Rayse the Game Blog

Last week, a 17-year-old student said something that stopped me in my tracks: “Ray, it’s like there’s a wall in my brain. The info goes in for a second… and then it’s gone.” Her story might sound a lot like what’s happening with your son or daughter right now. The Real Problem So for Alexandra (not real…

“I am not looking forward to going back in.” That’s what three different students told me last week during our coaching sessions. When I asked John, a Junior Cert student with ADHD, why he felt this way, he didn’t hesitate: To be honest, even I felt a little deflated after hearing him put it so…

Hands up if you’ve ever stared at your textbook, reread the same sentence five times, and still had NO idea what it said. Is this you? Yeah, me too. But what if I told you the problem isn’t you? It’s how you’re studying. Let me tell you about a student I worked with—let’s call her…

“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…

Last weekend, I was coaching a Leaving Cert student who was completely overwhelmed. She was preparing for her mock exams. We decided to look at English and in particular her English Paper 2 comparative study essay. She looked at me and said: “I cannot process my thoughts and get them down on paper.” This is…

“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…

“I’ll do it later. I’m too tired. I don’t want to go studying.” Sound familiar? These are the words of the first year student I was coaching yesterday. I loved her honesty. This is also the anthem of the average teen. After eight hours of school, homework is about as appealing as eating celery-flavoured ice…

“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.

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…