TikTokWhether you're a Leaving Certificate student or not, you've probably come across Tadgh O'Donovan on your FYP. Best known on TikTok as @teachwithtadgh, he is a Secondary School Science Teacher from Cork who has taught in both the UK and Ireland. Tadgh took to TikTok, to both teach science and share his humorous take on life at school. Most recently, Tadgh has been holding regular Lives on TikTok so students everywhere can take advantage of extra prep ahead of exam season. We caught up with Tadgh to hear his top tips ahead of the Leaving Certificate Exams, including how to stop procrastinating and the power of healthy habits! Read more about how to ace your exams below.
Q: What are your top 3 tips for Leaving Cert students sitting their exams this year?
A: Tip 1 - Practice makes perfect. With just weeks to go, my advice at this point would be to practice as many questions as possible. Past exam papers, sample papers, whatever you can get your hands on, and the mark scheme for it. Examinations.ie is a great tool for past papers and their mark schemes and is under-appreciated. If you find marking your own work boring, swap papers with someone in your class and mark their work. You quickly spot patterns and learn exam terminology. As the old saying goes “The more you practice, the luckier you get!”
Tip 2 - Time it to perfection. While practising these past papers, it's handy to also take note of the time you spend on each section. Every exam has a suggested time for each section and question, so it’s worth seeing how close you are to those suggestions. Are you spending too much time on one question and missing out on another with more marks available? Maybe you’re likely to have some time left over and you could squeeze in a bonus question. You’ll never know unless you check your timing.
Tip 3 - Keep your healthy habits. Students have a tendency to get a bit obsessive closer to exams and let their good habits slide to one side. Exercise and healthy eating goes out the window. 8 hours of sleep suddenly turns into cramming sessions at 2am, and people become physically and mentally drained going into their exams. Yes, the leaving cert is absolutely important, but if you’re not looking after yourself in the build-up and during it, how are you expected to perform to the best of your ability? Give yourself that one-hour break where you go to the gym, or go for a walk or run. If you’re really afraid of missing out, find a podcast for one of your subjects and listen to it while you exercise. Or record your own voice notes and listen back to them. But keep your healthy habits!
Q: What are some strategies for maintaining a healthy balance between study and relaxation during the exam season?
A: I’m a creature of habit, and I love routine. I get up at the same time every morning, go to the gym, come home, shower, get ready, and go to work. After work, I do boxing training 3 nights a week, and all the hours in between work and training areis when I squeeze in the random jobs I need to do, like prepping lessons, marking, or something else that needs to be looked after in my life. I do that every week, without fail.
Q: How do you suggest students tackle procrastination?
A: I’m a big believer that 80% of life is about showing up, and I feel the same way about revision. 80% of revision is just about making a start. Once you put pen to paper, it suddenly becomes easier. But how do you make a start in the first place when it feels like there's so much to do? Here’s my suggestion:
Pick 3 subjects. Each gets 20-30 minutes of focus. Pick a topic within each subject (use the index of your textbook if it helps). Pick a style of revision for each subject topic. Then set a timer on your phone. Here’s an example of what that might look like.
Subject 1: Biology - Topic: Enzymes - Style: Mindmap
Subject 2: English - Topic: Novel - Hamlet - Style: Flashcards
Subject 3: - Maths - Topic: Probability - Style: Past papers & Mark Schemes
Once you have a plan, it's much easier to make a start. And once you have a timer, you feel much more inclined to work.
Q: What has been the response to your TikTok 'Lives' in the classroom? Do you find they help you connect with students?
A: The response has been absolutely mind-blowing.Each week we’ve averaged between 250-350 students in a live lesson, with about 10,000 people coming in over the course of the hour-long class. I’d never have imagined there would be such a demand for these lessons, but here we are! And the feedback I get is great. Hearing from students is always nice, but when I get a random message from a parent saying their child watches it every week, and it’s really helping them, and that they appreciate me doing the lesson on my own time after work, that just hits different.
Q: What is the best study prep students can do in the weeks coming up to the Leaving Cert?
A: I think I’d have to take it back to my top 3 tips. At this stage, it's about recognising the kind of language in the questions in your exams, and looking at the kind of language and terminology in the mark schemes. There’s patterns that help make exams a little bit easier to prepare for, but you have to spend time identifying them and practicing them.
Q: What is your favourite TikTok you have made to date and why?
A: It’s far from my usual content, and definitely not the most popular one I’ve made recently, but I enjoyed making it, and it might motivate a few more people to study!
Now how does that link to students and exams? Well, if you want to strike a balance, you have to build a routine into your life. If you’re saying you’re going to study from 4-6, and then go for a walk from 6-7, do it. No excuses. If you’re going to do an hour of revision in Irish, History, or whatever subject before facetiming your friend for half an hour, do it. Make a schedule, and stick to it. You have to hold yourself accountable. You’ll quickly see the reward.
Q: What is something you wish someone told you before sitting your leaving cert?
A: Even if it all goes wrong, there’s life outside the leaving cert, and there is plenty of life after it too. If you don’t get the course you want, there are other avenues that will get you into it eventually. “An rud atá i ndán duit, ní rachaidh sé tharat” (What’s for you won’t pass you!)
