Current debates about senior cycle education in Ireland have raised a number of crucial questions: What effect does the Leaving Certificate exam have on young people's learning experiences? What helps students to do well in the Leaving Certificate exam? How do young people make decisions about their future life after school? What kinds of skills and competencies do young people develop in the course of their second-level education? This book provides an important evidence base for answering these and other questions by examining the experiences of young people in sixth year as they prepare for the Leaving Certificate exam and life after school. It is the latest book in a series of publications stemming from the Post-Primary Longitudinal Study, which has followed a cohort of over 900 students in twelve case-study schools, selected to capture key dimensions of school policy and practice. This is the first such longitudinal study in the Irish context and it yields rich insights into the factors shaping young people's experiences as they move through second-level education, thus providing important evidence for future policy development.