By Niamh Dwyer, Chairperson of the Kerry Branch of Guidance Counsellors

Establishing a good routine at the start of the school year is key for Leaving Cert students.

The beginning of the school year is met with very mixed emotions by everyone. While it is nice to get back to meet everyone again, it is hard to leave the lazy, hazy days of summer behind as students and teachers try to click back into the routine of early mornings and busy school days. For Leaving Cert students it can be overwhelming and stressful thinking of the busy year ahead, the amount of work to be done, and the important decisions to be made. That’s totally understandable. It may seem that June 2022 is a long way off but if you talk to students who have gone before you they will tell you that time moves very quickly in your final year of secondary school so the earlier you establish a good routine for yourself the better. Get out of those starting blocks early! The work that you do between this and the midterm break is critical to lay the foundations for further revision later on. Amendments have been made to the exams in each subject for 2022 so make sure you familiarise yourself with them at the start of the year. You can find all the details on www.gov.ie by searching Leaving Certificate 2022.

Time Management

Once you see your timetable you will have an idea of what days are likely to be more demanding than others. It is really important that you put together a workable time plan right from the start. You will still be working on completing Leaving Cert courses in all of your subjects while also working on project work; and on top of this you will need to incorporate some study and revision. Managing the demands of completing homework assignments and project work with grinds outside of school if you are doing them can mean that study and revision are often not prioritised early enough in the year. To avoid this my advice is to spend some time in the first week getting yourself organised and focused on a weekly timetable that is workable. Make sure your have all you notes, exam papers and other resources well organised and if you are missing any sections from Fifth Year ask your teachers or classmates for these resources. Teachers will be busy trying to finish courses so they may not get to revise the material from Fifth Year until right before the pre-exams in late January.

Daily Routine

Try to get into study mode now. Make it part of your daily routine from Monday to Friday and choose one day over the weekend to catch up on revision. Use any free time in school as an opportunity to get some work done in a structured environment with the support of teachers and classmates. Keep in mind the end goal of giving your very best performance in the exams in June and work towards that. If that seems difficult, break down the year in more manageable sections:

September to midterm – eight weeks
Midterm – Christmas – seven weeks
Christmas – midterm – six weeks
Midterm – Easter – six weeks
Easter to June – five weeks

All the best athletes do their heavy training in the early stages of the season – follow that lead. It is not without reason that the Leaving Cert is described as a marathon; make sure you are in good shape facing the finishing line on June 8, 2022.

Niamh Dwyer is a Guidance Counsellor in Scoil Phobail Sliabh Luachra, Rathmore, and Chairperson of the Kerry Branch of Guidance Counsellors. She is also a Careers Advisor - For details see www.mycareerplan.ie or follow @mycareerplan on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter.