Parents make all the difference

How to help: Do not attempt to wriggle out of your responsibilities. It would be a mistake to think that if your student has not been applying himself to his Leaving Cert studies you can always throw a cheque at the problem and send him on a repeat course (which can cost as much as 5,000 a year) .

"Parents sometimes don't want to be put out. They have high expectations of their students, but do not want to be inconvenienced themselves, and that can be a huge problem," says Anne McCarry, deputy principal of St Laurence College, which takes repeat Leaving Cert students from Blackrock College, Loreto Dalkey and a range of 30 other schools - from the city centre as far as Co Wicklow.

Be there, be home, be on top of the study. And that's you we're talking about, Mam and Dad. Give up your evening and weekend social life and have one parent in the house at all times. Know your student's study schedule and make sure that he or she sticks to it.

Often, when a repeat is required, it is because the parents were not involved enough the first time around. "Parents should be part of the process and should be able to talk to the student's teachers on a regular basis. Too many students assume they know best and their parents allow them to 'know best'," says McCarry.

"A parent needs to be a parent and establish the truth of a student's situation for themselves, rather than relying just on what the student tells them. Too many parents get into a pattern - once the exams come around - of backing off, when what they really need is to be more closely involved," she adds.