, physics, chemistry, biology, applied maths and music - were wide-ranging. Did she ever get a chance to relax? "Definitely," says Houlihan. "I finished at nine every night. I never studied late. Pulling an all-nighter would have been a disaster for me. I need my sleep."

The Co Kerry student has been a fan of Tae Kwon Do, a Korean martial art, for the past nine years. "No I've never had to use it," she laughs. "I've no idea if I'd be any good if I did." She trained three times a week. "It's a great form of exercise and it really helps with stress relief.

"Practising music was like a relief from study as well. I've been playing the piano for years and I love that."

Homework was the key to successful study, she claims, and she always took it seriously. "I did my homework well from the beginning of fifth year," Houlihan explains. "I never killed myself, I just kept up and made sure I was on top of things. That meant I never had loads to do.

"It's all about using your time wisely," she continues. "It's the quality of your study not the quantity of it that matters. When I was doing my homework or studying, I was concentrating on that. When I finished, I went and watched Prison Breakor Grey's Anatomy. I practised the piano, or I might have had training or something. It's really important to properly switch off when you're not studying, but to focus when you are."

SUBJECT BY SUBJECT

ENGLISH

"We got excellent notes for English. I studied five poets to cover all of the possibilities. I made sure that I had studied enough so that I could answer at least one of the questions - Adrienne Rich, Derek Mahon, Philip Larkin, Eavan Boland and Sylvia Plath. I really enjoyed learning about all of them, the different backgrounds and the contexts in which they wrote their poetry.

"It always helps to have an opinion - to digest the text and notes and give your own take on them.

"I was a fan of the short story when it came to the composition. I just practised writing the essays as much as I could. I had a couple of different plots prepared that I hoped would fit into a wide range of titles.

"I found exam papers very useful for Paper One. The only way to study for Paper One really is to do exam questions.

For Paper Two, I found exam questions useful as a guide to the style of questions, but they're not very helpful beyond that because, every year, there's a different Shakespeare play on the course and different poets are expected to come up depending on the year. English Paper One is a good exam to have at the start of the Leaving Cert. You can't really study for it. All you can do is practise questions, so it's a great opportunity to wind down a little and make sure you don't exhaust yourself for the exams."

FRENCH

"It's important to get used to a language. If you're accustomed to reading French text, there isn't a massive amount that the exam is going to be able to throw at you that will upset you. We got the Français Plus magazines at school and they are very useful for just getting a feel for French. If I got stuck, I'd use a dictionary, but I thought just getting my mind into the language, as much as possible, was more important.

"Phrases and vocabulary should be learned off, but there's not much point in learning off whole paragraphs. Phrases and words can be used in all sorts of situations and they help with the oral too. It's just helpful to try and immerse yourself in a language if you can.

"It's a frame of mind. If you're used to reading French, and a word that you don't understand appears on the exam paper, you're much more likely to be able to figure out the meaning if you're accustomed to the language. If you're reading and translating individual words, you're much more likely to get stuck."

CHEMISTRY

"Chemistry can be tough, but there's a lot of variety in it. We got to carry out all the experiments ourselves, which was a great opportunity. There was a lot of learning off by heart in chemistry and there's no way around that. Definitions are important in all the sciences and they're easy marks if you know them.

"It's really important at this stage of the year in chemistry to understand what's going on. If you don't put up your hand in class and ask a question when you're not getting something, the class will move on and it's very easy to be left behind. I always asked the questions if I didn't understand."

APPLIED MATHS

"Applied maths was offered in my school. I really enjoyed it. It informs your maths and there's also some crossover with physics so I'd highly recommend it to someone who is doing those subjects.

"It's not like another level of maths, it's not maths and physics combined either. It's more that it challenges you to think about how things work. Exam papers are really important for applied maths. The questions are really the only sensible way to study the subject. Doing them you find out what you do and don't understand and what you need to work on.

"I'd recommend someone who enjoys maths definitely to give it a go."

Three Cs: Orla's tips for successful study

CONCENTRATION

"I have good concentration, but it's completely dependent on having a good night's sleep. If I didn't get a good night's sleep, I found it very difficult to focus. I found that I didn't sleep massively well if I didn't exercise, so that end of things was actually really important. If I exercised, I slept well, my concentration was better, I got more done in a shorter time - one thing really feeds into another."

CONSISTENCY

"Honestly, there is no magic formula, but the best advice I can give anyone is to work consistently. At this stage, if you do your homework - really do your homework, as in learn what was done in school and properly cover the questions you're given, you'll really reduce your workload. I kept on top of things and that is the best approach. If you do that, you never have loads of work waiting for you and it just keeps everything manageable.

CHANGE IT UP

"If I got tired of studying a particular subject, I changed what I was studying. If you change what you study it can give you a bit of energy. Maths was my default subject. If I didn't feel like learning something, I'd do a couple of maths paper questions. Questions are good because you can see yourself progressing, and there's an end to them. You're not working in a vacuum. Music was great in that respect too. Practising was so different to my other study, it didn't feel like school work at all."

The merits of using amarking scheme

"First of all, marking schemes are always going to be more useful when you're studying subjects such as maths and the sciences. Languages are a bit more subjective, so the marking scheme is always going to be vague.

A marking scheme tells you exactly where you can earn marks on an exam.

In the science subjects, a lot of marks are going for key words. If you don't know what the examiner is looking for and talk around one of those key words, you won't get the mark. It's important to know what the examiner wants to see.

When you practise an exam question, do the question and then cross-check your answer with the marking scheme and find out where you went wrong or lost marks. It is excellent practice and the best way of making sure that you are answering exam questions effectively.

My teachers gave us sample questions and after doing those, we'd check back and see where we missed marks. It gives you a brilliant idea of what the important parts of the exam are and where you can pick up extra marks. Not every question is equally important.

You can download marking schemes from www.examinations.ie"