A special episode brings together Donnchadh O’Mahony, psychologist Malie Coyne and father Conor Pope to discuss the pressures of the Leaving Certificate, share personal experiences and offer practical advice for supporting students through exam stress, motivation and wellbeing.
Donnchadh O’Mahony, Malie Coyne and Conor Pope discuss navigating one of the biggest milestones in Irish children's lives, the whole house is sitting the Leaving Certificate .
And with the State exams almost upon us that’s a lot of people feeling the stress.is bringing you a special episode with an expert panel to help parents and students navigate the whole experience in the least frazzled way possible. Yes, we’ve made our panel publicly relive their own Leaving Cert trauma for the heck of it.realise live on air why the whole Leaving Cert thing went so wrong for him.
“This was in the dark days of the 1980s,” he says forlornly, explaining why he decided to inflict a repeat Leaving Cert on himself. “Hydration didn’t exist in the 1980s, Jen. There was nobody being hydrated. ” But did the Leaving Cert go any better the second time around for Pope?
Well, he reveals all on the pod. Now a father facing into his second year in a row as the parent of a Leaving Cert student, he discusses the approach he’s taking in supporting his daughter.
“I just want to help all of my children find their way to a place where they are grounded, rounded, happy, decent, nice people. ” The parents’ role, Pope says, is to make sure their students are “fed, they’re happy, they’re as relaxed as they can be. And they know that they have the support, no matter what. ” It’s sometimes difficult for students to strike a balance in the lead up to and during the State exams.
Some students are overly anxious, some struggle to garner motivation. Psychologist Malie Coyne says she’d personally prefer to have a child who was “less bothered” than a child who worries too much about the exams.
“It extends to every part of their lives and it really limits them,” she explains. For parents who may be considering some form of bribery as motivation for their overly-chill students, Coyne says this is perfectly acceptable.
“I don’t think bribery is a bad thing,” she says. As students are painfully aware, the clock is ticking and some may not have completed as much study as they had hoped. So is there a way to work smart?
Guidance counsellor and founder of Find My College Course Donnchadh O’Mahony explains that rather than ploughing through the text books, “active recall” is the way to make use of the remaining time, and shares how to do this on the podcast. For those aiming for very high points, he has one particular piece of advice.
“If you’re an elite student, or you want to get high points, you have to treat yourself like an elite athlete,” O’Mahony says. We also discuss how many hours a student should study; what the various third-level and further education options are; supporting neurodivergent students through the State exams; how to support Junior Cycle students; and how much leeway should parents really give students throughout exams season… Plus there’s a discussion on the dreaded Leaving Cert holiday. .
“I think it’s a rite of passage. I really do,” Coyne says, explaining ways that parents can prepare their students, and conversations to be had, ahead of travelling. You can listen to this episode on the player above or search for Conversations with Parents wherever you get your podcasts.
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