The Leaving and Junior Certificate exams are underway at 4,962 centres around the country.

Around 58,000 students have begun the Leaving Certificate - including the Leaving Cert Applied - while a further 60,000 are doing the Junior Certificate.

A record number of students are planning to sit honours maths for the Leaving - with more than 17,000 indicating they want to sit the paper. Although traditionally around 2,000 drop down to ordinary maths at the last minute.

It has also emerged that the Leaving Cert this year has been pre-tested on independent experts who were drafted in after a number of mistakes in exams last year.

It is hoped the subject experts will have spotted any errors before students turn over their papers this morning.

Minister of State for Training and Skills Ciarán Cannon is urging students to try not to get too stressed.

Ian Power from teen website SpunOut.ie has this advice for parents dealing with exam students.