More than 3 and a half thousand local students will sit down to their first papers in Junior and Leaving Cert 2014 this morning.
Around 17 hundred students in Carlow and Kilkenny sit the Leaving cert this year with more than 19 hundred taking the Junior Cert exams.
A record number of students are planning to sit honours maths for the Leaving Cert this year.
Both Junior and Leaving certs will sit English first today though, with the exams set to get underway from 9.30 this morning.
The advice for students and parents is to stay calm and not to get too stressed.
Carlow vocational school Guidance counsellor Gemma Lawlor is urging students to read through each paper carefully and stay until the end.