Exam Season is here, again – 2 weeks away now . . . And 120,000+ parents – 60,000+ students – are ‘Doing the Leaving’. Another 120,000+ parents are doing the Junior Cert.
The Leaving is often a challenging and anxiety-ridden time for students. It is their final exam after 5/6 years at school. Strong exam results are needed for CAO points. CAO points are needed for college courses. Competition is intense. And every year competition gets ever more intense.
Students vary in how well they travel with the demands of the Leaving. But there are also pressures on parents. So it is that parents are heard to be saying often at this time . . . ‘We’re doing the Leaving!’ And they are not kidding!
Our experience at PERFORM.ie – PERFORM in EXAMS – is that parents often need support through the leaving cert cycle and particularly at exam time. The period from mid-May into that crunch first week in June can be a nightmarish time.
Though no real consolation, stories about exam challenges – stresses, crises, successes even – are the thing of legend. The Chinese civil service exams of old provoked some years ago a book about ‘China’s Examination Hell’, some two thousand years ago it being the only route to civil service employment and progression. The stories are fascinating, mixing a heady cocktail of ambition, expectation, pressure, stress, and, at times, tragedy.
PERFORM supports both students and parents as they navigate the Leaving Cert’s challenges. We believe that Exam Skills are critical to how students perform in exams. We work with students – and often with their parents – to develop each student’s Exam SKILLS and their ability to do their very best in their exams. But we don’t leave out the parents. We can’t – parents need to get through their ‘Leaving’ too!
