Helen Allen is a Home Economics teacher at St Angela's College, Patrick's Hill in Cork City. Here, she shares her exam tips and more on Study Hub 2026 - part of Today with David McCullagh on RTÉ Radio 1.
Listen to the clip above t the top of the show. This episode also looked at Music and you can get all the Study Hub content here. But first, read Helen's Top 5 tips below.
Tip 1 Learn - Revise the exam layout
The Home Economics paper is divided into 3 sections.
Section A: Short questions. You must answer 10 of 14 questions here. Questions 1 to 9 are from the Food Studies Section. Questions 10 to 14 are from The Resource Management and Consumer Section.
Section B: You must answer Question 1 – It consists of Part A, B, C and D. It's an important question as it is worth 80 marks or 25% of the overall grade. This question comes from the Food Studies Section.
In Section B you will also need to answer 2 questions from Questions 2,3, 4 or 5. Each question is worth 50 marks in total and consists of Part A, B & C.
- Core Area 1 Food Studies are examined in question 2 and question 3.
- Question 4 comes from Resource Management and Consumer Studies Section.
- Question 5 will always examine Core Area 3 Social studies.
Section C: This is the elective section and is your chosen area of study. You will need to complete one on of these questions. Again, this an important question, worth another 80 marks or 25% of the overall grade.
- Question 1: Will examine Home Design and Management.
- Question 2: Will look at Textile, Fashion and Design – only choose this question if you completed the sewing project.
- Question 3: Social Studies.
- Question 4: Core – Examines all the core areas of Home Economics e.g. the same areas examined in Section B questions 2 to 5.
The layout for all questions is the same. You mut answer question A (worth 50 marks) and you can then choose between part B or C (worth 30 marks).
Tip 2 - Stick to your timings
Create a time plan before the exam and stick to it. Be brutal when the time up is move on.
Every four marks is equivalent to 1% of your total mark. If you leave out a 20-mark question due to lack of time it will have a major impact on your mark, so be balanced overall.
The Home Economics exam is 2 ½ hours in length or 150 minutes.
I would suggest the following time plan for the exam:
- Spend 5 minutes at the beginning of the exam to read the exam paper.
- Spend 20-25 minutes on short questions.
- For section B question 1 compulsory question spend 35-40 minutes – spend no more than 15 minutes on question 1 A the food label question. This is a question which you can get bogged down in.
- For section B Questions 2, 3,4 and 5. Complete any 2 of these spending 20 minutes on each question and 40 minutes in total.
- For section C the elective question spend 35 minutes.
- You should have 5 minutes remaining to double check answers given.
Tip 3 - Read exam paper and questions carefully
Take 5 minutes to read the whole exam paper at the beginning. Mark the questions in section B and section C you are going to complete. Draw a line through the ones you are not completing.
Home Economics questions can be very wordy and often have two parts. Highlight verbs and keywords in the question and use these as headings to layout out your answers.
Identify the number of marks allocated to a question and use this to determine the number of points to make.
I would suggest the following:
- 20-mark questions make either 5 points @ 4 marks each or 4 points @ 5 marks each
- 16-mark questions are 4 points @ 4 marks each.
- 12-mark questions are 4 points @ 3 marks each or 3 points @ 4 marks.
- 15 marks are 3 points @ 5 marks or 5 points @ 3 marks each. *
- 8 marks are 2 points @ 4 marks each or 4 points @ 3 marks each *
- 10 marks are 2 points @ 5 marks especially if it is asking a law / legislation question
* The higher number of points are needed when easier topics are asked e.g. sources of a nutrient e.g. protein*
Tip 4 - Review past exam papers
Review past exam papers from previous years. I would look for topics which have not been examined in a while. I would also look for common trends and identify topics which are asked regularly.
To revise for short questions, I would practice as many as I can because similar questions come up regularly.
Use SEC marking schemes to identify key points of information needed in your answers. If a word is bolded in the marking schemes, that word needs to be included in your answer.
Example:
Question "In relation to protein, explain deamination" (6 marks)
- Make 3 points at 2 marks each
"The process by which excess protein/ amino acids are used for energy, broken down by the liver, The amino group (NH2) is converted to ammonia, then to urea and excreted by the kidneys as a waste product in urine; the carboxyl group (COOH) is oxidised to produce heat and energy;"
Tip 5 - Exam techniques when answering questions.
Each short question is worth 6 marks or 1.5% of the overall grade. Don't fall into the trap of one-word answers. You need to give detail. You need to give 3 points of information for each short question at 2 marks each. If there is two parts for the short questions allocate 3 marks to each part and make 3 points at 1 mark each.
For Question 1 A students are given a graph or a stimulus. Last year students were given a pie chart in which a survey identified the main sources of energy in the adult diet in Ireland.
In the graph 23% of people identified bread, potatoes, pasta and rice. Breakfast cereals were 5%. The question stated "Using the information provided in the chart above and having regard to current healthy eating guidelines, comment and elaborate on four sources of energy in the diet of adults in Ireland"
An exam tip for this question is to divide your page in half put 'comment’ on one side and 'elaborate’ on the other side. For ‘comment’ you need to refer to the graph. State which food source has the highest percentage, which is the second highest, which one is the lowest and so on. Compare the percentages, state if there is a big difference in a percentage.
Make sure to give the examiner the percentage, they give you the label for a reason, refer to it. For the ‘elaborate’ section you need to apply your knowledge of nutrition and show the examiner what you have learned in class. For the breakfast cereals you would need to say why it is the lowest. You could say that some people skip their breakfast.
To link your answer to the current healthy guidelines, you could say that people who skip their breakfast tend to over eat on snack like foods later in the day which are often high in fat. This can lead to an energy imbalance; you will need 1 to 2 sentences on what an energy imbalance is. For elaboration refer to things like, special diets, energy, nutrients and their functions.
Food commodities are popular in the exam paper. Nutritional and dietetic value makes a regular appearance. If the marks allocated is 20 marks, you will need to make 2 nutritional points and 2 dietetic points and any other one.
For nutritional points – refer to the nutrient, type, function or special diet. For dietetic- value – refer to cost, availability, special diets and versatility or uses in the diet.
Good Luck – Keep Calm and Preserve.
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