Exam Season: Coping with the pressure

 

The sky is a colour usually seen only in holiday brochures, topless lads are turning pink, and sales of 99s are flying.

 

Yes, it is exam season.

 

The weather has obliged us by putting on a magnificent display, just as those who should be enjoying it most are stuck inside panicking over past exam questions. Well, I suppose some of them are.

 

We have the Junior Cert this year. I almost said “only” the Junior Cert; he has described it thus so many times that it is obviously rubbing off on me.

 

Of course the results won’t have as far-reaching effects as they do for the Leaving Cert, but it is still the first public exam these teenagers have ever taken and, if past experience is anything to go on, the results can set the scene for future performance.

 

None of this makes any impression on my 3rd year. He is stressed, yes, but only because he sees this set of tests as a major inconvenience that gets in the way of his enjoyment of the summer.

 

I feel my voice reaching clichéd nagging Mom levels as I preach about the need to read the questions, show all your workings out, answer all the questions…

 

If I’m not preaching, I’m flapping around the house, snooping to see whether he really is looking up exam questions or actually sneaking in a Facebook session. None of this is getting me anywhere.

 

And then I realise, that’s the problem, and none of it is getting me anywhere. Of course, it’s not about me. I got a very good Inter Cert (yes, I am that old) and went on to earn a very good Leaving Cert, so good that I got my first choice in the CAO.

 

I chose that course purely on the basis of points, however, and ended up hating three of the four years I spent doing it (the third year was in Spain, enough said).

 

So why would I want to inflict a similar fate on my son?

 

Why would I want to steer him in a direction that does not excite him?

 

I’m not letting him off the hook; I still expect him to work, but what happens after that is up to him.

 

After all, it’s only the Junior Cert.

 

Aoife O'Carroll is a separated mum living in Co Kerry with her two boys aged 17 and 14, and a girl aged 10.