Leaving Cert 2025: Getting the basics right for exam success

Thousands of students in Cork, and indeed all over the country, are beginning to feel the mounting pressure of Leaving Cert 2025.

For many students, this can be a challenging time, and without the right approach and guidance, they can quickly become overwhelmed and stressed.

As more time is spent revising for exams, completing projects and preparing for orals, students can find it hard to maintain a balanced lifestyle to help them manage the ups and downs over the coming weeks and months.

In my experience, students often take one of two approaches. The first can be categorised as the all-in student. These students dedicate all their time and energy to schoolwork, homework and revision. They have a tunnel vision and often have a clear goal and high expectations of the results they want to achieve.

The other is the avoidant or overwhelmed student. These might know what they want to achieve in the exams, but are either unsure of where to start or are overwhelmed by the amount of work they might have to do.

Others in this category might find school difficult or have no idea what they would like to do after school, and therefore don’t know what to aim for in their exams.

Both categories of students can equally experience high levels of anxiety and stress and can quickly become overwhelmed if they don’t develop skills to help them to cope.

Getting the basics right

During stressful times in our lives, we often begin developing counterproductive routines that can increase stress levels rather than help us regulate the negative emotions we might be experiencing.

Many students, when preparing for their exams, stop doing many of the things they enjoy and help them to manage their stress. Instead, they focus all their time and effort into revision.

This can quickly become counterproductive, as without rest, our brains cannot function at the level we need them to retain large amounts of information. This in turn can increase frustration and anxiety.

To ensure that students are ready to learn, they need to make time for regular exercise, connecting with friends and getting enough sleep.

Although they will inevitably need to reduce activities they enjoy to focus on the exams, completely withdrawing from everything else in their lives will have a negative impact on their physical and mental health.

Exercise

We all know the health benefits of regular exercise, however, when we are enduring stress, exercise becomes even more important in our lives.

For Leaving Certificate students, regular exercise needs to be prioritised to maintain wellbeing and ensure that they can manage their workload, plan and work to targets when revising.

It’s difficult to think clearly when there is no outlet for our stress and we are overwhelmed by how busy we are.

For some students, exercise through sport will already be a big part of their lives.

It’s important for these students to keep up with this routine as much as possible over the coming months.

However, many students do not exercise regularly and making time for gentle exercise, three times a week, will have a hugely positive effect on their ability to cope with the pressures they will face.

Connecting with others

Most of us internalise our stress, and often the sign of when someone is under too much stress is a negative change in behaviour, withdrawing from friends and family, and increases in outbursts, to name just a few examples.

It can be difficult for adults to recognise the signs of stress in themselves, which means it’s even harder for young people to firstly know the signs when they are stressed and secondly take action to help them to manage the stress.

Even though the months ahead will be very busy for Leaving Cert students, it’s important to try and stay connected with family and friends.

These are the people who know us well and can often see changes in us that we might not be able to see ourselves.

This helps us to navigate our blind spots when it comes to stress or anxiety and allow us the space to share our concerns and seek advice.

Sleep hygiene

Sleep is the most important aspect of managing stressful times in our lives, paradoxically, however, when we are stressed, it can be difficult to get enough sleep as our worries creep into our minds as we try to relax and fall asleep.

Having a healthy bedtime routine can help improve both our ability to fall asleep and to get quality rest when we are asleep.

In the couple of hours before bedtime, it’s important to avoid a lot of screen time, take time to relax, and avoid activities that are over-stimulating.

It’s also important to have a regular time for going to bed and waking up.

These routines can help us to relax and get the much-needed rest to be able to manage the challenges we might face the next day.