Stay calm for the big exams

More than 2,700 people across Clare will begin the Junior and Leaving Certificate exams on Wednesday and the advice from experts is to stay calm.
“At this stage I would say to students that they will do much better in the exam than they expect. Young people every year do much better than they anticipate. I would advise them to be calm about the exams and to do the things their teachers have told them over the next few days. From the weekend on, I would advise students not to do any new topics, instead revise,” said Con Woods, career guidance counsellor in St Flannan’s College, Ennis. 
“For people who are worrying about passing the exams, I would say everyone is on their side – from the people who set the exams to those who correct them. I would also remind them to attempt every question they need to,” he continued.
Between now and the exams students, are being advised to build in some relaxation into their study timetables.
“A person shouldn’t do too much between now and the exams, they need some relaxation and some exercise and they should eat proper food and approach the exams in a confident frame of mind,” Mr Woods stated.
Some 1,333 students will sit the Leaving Certificate across the county. It begins at 9.30am on Wednesday with English paper 1 followed in the afternoon by Home Economics. This year there will be 710 boys sitting the State’s senior exams alongside 623 girls.
The 1,384 Junior Certificate students face into English, papers one and two on Wednesday. More girls than boys will face these exams with 708 girls scheduled to sit the Junior Cert compared to 676 boys.
The final Junior Cert exam takes place on Thursday, June 24, while the Leaving Certificate stretches on until Friday, June 25, for some students.
For students concerned about maths, Leaving Cert ordinary level maths students can avail of a free resource providing maths tutorials online to answer their last minute questions.
The website, called www.maths.gcd.ie goes through each of the questions on the two ordinary level leaving cert maths papers; providing a video tutorial on each question, with comprehensive answers and companion notes covering all areas asked since 1999.
The videos were recorded at the revision sessions attended by over 500 students in Griffith College Dublin, Cork and Limerick, and have been post-produced to allow direct access to each sub-topic within each question on the course.
Tomás Mac Eochagáin, director of academic programmes at Griffith College who designed the programme said: “the website allows students to fill in specific gaps in their knowledge; to join up the many sections they already know; and to maximise their result in the exam.”
In Ennis, support will be available in the form of the Youth Information Bureau, Clare Youth Service, Carmody Street that will remain open until 7pm on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays from June 9 to 25. Free internet access is available to all exam students and the centre is available for young people to drop in for a chat and chill out. Further information is available on 065 6845350 or info@clareyouthservice.org.