More than 120,000 students began their Leaving and Junior Certificate examinations this morning.
For the first time the exams are being overseen by a new body called the State Examinations Commission.
The Minister for Education, Noel Dempsey, wished all participants the best of luck and urged both parents and students to keep things in perspective.
Boxes containing exam papers in 67 subjects were sitting in Garda stations throughout the country overnight.
This morning they were unlocked by supervisors and in more than 4,500 exam centres, students began their two week marathon with the English papers.
More that 62,000 students are sitting the Leaving Cert this year.
They include more than 4,500 who are taking the Leaving Cert Applied exam, more than 3,000 who are repeating and just under 5,000 so-called external candidates; many of those would be mature students.
Just under 60,000 students have enrolled for the Junior Cert.
