Guidance counsellor says students should focus ‘on what they know’ rather than what they feel they do notNiamh Dwyer: 'It’s about striking balance. A balance between what I’d call routine and rest.' Thu Jun 04 2026 - 06:01 • 3 MIN READNiamh Dwyer knows all about the Leaving Certificate. She’s a career guidance counsellor and a parent of three, with her youngest child currently sitting the Leaving Certificate exams.It’s a far cry from when her eldest child sat the exams, or didn’t as the case played out thanks to a pandemic which led to a predicted grades situation. But as an expert professionally, and in the veteran Leaving Cert parent sense, she knows what awaits.For the students, she says, “it’s about striking balance. A balance between what I’d call routine and rest”. Students should really focus “on what they know” rather than what they feel they don’t. As students do their last preparations for each of their exams “it’s all about the exam papers. Being familiar with the marking scheme. Knowing the terminology, that ‘this is the layout I’m going to have. These are the questions that I might do. These are the questions that I have to do’. Having a feel for the timing of it,” she advises.When it comes to rest, Dwyer says maintaining a good “sleep routine” is essential, as is “taking breaks”. “It’s like going to the gym, their study at this stage needs to be the shorter bursts really rather than poring over the books for hours at a time, because it’s too hard, they’re tired. They’ve a very difficult year at this stage done.”Rest is especially important throughout the period, she adds, due to the intensity of the exams. “Some of those exams are over three hours so they need energy for that. Resting, getting a bit of time with family, getting proper sleep, plenty of hydration and loads of water.”“Fresh air” is very important too, she adds. “Their brains have been working so hard all year, they need to get out in the fresh air.” When it comes to social media, Dwyer recommends that students step back a little. “It’s a double-edged sword in that social media helps them to stay connected with each other, which they need to do. But at the same time if there’s any conversations that are causing them anxiety, or are bringing extra worry at this stage, you’re trying to avoid that.”Exam postmortems help no one, Dwyer says. “In my own daughter’s school they were told that it would be no harm, if they are on a break as in lunchtime, for them actually to go home for lunchtime and come back in. It’s a good idea.”If an exam doesn’t go as a student hopes, students shouldn’t panic. “It’s usually never as bad as what they think”, she says. “Once an exam is done it’s done ... it’s a really important skill to be able to say, ‘I’ve now that done, I now need to put my energy into what’s coming tomorrow or the day after’.”If during an exam students find themselves feeling overwhelmed or thrown by a paper, Dwyer recommends they try box breathing, a practice of inhaling for four seconds, holding your breath for four seconds, exhaling for four seconds, and holding on empty for four seconds.“The one thing that we can control is our breath,” she explains. “It means they can steady themselves.”IN THIS SECTION