{"id":482239,"date":"2026-06-04T06:45:13","date_gmt":"2026-06-04T06:45:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/482239\/"},"modified":"2026-06-04T06:45:13","modified_gmt":"2026-06-04T06:45:13","slug":"the-leaving-cert-according-to-a-guidance-counsellor-their-brains-have-been-working-so-hard-they-need-to-get-fresh-air-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/482239\/","title":{"rendered":"The Leaving Cert according to a guidance counsellor: \u2018Their brains have been working so hard … they need to get fresh air\u2019 \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Niamh Dwyer knows all about the Leaving Certificate<\/a>. She\u2019s a career guidance counsellor and a parent of three, with her youngest child currently sitting the Leaving Certificate exams.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a far cry from when her eldest child sat the exams, or didn\u2019t as the case played out thanks to a pandemic which led to a predicted grades situation. <\/p>\n

But as an expert professionally, and in the veteran Leaving Cert parent sense, she knows what awaits.<\/p>\n

For the students, she says, \u201cit\u2019s about striking balance. A balance between what I\u2019d call routine and rest\u201d. Students should really focus \u201con what they know\u201d rather than what they feel they don\u2019t. <\/p>\n

As students do their last preparations for each of their exams \u201cit\u2019s all about the exam papers. Being familiar with the marking scheme. Knowing the terminology, that \u2018this is the layout I\u2019m going to have. These are the questions that I might do. These are the questions that I have to do\u2019. Having a feel for the timing of it,\u201d she advises.<\/p>\n

When it comes to rest, Dwyer says maintaining a good \u201csleep routine\u201d is essential, as is \u201ctaking breaks\u201d. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s like going to the gym, their study at this stage needs to be the shorter bursts really rather than poring over the books for hours at a time, because it\u2019s too hard, they\u2019re tired. They\u2019ve a very difficult year at this stage done.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rest is especially important throughout the period, she adds, due to the intensity of the exams. <\/p>\n

\u201cSome of those exams are over three hours so they need energy for that. Resting, getting a bit of time with family, getting proper sleep, plenty of hydration and loads of water.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cFresh air\u201d is very important too, she adds. \u201cTheir brains have been working so hard all year, they need to get out in the fresh air.\u201d <\/p>\n

When it comes to social media, Dwyer recommends that students step back a little. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a double-edged sword in that social media helps them to stay connected with each other, which they need to do. But at the same time if there\u2019s any conversations that are causing them anxiety, or are bringing extra worry at this stage, you\u2019re trying to avoid that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Exam postmortems help no one, Dwyer says. \u201cIn my own daughter\u2019s school they were told that it would be no harm, if they are on a break as in lunchtime, for them actually to go home for lunchtime and come back in. It\u2019s a good idea.\u201d<\/p>\n

If an exam doesn\u2019t go as a student hopes, students shouldn\u2019t panic. \u201cIt\u2019s usually never as bad as what they think\u201d, she says. \u201cOnce an exam is done it\u2019s done … it\u2019s a really important skill to be able to say, \u2018I\u2019ve now that done, I now need to put my energy into what\u2019s coming tomorrow or the day after\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

If during an exam students find themselves feeling overwhelmed or thrown by a paper, Dwyer recommends they try box breathing, a practice of inhaling for four seconds, holding your breath for four seconds, exhaling for four seconds, and holding on empty for four seconds.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe one thing that we can control is our breath,\u201d she explains. \u201cIt means they can steady themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Niamh Dwyer knows all about the Leaving Certificate. She\u2019s a career guidance counsellor and a parent of three,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":482240,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43491,17163,207572,61,60,3184,43,28205,2055],"class_list":["post-482239","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-cao","tag-classroom-to-college","tag-examwatch","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-leaving-certificate","tag-news","tag-second-level","tag-students"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/482239","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=482239"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/482239\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/482240"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=482239"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=482239"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=482239"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}