Advice for Leaving Cert students on last lap

With the oral exams finished over Easter, the last hurdles are now nearing for Leaving Cert students - the exams and the closing of the CAO 2025.

It is understandably a stressful and worrying time for a lot of students and parents. It is important to reset with study up to June, take a pause, and to ensure your CAO is right and chosen well for you.

Students can feel tired and sometimes a bit demotivated after the pre-exams. The last stretch is the most important now. The Leaving Cert exams begin on Wednesday, June 4. This is against a backdrop of deciding on CAO choices and courses and the uncertainty of the CAO offers.

A lot of students who want to go to third level will go through the CAO system and the CAO change of mind facility will open on May 6 at 12pm.

What is this? This is the CAO database that allows those students who have created an account to now add courses, remove courses, amend them, change the order... in essence to develop their CAO course preferences.

This will remain open until July 1 at 5pm, so there’s plenty of time to get your courses right.

The Leaving Cert results will be out on Friday, August 22, closely followed by the CAO offers. With all this going on as well as attending school, engaging in class exams, it can be a demanding time.

Study advice for the last term

If you build into your lifestyle good habits between now and the end of the exams, it will help with motivation and overall, wellbeing. It’s a marathon to the end of exams, not a sprint.

If you haven’t built in these habits, start now; a clear study space, removing your phone from this space, drinking water, healthy eating, proper sleep, a way to unwind with exercise and talking to family and friends.

Study techniques that are productive, using the Pomodoro technique, engaging in recalling, and active studying are best.

Technique and timing should be the focus now. Be clever with your study approach. Be organised with a good structure and system. 

You need to stop trawling through endless notes and work on active recalling for your topics. Work from exams papers, not textbooks. Work out the time and length of answers given to each area in your exam paper.

For example, Leaving Cert English awards a weight of 25% to the paper one essay. You get about 70 minutes to do it. Be strategic about your exams, what questions are worth more? Have I the time planned out?

Conduct a study review/audit of your subjects, what worked well and what didn’t? It is imperative you highlight your weakest subjects but also the weakest areas of each subject, plan for and prioritise these. Your pre-exam results are a great resource for you to analyse your strengths and weaknesses. Make notes of any issues you had whilst doing your pre-exams, for example timing issues.

Practically, you can make out your Leaving Cert plan, what way the subjects are running for you.

Don’t feel guilt or worried if you need to take a break from studying. There is a stigma amongst students that they need to be ‘studying all the time’, when it can be counterproductive to memorising. It can be hard to reinvigorate yourself for the last hurdle, but now is an essential time to reset and renew.

Building self-motivation

Some parents and students at careerhub.ie report feelings of motivation lapses, or for some, no motivation at all. This feeling is particularly pertinent amongst our 6th and 5th years. Some students may be burnt out and others may lack direction in relation to what they want to do career-wise.

My advice for any 6th year feeling this way is to first map out the career and courses you are aiming for, take time to revisit them, build your excitement around life next year.

I am meeting Leaving Cert and 5th year students who are aligning their skills, personalities and career interests and needs to particular career areas. This passion is then transcribed to the CAO menu of courses.

If you’re worried about CAO points, find another path to your career, there are so many opportunities for Leaving Certs now. Understanding the courses and what they can lead to with further study is invaluable.

There are new tertiary programmes that can lead to careers in nursing, business, and, new for 2025, occupational therapy. These are excellent alternatives and I strongly urge everyone to look at these. PLCs are also a fantastic route, allowing you to possibly access courses the following year that are not dependent on points. Many courses offer QQI connections into CAO courses, including arts, business, law, psychology. This does take research and accuracy.

I would never consider myself a dreamer, but I am a strong advocate for possibilities and ‘finding a way’. There are always ways, some are lengthier and others may not suit some people, but knowledge is power and knowing all possibilities can help with confidence and motivation in accessing your chosen career. If you are coming to the end of 5th year, it’s a fantastic time to get started on all of this.

I meet so many parents at careerhub.ie. Parents feel the worry and stress just as much as the students do. I would ask parents to become self-informed. Sometimes, they miss information, especially around the CAO, and it can be a challenging terrain to navigate.

Know the dates, be familiar with the procedures, have a look at the course content that your son or daughter is looking at choosing.

The CAO website contains a great handbook for information and practical advice around the CAO. On Instagram and Facebook @careerhub.ie, I update and keep parents and students informed on a regular basis.