Rayse the Game Blog

“I never thought I would sit my Leaving Cert.” These are the words of Emma Ronan. But instead of letting negativity define her, she turned it into fuel. She sat her exams. She smashed them. She earned a degree. Then a master’s. All while battling Lyme disease and chronic fatigue—debilitating conditions that meant she spent…

“If I study something a week before a test, I can never remember it – a week later, it’s gone.” Picture this: I’m chatting with a 5th-year student last week, and he lands this on me: “So I would literally wait until the last minute to study.” Cue my jaw dropping. I never realised many…

“I don’t get it all!” These were the exact words of one of my students while reflecting on her Christmas Maths test this week. “With Maths, you either get it or you don’t,” she elaborated. During our conversation, she explained that her Maths grinds teacher couldn’t work with her the previous weekend due to illness.

“Oh God I have a test. Then I freak out.” These are the exact words a student said to me during a coaching session earlier this week. She went on to explain that she had a History exam this week and she had ‘learned’ 5 essays for this exam. However the exam did not go…

Question: why are teens so lacking in motivation today? Every day I get phone calls from teachers asking me to work in their school. When I ask them what is your number one issue with your students, the answer is nearly always the same. ‘Motivation. Our students are not motivated.’ I am lucky. My product…

Can you remember your first day of secondary school? I remember it well. Sitting in the huge hall I remember that moment of terror when I got separated from my best friend Declan Whyte. We were put in separate classes. An hour later, sitting at that old fashioned oak desk (which even had a pull-up…

Yesterday I did my first coaching session of the new academic year. I was pleasantly surprised. When I hit the zoom button a bright yellow blur appeared in front of me. My new student was sitting in a van and he was wearing a hi-vis vest. “Are you on a building site?” “I am.” He…

There is a fine line between success and failure. Just ask Akani Simbine from South Africa. Who? He was 4th in the Men’s 100m Olympic Final. He missed out on a place on the podium by 0.01 second. Many young people today are struggling with the concept of success. This is what drives perfectionism. It…

Does your teen upset you? Have they reached a point where they are saying ‘what’s the point in studying?’ Are they constantly frustrated? Is their thinking black and white? Do they struggle with concentration and cannot focus? I work with many students with these challenges. Last Saturday, I was coaching a student, let’s call him…

Statistics suggest that up to 10% of the population have dyslexia. Students with dyslexia have difficulties with reading, spelling and writing. They can also struggle with cognitive/processing difficulties. The impact of dyslexia can change according to the change in environment i.e. what a dyslexic person is asked to do and under what circumstance. Over the…