Now you know that preparation is everything

The mock examinations have given this year's Junior and Leaving Certificatestudents a dry run. Now is the time to learn a few lessons so that you make the most of the time you have left before you have to do it all again - for real.

In more than 100,000 homes, from Co Donegal to Co Kerry, parents and students are getting the results of mock examinations that took place over the last month in all secondary schools. For students sitting the Junior Certificate, this was their first experience of taking a series of papers in this format. The most common experience was exhaustion and a feeling from many students that they could have done so much better if they had only known what it was really going to be like. This is the real reason for the mocks.

How many teams have roared through the All-Ireland Championship, stormed ahead in the first half of a final, only to choke in the last 15 minutes, as the enormity of what they could now achieve hits them? The commentator consoles them after their defeat, telling the players that now they know what it takes to win, they will be able to complete the task next time. The purpose of mock examinations is to ensure that students experience what it is really like to sit final examinations day after day for two weeks in June - without having to come back next year in order to succeed.

Sitting the Junior Cert and the Leaving Cert is like running a marathon - preparation is everything and success depends on the quality of that preparation. The first lesson for parents to learn is that you have no idea what your sons and daughters are going through as the examinations approach. As you took examinations yourself in the past, you may think you know what they are experiencing, but let me assure you that you do not. That is the most important lesson for parents to learn.

I vividly remember finding myself facing a set of postgraduate examinations in my early 40s. During that same period, I attended a pre-Leaving Certificate Mass with my students. The priest started his little pep talk with the sentence, one I had used many times myself, "I know how you are all feeling right now". My first instinct was to jump up and scream: "You have no idea how they are feeling right now", but I resisted the urge, knowing that it was inappropriate for a teacher to be screaming at a priest during Mass, even if it was a week before the Leaving Certificate.

The moral of the story is that taking any examination is deeply stressful, but that the emotional experience dissipates completely in the months after the exam and what remains years later is a memory that bears no relation to the emotions experienced at the time of the actual examination. For parents the message is that you need to support your child through the next three months, as the pressure of taking the real exam grows. They have had a taste of what it is going to be like by taking the mocks, now it is time to reflect on the results of that experience and plan accordingly.

The results of the mocks are almost totally meaningless. Students can make a thousand mistakes during the mocks, learn from the experience and perform much better in the summer examinations. The subject teacher who has taught your son or daughter is the real expert in interpreting the meaning of a mock result. If they advise that a student who attempted a subject at higher level in the mocks, showed themselves, by their performace, to be totally out of their depth, I would suggest that the student and parents concerned take that advice to heart and plan to take the ordinary-level paper in June.

On the other hand, the teacher may interpret the result to mean that the student has the ability to take a higher-level paper in a particular subject, but made a number or strategic errors in the mocks. These errors can be learnt from and used to get the desired result in the summer.

If a student is still unsure what level paper they should take in a particular subject in June, the best advice is to discuss the matter with the subject teacher, after the result of the mock examination is received and interpreted, by both student and teacher.

If this process leads to a change in the level at which a subject is to be taken in June, it is very important that the school informs the State Examination Commission (SEC) of such changes in the case of the Junior Certificate. This is because students have already indicated some weeks ago, which level paper they wish to receive in June, and in the case of the Junior Certificate, other than in very rare circumstances, they must accept the level of paper indicated in the invigilator's instructions as per their original choice.

If the school informs the SEC of a change at this stage, such a change can be made without any difficulty. In the case of the Leaving Certificate, because of the level of maturity of the students concerned, they will be given whichever level of the paper - higher, ordinary or, where it exists, foundation - they request on the day. They must, however, bear in mind any parts of the examination taken prior to the written paper in deciding on the level they require. If they have completed a practical element of the exam, for example the workbook in home economics social and scientific at higher level, they must then take the written paper at the same level. The same principle applies to languages, where students will have already completed an oral exam prior to taking the written paper.

My advice to all students is never to change levels at the last minute as a panic reaction to fear. A student who does so will spend the entire examination agonising over whether they should have stuck with the original plan or taken the paper they did. This could lead to a very poor performance.

After an analysis of their performance in the mocks, a student, in consultation with their teacher and parents, should decide on a plan of action for the next three months and stick with it, unless advised to change it by the teacher concerned.

Brian Mooney is the president of the Institute of Guidance Counsellors