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…

“Why bother with Irish? Nobody even speaks it anymore!” If I had a euro for every time I heard this from a student, I’d have a half my pension plan sorted! As a study skills coach, I’ve seen it all: the subject students love to hate, the one they tolerate, and then there’s Irish—a subject that…

More than half of Leaving Cert students get a grind in Maths! This is a massive number! Maths can be the one subject that sends most teens into a tailspin. With the mock exams approaching, Maths is that one subject that can induce panic and midnight meltdowns. I know I was there! But here’s the…

Is your teen struggling to decide whether to stay in higher maths or drop down to ordinary level? I get many students and parents asking me this question at this time of year. The mock results are coming back and many students can feel disheartened if they get a poor grade. I myself failed my…

‘Should we let our daughter drop to Ordinary Irish?’ I got this question last week. My response was simple: why? The Dad explained to me that his daughter got her Junior Cert mock result back recently and she only got 35%. She is disappointed and now she wants to drop to Ordinary Irish. This girl…

“I will work harder.” This of course is a quote from George Orwell’s classic novel Animal Farm. This was also my main strategy when I sat my Leaving Cert for the first time (a long long time ago in a galaxy far far away.) On Saturday, I spoke with a very determined and ambitious young…

As we speak Storm Isha is raging. With winds gusting up to 150kmh Ireland has been battered. As I write I have no electricity. I am powerless. Many students feel they are about to be battered right now also. Many also feel powerless. With the mocks rapidly approaching the storm clouds are on the horizon.