Many parents may be wondering what they can do to assist their child in preparing for the Junior and Leaving Certificate. Here are a few tips.

1 Provide as positive and supportive an environment as possible at home. Let them have a quiet, warm, well-aired room, with a comfortable - but not too comfortable - chair, a desk which does not require constant bending forward and a reading lamp to provide good light.

2 Continuous re-reading of material is a wasted exercise. Students should now be summarising their answers on index cards in graphic format, which can be revised from time to time in the coming months. Remember we forget 90 per cent of what we read within 24 hours of reading it, so writing abbreviated notes and committing points to a visual format greatly increases retention.

3 Long study periods are not helpful - take short breaks with a nourishing drink or snack. Forty minutes a subject with a variety of subjects studied at each three- to four-hour session makes for a well-balanced preparation for any exam.

4 Exercise, a good diet of healthy food, time for relaxation with friends and involvement in a favourite sporting activity are all positive elements in a three-month plan for exam success.

5 People under growing stress hate being lectured to. When experiencing stress the most important support you can have is someone to listen to you without jumping in with advice every 30 seconds. Parents need to understand that their children are secretly terrified of letting them down, whatever they may outwardly indicate. Allow your children the space to tell you what they are really feeling. In doing so, you will be giving them huge support.

6 The most important factor to remember about taking examinations is that candidates have 10 times more information in their heads than they can ever use. Between now and the exams, it is not so much a case of piling on more information as formatting the information they currently have.

7 Finally, parents should remember that this examination is simply a step on the road to the development of a set of skills in your son or daughter, to enable them to build a successful career for themselves. Success or failure is not an end in itself, simply a learning experience on the pathway of life. Nothing that happens in the Junior or Leaving Certified is set in stone. Whatever happens, your child can build on it to achieve their life goals.