Unlocking Academic Success: How Brain Training Outperforms Conventional Tutoring for Higher Leaving Cert Scores
- Thinkable Learning Centre
- Mar 31
- 5 min read
Students preparing for the Leaving Cert often rely on 1-on-1 tutoring or grinds to boost their exam performance. While these methods focus on subject knowledge, they may overlook a crucial factor: the brain's ability to process information quickly and efficiently. Brain training offers a powerful alternative by targeting underlying cognitive skills that conventional tutoring does not address. This approach helps students think faster, train attention, improve memory, and increase mental agility, leading to better exam results -- which ultimately means: higher Leaving Cert points potential.

Why Brain Training Works Better Than Tutoring
Traditional tutoring, including private tutors and grinds, typically focuses on teaching content and curriculum or exam techniques. While this can help students understand subjects better, it cannot help them memorize or process the information faster or more effectively. Tutoring, and all forms of content and curriculum revision are not the appropriate intervention for learning difficulties that involve processing speed and other cognitive weaknesses. Students are often deemed to be "lazy" if they don't learn from revision and tutoring where there is no formal diagnosis of a learning disability. But people without diagnoses can have all kinds of different combination of cognitive skill weaknesses -- making tutoring an expensive experiment that ultimately leads to failure.
Brain training targets the core skills directly related to learning -- which is a completely different approach than tutoring. With brain training, you are not teaching content but you are increasing the student's capacity to hear, understand, digest, and process content.
Processing speed exercises help students think faster, which means they can answer questions more quickly and accurately during exams. This is especially helpful to students who traditionally have needed extra time on a test.
Memory training improves the ability to retain and recall information, essential for subjects like maths and languages. Improvements in this skill help with written and oral exams alike.
Attention training enhances concentration, reducing distractions during study and tests, leading to higher scores.
In our experience at Thinkable Learning Centre, students who combine brain exercises with their regular studies outperform those relying solely on tutoring services and grinds.
There are a number of reasons why brain training works better than just tutoring. The intensity of brain training is a major component of its success, but when you hear "intensity" -- don't think brain boot camp! What we do is modelled in play and it's engaging and fun for the student. No two programs are identical because no two brains are the same. Why play? Because the brain is wired to learn from its earliest years in the form of play. When we engage this play-based learning capacity, the brain learns faster and the gains are more lasting. What you can accomplish without play might take 400 times of repetition -- but you can often accomplish the same outcome with 20 times of play-based exercises. This, and many other research-derived and evidence-based neurocognitive techniques have been put to work to create the unique kind of brain training that Thinkable Learning Centre offers.
Thinkable only provides the intensity, kind, and frequency of brain training that is possible for producing a neuroplastic effect. Neuroplasticity is the science of how the brain changes and molds as neurons learn to wire and fire together to produce new pathways. When the exercise is intense enough and challenges several cognitive skills at once, the effect is often neuroplastic. That's what we aim for and that's why our work is so individual. You cannot achieve these kinds of personal outcomes in a group setting, BUT the outcomes transfer to allowing your student to perform better and get more out of any group setting.
How Brain Training Improves Exam Performance
Faster thinking and better memory do more than just improve exam scores. They also help students in other areas:
Better maths accuracy: Improved working memory and processing speed allow students to solve problems more efficiently, reducing careless errors.
Enhanced reading capacity: Faster processing helps with comprehension and speed reading, which benefits all subjects.
Improved reflexes and reaction time: This can even help students in athletics, showing how brain training supports both academic and physical performance.
Emotional regulation and behavior modification: Training focus and attention helps students to develop the underlying cognitive skills that allow them to calm their nervous system. The end result of confident students who can access content are students who partner with educators to pursue interests -- with better attitudes and calmly.

Real Results for Competitive College Entry
In Ireland, the highest point programs at universities like Trinity, UCD, DCU, IADT, and TU Dublin require the very top Leaving Cert scores. These programs include medicine, law, veterinary science, economics, finance, arts, media, engineering, nursing, pharmacy, and actuarial science, to name a few. Students who improve their cognitive skills through the neuroplastic effect of intense brain training often see a noticeable increase in their Leaving Cert points.
For example, students who struggled with maths accuracy or reading speed have reported significant improvements after consistent brain training. This has helped them meet the demanding entry requirements for all of the most competitive courses in Ireland.
Brain training also supports students with learning difficulties. Those with ADHD, dyslexia, dyscalculia, autism, and other challenges related to learning benefit from tailored brain training maybe even more than the average student. The tools we use in our cognitive skills "brain gym" complement traditional tutoring and boost its performance. Want to make the information in grinds actually stick? Try brain training first. The evidence and the research (and our anecdotal experience!) show us that a more holistic approach to learning is the winning approach for more capable students.

Taking the Next Step
Whether you want to improve your Junior Cert results or you need more Leaving Cert points to open doors to Ireland's top university programs, consider adding brain training to your study routine. Our students already come to us from the most competitive private academies and universities in Dublin (professors too!).
Combining 1-on-1 tutoring with a targeted brain training program can be the secret to unlocking your full potential even faster. If you have to choose one, brain training is an excellent FIRST and early intervention. Our approach is more than just "better than tutoring"; it builds the mental foundation for lifelong learning, enduring curiosity, and success. Don't take our word for it -- read our 5 star customer reviews from students and parents all over Dublin who say it better than we can.
Call or Whatsapp us today at +353 (0)87 350 0757 or email us at info@thinkable.ie to see how brain training can help you think faster, learn easier, and achieve higher Leaving Cert scores.
We Can Help!
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