First year Christmas exams!

[DoYaKnowTheFiveLamps]

My daughter (12) is currently in first year and I’ve been informed that at the end of November she has a set of Christmas exams - English, Irish, Maths, Spanish, Religious Education, History, Home Ec, Geography, and Business Studies. It’s a fairly long time since I was in school so if anyone with secondary schoolers could let me know a bit about these - how much study is needed, how best to support her, and will these exam results matter after this year

I have a daughter in second year who did very well in her exams last year. She didn't seem to do a lot of study at home but she is very diligent so I think she listened well in class and used the study time in school between exams. The exams don't count towards anything so it's a good learning experience for them on how to organise themselves. The only extra thing I did was to check in with her to make sure she knew which subject was on which day and if she was confident she'd get the study done (during the summer exams she had misread her timetable and didn't realise until I checked in with her)

The exams results will be sent home to parents to let them know how the student is doing, they don’t really count for anything, though it would be important to do reasonably well in Irish, English and maths if they want to do higher level for junior cert. They could possibly be split into higher/ordinary level classes in second year so results will be looked at.

A lot will depend on your daughter’s school. My DD is also in first year and they had exams before midterm in all subjects and then they will have more before Christmas. I think if she has been doing her schoolwork then she will be fine. There is absolutely no need to do lots of extra work for them. I think it’s just for the school and parents to see how the students are settling in and if there are any major issues

If the first years are in mixed ability classes and the school streams in second year, she might like to put in some extra work.

It's a good idea to get into the habit of revising regardless, because exams are going to become more important as the years roll on. She will have more material to remember and more complex questions to tackle in coming years, so it's a good idea to develop revision habits thst work for her when it's all still low stakes.