Mind Moves: The Leaving Cert has taken on an extraordinary symbolic significance in Irish society: the summit of secondary school success; the ultimate marker of academic achievement; the gateway to opportunity; the determinant of third-level placement; vocational choice; and entry into the world of work.
These opportunities are provided by "points" earned in timed tests of a few hours duration per subject at the culmination of the student's school life.
Many believe that this alters the educational ethos, from development of the person to possession of points: from the "lit fire" to the "bucket full of facts". This Leaving Cert gate is too narrow in what it defines as intelligence or depicts as success, thereby denying different abilities and alternative intelligences. The system should broaden to include multi-modal measurement of multiple intelligences. Others argue that the points system is a transparent system, one that attempts to be equitable, ethical and efficient. Currently it is the best we have.
In the midst of this debate lies the poor demented student who has to sit this exam, this year, receiving this double-bind contradictory command to achieve maximum points on an exam that parents think should not be points based. Watching the student are parents, tortured about how to help. Parents do not want to pressurise beyond a student's apparent intellectual capacity or psychological strength. Equally, they do not want to renege on their parental responsibilities by trusting entirely to a student's grandiose assertion of 'I can handle it' if their child succumbs to procrastination; pernicious thief of student study time.
Many parents marvel at the creative procrastination capacity of their offspring to accomplish so little with so much effort in so much time. And when they appear for the fifth time in an hour for a quick snack or for just a few minutes of TV, then something, not study, is happening. Of course it is not surprising that many students become frozen with fear at this time of the year and simply cannot get down to the study they genuinely wish to do.
Consider the weight of media debate, school honour, parental expectations, personal aspirations, unspoken comparisons with older siblings, cousins and the brilliant children of their parents' friends, while their entire future depends on their academic achievements within the next two months. Suddenly there seems to be no time left to do anything and everything left to do. This is a recipe for extreme stress unless students can strategise and parents can support.
So what is a student to do? Don't panic. With those wonderful young brains it is never too late.
Get organised. Designate a specific study place. Buy and label large coloured plastic storage boxes assigning a different colour to each subject. Sort notes, books, everything from that subject into them. This physical filing and colour coding system helps memory and mental filing.
Examine the curriculum and past exam papers to determine exactly what you have to know, the choices and which sections could be omitted at this late stage. Revision books provide condensed versions of the courses.
Don't waste the work that went into assignments with teachers' comments on them. They represent good advice when answering exam questions.
Make a study plan based on number of days left per subject to the Leaving Cert. With seven subjects you have about five days per subject left!
Study in 45-minute chunks with a break. Study with exam questions in mind.
Scrutinise papers for the format of previous questions in each subject area. How are the questions asked? Could you answer them?
We remember best what we teach. Imagine explaining or accost a parent with the intricacies of physics!
Revise with diagrams and mind-maps. Get index cards or revision notebooks, one per subject and fill with large legible information for last minute revision.
Avoid interruptions.
Remember you can succeed if you start now.
This is also a time for parents' support, a time for sympathy, to be lenient on irritability and recognise that it is an expression of anxiety. It is a time to be vigilant for signs of stress and liberal with reassurance that regard for the young person is not dependant on exam success.
Because if the Leaving Cert is a gateway to success, it is too narrow for all, and many do fall in the annual rush for points and privileged places. Therefore, we must remember that knowledge in every discipline is now greater than any one person can possess. The future is not about rote memory but about accessing and using knowledge wisely, discriminating the worthy from the trivial, deciding where one stands on issues, what ethical position one holds, what foothold in the avalanche of ideologies.
And when anxieties arise in the weeks ahead, parents and students might remember that we live in a time of opportunities, multiple career paths and innumerable ways to chosen careers. There is something for everyone and everyone is valuable in the world.
mmurray@irish-times.ie
• Marie Murray is director of psychology, St Vincent's Hospital, Fairview, and author of Surviving The Leaving Cert: Points for Parents published by Veritas