Kat Ruane (18) has ADHD and dyspraxia, and finds it difficult to manage the timings of examsKat Ruane. Sat Jun 06 2026 - 06:01 • 2 MIN READKat Ruane is feeling somewhat calmer about the Leaving Cert, now that it’s here, than she was at the beginning of sixth year. “I’ve done all the work that I have over the past year. And now it’s just to actually sit the exams.”The 18-year-old is worried about Irish on Monday and Tuesday, “because of the length of the paper”, she says. “And then history as well because of the timing of the paper” (on Wednesday afternoon). She finds it difficult to manage the timings of exams generally because she has ADHD and dyspraxia.“My hands get very sore after writing for a certain amount of time, and it takes a while for me to process things,” she explains. The accommodations help, she says, but it’s still difficult to complete the paper in a short amount of time.Kat was offered the use of a laptop, but she declined. “I process things better when I’m writing, and also I can write much quicker than I can type,” she says. The smaller room in which she sits her exams helps to reduce distraction and she can avail of rest breaks. “And that really helps.” She worries about how she’ll manage on the days she has two exams. “That’s a big concern of mine ... I have two days with two exams. I know people that have two exams on a lot of days and I feel like that would really impact my performance in the second exam. Because I’d be very burnt out after the first one, especially because I have ADHD. It requires a lot of mental energy to sit a full exam paper. Kat has a downtime routine she maintains to help her manage. “I go to the gym regularly, usually in the evening. And that helps me to regulate a lot.”She knows it will be important to continue this throughout the exams. “There’ll definitely be temptation [to skip the gym] but my logic is that there’s nothing I could get done in that hour that would be more beneficial than me regulating myself for the exam tomorrow.”And she has a plan in place to keep herself focused right up to her last exam on June 19th. “Luckily, I have quite a few friends in my economics class that also finish quite early and then have a week break [until] economics. So I’m planning on doing group study to try keep myself motivated.” When it’s all over, Kat is hoping to study Economics, Politics and Law in DCU. But if things don’t go quite as she hopes, she plans to do a post-Leaving Cert course. Knowing that’s an option gives her great comfort. IN THIS SECTION