Fine Gael has called on the Minister for Education, Dr Woods, to overhaul the Leaving Certificate because of its narrow focus on "rote learning".
The party's unexpected call comes a week before the exam starts for about 60,000 pupils and their parents.
The party's education spokesman, Mr Michael Creed TD, said: "The Leaving Certificate examination has changed little over the years and yet society and our economy, and the needs of major employers, have changed substantially over the same period.
"The examination enjoys overwhelming public confidence and change can only be achieved by consensus amongst the education partners - parents, pupils, teachers, third-level colleges, employers and the Department of Education," he said.
"Currently, the examinations are excessively restricted in the range of intellectual abilities they are capable of testing - the overwhelming emphasis being on measuring rote learning ability.
"This is unfair to students whose other intellectual skills are ignored," he added.
Mr Creed said reforms of the Leaving Certificate should be tested first at Junior Certificate level.
As disclosed in The Irish Times a fortnight ago, a new report from the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NCCA) will shortly propose that a "fundamental reappraisal" of the exam be undertaken.
Mr Creed said the NCCA should also urgently review the Junior Certificate, "bearing in mind progress made in the Leaving Cert Applied and the Leaving Cert vocational programmes".
"The Junior Certificate represents the ideal vehicle to test the waters," he said.
The NCCA report said those doing the mainstream Leaving Certificate may be missing out on innovative features included in Leaving Certificate vocational and applied programmes.
It also proposed the idea of a three-year senior cycle - transition year plus fifth and sixth years. It said there might be some way to certify or reward the work done by students during the transition year.