At his school in Derry, Seamus Heaney remembers: "The teachers were devoted to academic excellence. We were first of all packed up like little cases full of the syllabus and then we faithfully distributed our contents in the exams."

It is much the same for all of you who will sit the Leaving Certificate this June, and "you" are more than 60,000. Not "little cases", but backpacks are almost certainly stuffed with skills, knowledge, information and competencies. And it is most important to remember, at this heady stage, facing into the exam, that you already know more than enough - what you must do is to manipulate what you know, however great or little, to the best advantage.

Any hoo-hah, and there has been quite a lot, to do with the newness and strangeness of the course applies more to teachers than to students, so ignore the hesitancies and enjoy the diversity which is offered you on either a pink or blue paper in June 2001. Young people are famous for flexibility and forward thinking and these are the qualities that LC English 2001, with its exciting new syllabus and dynamic new exam format, demands.

In the detailed outline of the English exam which follows here, every section and direction on the papers are covered. Each question type is dealt with and valuable advice is offered on timings. The comparative question is answered by a model essay.

The language course and Paper One have been fine tuned to compel an awareness of language.

In the Leaving Certificate, as in the cut and thrust of life, you will be asked to read and write short (150-200 words) and comprehensive (800 words) reports, reviews, opinions and compositions. Your opinion will be sought on the quality and content of what you have read. Be sure you read and heed the information cited at the top of the question. The provenance of the text, where it was first published or printed, who wrote it and the rubric - rules and requirements for answering - will be there. Of course, read the content as well!

The composing question is 25 per cent of the entire paper, so it must have a high priority. The kind of essay you favour will be well known to you, whether argumentative, informative, descriptive or narrative. Read again the suggested text and plan an outline. In this exam, form and structure are very, very important. When you begin to write, focus your creative energy on making an impact. Begin with a strong, vivid opening. Remember the most exciting pronoun is "I" - the authentic personal voice is worth a hundred global utterances.

Paper two, the single text question, is where the righthand margin comes into its own, so heed this comment. Each question will likely have at least one verb and a keyword, e.g.

"This novel points out the stark contrasts between the lives of men and women in the nineteenth century. Discuss etc" or "Discuss the dramatic purpose and role of Horatio in Hamlet."

Every time a the words contrast, purpose, role, or their synonyms appear in the body of your answer a mark is placed in the right-hand margin. These marks determine the grade awarded to your answer. In a generaltype question - "What impressed you about Antigone? The quest for revenge dominates the play. Discuss etc" - be sure to trawl through the great moments of the text and lace them with quotes as you go. Each crisis or incident you cite will get that beautiful blue tick treatment in the margin. Dexterity is the key to answering the comparative question. You are not required to provide deep analysis, so stick to discussion of a few incidents which include some PLC - plot, language, character.

Open your essay citing the titles and authors and then indicate the mode of comparison. From paragraph two, move between texts, discussing a few key moments. Be conservative, confine discussion to two texts and devote an entire paragraph to the third. That way you won't create confusion as to which text you may be referring to at any one time.

The poetry section is unevenly weighted, so trust your instinct and answer the unseen poem on first impressions. Time has been spent on learning the prescribed works, so give that question your best concentration. A final Salvo!

When answering on the afternoon of June 5th:

Remember that the right-hand margin will acquire a delicious tick every time you use a key word from the question.

Commence your answer by using the key words of the question.

Write the key words in BOLD CAPITALS - this may seem naive, but the pay-off will be wonderful when the right-hand margin becomes dark with beautiful ticks.

In the meantime, find a calm space, resist the rush to extra classes, don't cram, instead lower the tempo and reflect quietly on your mock exam results.

Kate Bateman is chairperson of the Association of Teachers of English (ATE) and a teacher at Stratford College, Dublin.