I can't believe that it's February already! The weeks are already flying by,which is quite fortunate for me as its finally my birthday month but also quite unfortunate for all of you poor 3rd and 6th Year students who are just about to face to weeks of exams. Dare I say the dreaded word "M" word - for those of you wondering, it is of course "Mocks" ah well realistically I may as well say it, it's not like you haven't heard it 173678 million times by now, so I'm sure hearing it once again isn't going to make a difference after all- and to be honest I'm here to tell you that you can and you will survive what may feel like the most never ending worst two weeks of your life (Until June that is but for now we'll put that aside).By now, most of you will have already sat through at least one exam, and if you're reading this number one- you have survived, Imagine that! And number two you're more than likely doing everything possible to distract yourself from studying for your next exam, but hey I'm not complaining, continue reading to the end of this post and then you can get back to the books and prepare for your next exam.
This time 5 years ago for Junior Certificates students, and this time 2 years ago for Leaving Certificate students I was in the position that you are currently in. You may feel like your whole life depends on these exams over the next two weeks but believe me it really doesn't, and in fact you will probably forget about them the week after you have completed them! Of course they are a great way to figure out a rough idea of how you are getting on in each of your subjects which can indicate how much work you may or may not have to do ahead of the main exams in June, and personally I think that the Mocks really are a great way of properly preparing you for June- Yes of course it's easy for me to say now, as I have been there and done that, but believe me as strange as it may seem you will be grateful that you got to experience the whole exam vibe before June so that you aren't just thrown into a gigantic room full 100 odd students wondering what on earth is going on and who are all of these people?. I often use to find one or two people who I didn't even know were in my year until we were all in the exam room together, so yes I would advise that you familiarise yourself with your surroundings and with your class mates.
I have compiled a few tips from my previous exam experience's that might help at least one of you over the next two weeks- If any of my past teachers are reading this right now I'm nearly 100% certain that they are probably wondering why on earth is Caoimhe Hickey of all people giving Exam advice? But believe it or believe it I learned quite a lot throughout my school years, of course it may not have been what I was supposed to learn but at least I learned some valuable life lessons such as the following:
1. Avoid carrying out post mortems on exams..
Of course the general topic of conversation within your circle of friends over the next two weeks will be based mainly on exams as you're more than likely going to come out of exams and do a post mortem on every single page of what you should and shouldn't have written, for example if there's 6 or 7 of you in that chat, its going to result in a whole pile of should've, could've, would've and of course if its a girly chat it's going to be ten times more dramatic than it actually is but realistically there is absolutely nothing you can do about it, what's done is done and no doubt what you have done is more than enough. So my first bit of advice is to mute that group chat if you think it's going to make you overthink the whole exam. I'm not advising you to shut yourself out completely from everyone but it's so important to put yourself as the number one priority throughout the exam period.
2.Treat your Mocks as a trial run.
As I have previously said the mocks are not the end of the world but on the other hand you then should also take these exams as a trial run. Yes, when I was in the position that you were in now and when people told me to treat the mocks as if it's the real thing I was like "Please stop harping on about it, I have another 4 months to prepare" but now as I look back, I really do realise the importance of having Mock examinations and how fast four months can pass you by. It's a completely different set up to what you will be used to-from having your own little desk with nothing but the bare essential stationary, right down to having to sign in and out to use the bathroom(which believe me if your paranoid like me they will be the fastest trips to the bathroom of your life) oh and also if you think that you're going to get away with a sneaky little peak into the persons exam beside you, or if you write a few sneaky notes and stick them up your sleeve like you might do on a weekly basis in a general class test, well unfortunately this is not going to work for the Mocks or the Leaving Certificate itself so before you think about trying it over the next two weeks, don't bother, it's not going to get you anywhere, you may as well stay at home if you're going to even attempt to cheat.
3.Relax.
Before I go any further the word relax does not mean- drop the pens, close the books and put your feet up- although I know that's exactly what you all want to do. To be honest I make myself laugh every time I advise other people to relax, because I literally used to get myself into a horrific state before exams and now that I look back all I can actually think about is how much money I could have saved on makeup if I had just stopped crying/worrying and actually just focused on what I knew rather than what I didn't know going into an exam. I think girls in general tend to overthink every single situation on a good day so never mind what goes on in our heads around exam time. So before you start to eat the head off every single one of your siblings for no apparent reason(we all have done it before, you're not alone), and before you start making plans about what you're going to with the rest of your life now that you think you'll never be able to follow the career you've always wanted to because you think you're a failure before you've even sat the exams then please,please,please just take a deep breath,or an old squirt of my good old reliable Rescue Remedy and just RELAX- you can only do your best!
4.It's not going to be easy, But it will be worth it!
Throughout your school years you may think that your life is miserable, mainly because you have to sit through nine, forty minute classes for five days a week probably learning things that you may think have absolutely no relevance to your or your life but believe me it's not until you leave school and enter the big bad world that you realise how easy you actually had it while you were in school after all. I have previously spoken about dealing with an illness while also trying to keep my grades up for my Junior and Leaving Cert and yes, there were times when I absolutely broke down and felt like giving up on absolutely everything, but I didn't, I powered on and it is exactly those moments that I didn't give up I am so grateful for now. To those of you who are in 6th Year right now, you have exactly four months, so just twelve weeks to put your head down and work for what you want, you have just 12 weeks left with the people that you have spent the past five years of your life with, probably the most important five years of your life as you will have moulded from a child to an adult within that short space of time. If I could go back in time all I would love to do is go back to school for one day simply to be surrounded with my group of classmates for just one last time- and I think they're the type of things that we seem to forget about. There is life after exams and don't ever forget that- I for one can vouch for that as I'll put my hand up and say I'm not the smartest tool in the box but I am so determined to be successful, and believe me that can be achieved without 625 points.
Lastly I wish each and everyone of you the very best of luck in your exams over the next two weeks, I'll be back to give ye another pep talk before the big day in June. That's all for now , I'd love to hear some feedback on this blog post.
Until next time.
Much Love,
Caoimhe x
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