MY LEAVING CERT':THE LEAVING Cert was no joke. Especially history and geography. They were my favourite subjects, but they were so long and there was so much to learn I don't know how we did it.

And as for English, well, it’s not as handy as everybody thinks. There was so much reading to do.

However, you didn’t get much of a choice in the Ursuline Convent in Sligo. You were a swot whether you wanted to be or not. We had three hours of supervised study every evening, and on the weekends you had to work on essays and such.

It was the best thing ever, though. We wouldn’t have done a stroke otherwise. There were high expectations of me at home – not so much on the points front, but to put in the effort. The outcome was not so important.

My father was a teacher, and that was typical of him. We would all sit around the table studying. Even the ones who were still at primary school had to be there, doing something. We were all taught how to study at home. It was part of our upbringing.

I went to a boarding school and that gave us the edge, too. The nuns were always there to give you a hand. There was no such thing as grinds, but in the last two weeks before the Leaving the teachers would give everyone extra help, because there was huge anxiety for the students to do well.

I was the eldest in my family and I put pressure on myself to do well. The girls in my school were quite competitive too. But no matter how well prepared you are, the Leaving is a difficult experience.

The weather is always lovely, other people always seem to be having a better time than you. Everyone gets butterflies, but, in the end, the thought of it is always much worse than the thing itself.

Some aspects of the Leaving will stay with me forever – because I had to learn them off by heart! We’re trying to move away from that, but there is value in committing some things to memory.

I have a very strong recollection of getting my Leaving Cert results – it was over the phone in the Abbey Hotel in Donegal, and there was a wedding going on all around me!

I got the points I needed to study social science in UCD – I didn’t go with my original plan to be a primary school teacher. If you don’t get the points you need, it’s easier now than it was then. There are many other choices, and if nothing works out you can always go back and do it again.

I’m still in touch with many of my old school friends, and I meet others in the strangest places. This year I met a group of them at one of the teachers’ conferences. They didn’t give me a hard time, I’m happy to say!

I’ve been back to my old school a number of times in recent years and have celebrated the 25th anniversary of leaving school.

The Leaving has changed a lot since I did it. But lots of the same rules apply. There are no trick questions, so if you read everything carefully and take the time to show that you understand the question and show your thought process, the examiner will see that.

Make sure that you’re familiar with your timetable as well.

My brother was woken up by a phone call from the principal on the morning of an exam that he thought was in the afternoon. Luckily he got down to the school fast enough to sit the exam, and got through it. My poor mother!

It’s easy to lose track though, especially in the last few days. So nail that exam clár to the wall!

My most abiding memory of the Leaving Cert, however, is that it was the end of an era.

I was full of excitement for the future and about to enter a very unstructured world, quite different from what I was used to in Ursuline. It’s easy to lose contact with that world, but keep in touch with your friends – you never know when you’ll need each other again.

And watch out for the underdogs. The very people that everyone frets about are the ones that end up swinging around in a bigger car than the teacher!

Mary Coughlan is the Tánaiste and Minister for Education