Exam performance & pressure · GAMSAT · Leaving Cert Biology & Chemistry · FENS Forum presenter

Treat the exam like a challenge you're going to excel at — not something to survive.

Nerves aren't the enemy. They're proof it matters. The skill is channelling that energy into excitement and jumping at the challenge, instead of bracing against it.

Do you struggle with nerves before you've even started?

Do you worry you won't get the score you actually need?

Do you not want to take the long, roundabout route?

Do you want your time going toward exactly what moves the score?

Under pressureSteady
98/100
Leaving Cert Biology — H1, independent study
96/100
Leaving Cert Chemistry — H1, independent study
65
GAMSAT — 2 months' prep, alongside a Master's

Pressure isn't the problem. Your relationship with it is.

I sat my Leaving Cert Biology and Chemistry independently, outside school, and came out with two H1s — 98/100 in Biology, 96/100 in Chemistry — against predicted grades that weren't close. I hold a BA (Mod.) in Biological and Biomedical Sciences, specialising in Neuroscience, from Trinity College Dublin, and went on to complete an MSc by Research in Physiology and Neuroscience, also at Trinity — an interdisciplinary project spanning physiology, neuroscience, and computer science, researching AI coaching and human performance. Along the way, I presented that research at the FENS Forum — the Federation of European Neuroscience Societies' flagship international meeting, held in Barcelona — and was accepted onto a fully funded PhD through Taighde Éireann for a research project I designed myself.

None of that happened because exams come easily to me. It happened because I built a specific way of meeting pressure, and that's what this site is actually about.

A few years later, I studied for the GAMSAT alongside a full Master's research degree and scored 65 with two months of preparation. I've since made the decision to turn down that PhD funding to pursue medicine instead — graduate-entry medicine starts this year.

Along the way I represented Ireland in squash from age 16, travelling independently to tournaments across Europe. And this past year, I taught tutorials for a module called Hacking Your Health at Trinity and assisted in medical research labs, which is where this site actually comes from: I found I genuinely loved helping people build the skills I'm good at and passionate about, and I wanted to keep doing that beyond one year of teaching.

Everything on this site is what I've learned about performing under pressure — academic, athletic, and personal.

Written from the inside of the exam, not the outside.

GAMSAT

The GAMSAT Guide

The plan I actually used to score 65 in two months, alongside a Master's degree — Section 1 reasoning, Section 3 biology and chemistry, and the study structure that made it possible on a tight timeline.

Coming soon — join the waitlist below
Leaving cert biology

Biology, Independently

The self-study approach that took me to 98/100 with no school, no class, and no safety net — built for anyone repeating, home-schooling, or studying outside the system.

Coming soon — join the waitlist below
Leaving cert chemistry

Chemistry, Independently

96/100, entirely self-taught. The structure that made a notoriously difficult subject click without a classroom.

Coming soon — join the waitlist below

Free thinking on exams, pressure, and performance.

Mindset

Why panic and focus feel the same in your body

The physiology of exam nerves — and the specific, learnable difference between a spike that derails you and one that sharpens you.

GAMSAT

How I built a two-month GAMSAT plan around a Master's

The actual weekly structure, not the idealised version — what got cut, what didn't, and why Section 3 came first.

Independent study

Sitting exams with no school behind you

What changes when there's no timetable, no teacher, and no one checking your homework — and how to build the structure yourself.

One-to-one and small-group sessions

Grinds in GAMSAT, Leaving Cert Biology, and Leaving Cert Chemistry — built around the same exams I've actually sat, recently, and independently.

  • 1:1 or small-group (3–4 students) sessions, online or in person around Dublin
  • GAMSAT Section 1 (reasoning) and Section 3 (biology, chemistry, physics)
  • Leaving Cert Biology and Chemistry, including independent/repeat students
  • Flexible scheduling, evenings and weekends available
€45 /hour, 1:1

Group sessions priced per student — get in touch for current availability.

Email to book a session