Top student puts nine A1s down to consistent work

whassupp2

www.breakingnews.ie wrote:

The only pupil to score nine A1s in this year’s Leaving Certificate today put his success down to consistent studying.

Ronan McGovern, from Patrician College in Kildare, said a little bit of work all the way through school helped him score top marks – rather than weeks of stressful cramming.

“I suppose I did the work consistently. But I’d various things helping me out - like my parents helping me with the French and my dad helping me out with the sciences, the teachers in school, students in school, the system in school,” he said.

“Various things like that, everything kind of works together to give the results at the end of the day.”

Ronan also offered some advice for pupils preparing for the Leaving Cert.

“Just consistency, do consistent work over the years starting from first year. It doesn’t take necessarily five hours or four hours a day, it just takes a slow building up of the work,” he told RTE Radio.

“You don’t necessarily need to work a huge amount the weeks before the exams ... it’s the work you have done in advance that counts, so consistent work an hour or two starting from first year. Not even an hour or two just whatever needs to be done to keep up the work.”

Ronan took on nine tough subjects and scored maximum points. The teenager studied Maths, English, Irish, French, German, Accountancy, Applied Maths, Physics and Chemistry.

Education Minister Mary Hanafin congratulated Ronan on his achievements.

“Isn’t Ronan such a good advocate for broad education, for showing that cramming and grinds are not the things that help you to become the articulate, confident young man that he is.”


She added: “All the more reason why students should continue to be involved in sport and music and all of the things that our schools are offering them.

“Fair play to him and his school and his parents, he’s a credit to all of them.”

But Ronan insisted the last two years were not just long nights of study. He has a keen interest in music and sport, including football and hurling.

And to celebrate he plans to go to football training before meeting up with school friends.

“I took part in Les Miserables when we had that school show here – a resounding success in the school,” he said.

“I also play the clarinet with the Kildare County orchestra. Hopefully I’ll play maybe in college next year – I have plenty of time for other things as well.”

Ronan revealed he planned to study undenominated engineering in UCD in the autumn. The course allows students to get a flavour of several disciplines such as mechanical engineering, civil, electronic and chemical.

“Maybe with a view to going on to chemical, but leave my options open for a year,” he said.

He studied nine subjects whereas the average student takes on six or perhaps seven, but he insisted it was worthwhile.

“I had a reason for doing each one, it wasn’t for the craic like,” he said.

He said he picked Applied Maths because of the advantage it will give him in the engineering course and German to get a second foreign language.

Peter also studied Leaving Cert French at home.

_________________________________________________________________

walt0r

..."student puts 9 A1's down to hard work and to being bullied every day of his living life, having no friends, having no social life, never kissing a girl or having his pleasure pinky touched by a female and to his mammy and daddy beating him around the head with a stick every time he leaves his study dungeon"

Smurphette

walt0r, are thse sour grapes in your pocket or are you just happy to see me?

smemon

tbh anyone who speaks publicly like this - 'selling their secrets' about their success is a glory hunter.

i hate those people and have said it before - anyone who bows to media attention or in this case, welcomes it - isn't worthy of our attention.

self-praise is no praise at all imo.

Kovik

Slow news day.

whassupp2

smemon wrote:

tbh anyone who speaks publicly about their success is a glory hunter.

i hate those people and have said it before - anyone who bows to media attention or in this case, welcomes it - isn't worthy of their attention.

self-praise is no praise at all imo.

....look who's talkin.........

smemons website wrote:

I completed my Leaving Cert in 2006, and bagged a respectable 480 points so I’m no dummy ;-)

Ok I'm only jokin;)

OctavarIan

Good for him. Obviously not smart enough to realise that you don't need to do 9 subjects though. He's got his few days in the sun, then he'll be brought back down to level pegging with everyone else in whatever course he's doing. Hate that.

Aoibheann

working from first year? wtf... that's.. quite scary and/or ridiculous.

Oh, and the average student takes at least 7 subjects, breakingnews.ie, so stfu. ;D

Fair play to the guy though, he did fantastically.

UU

smemon wrote:

tbh anyone who speaks publicly like this - 'selling their secrets' about their success is a glory hunter.

i hate those people and have said it before - anyone who bows to media attention or in this case, welcomes it - isn't worthy of our attention.

self-praise is no praise at all imo.

Even though it's a bit rich of you to speak about it, I do agree with you.

I felt like puking after reading that article. I just can't stand these students with their nine A's, they're such "goody two shoes" all over the radio and TV! We had two of them last year promoting those 3V vouchers. Talk about satisfying their ego! Also, I think it really puts other students down who thought they did really good and then find this person with their nine A's showing everyone up!

I'm not jealous or anything because I got what I wanted and refuse to compare myself to anyone else. It's just that it puts other people down who may have gotten a fairly good LC.

“Just consistency, do consistent work over the years starting from first year. It doesn’t take necessarily five hours or four hours a day, it just takes a slow building up of the work,”Okay. how many people do you know actually do this??? Studying since first year! Ha! Don't make me laugh! :rolleyes:

Fair play to him anyway, it's a hard thing to do.

UU

OctavarIan wrote:

Good for him. Obviously not smart enough to realise that you don't need to do 9 subjects though. He's got his few days in the sun, then he'll be brought back down to level pegging with everyone else in whatever course he's doing. Hate that.

True, true, true. Can't argue with that.

Rob30888

I put getting 500 points down to having no social life, he should have the balls to admit the same

Nehpets

He said himself he doesn't mean "study". Probably meant stay on top of the school work all the way til 6th year and then CHEAT!

Nah only joking

UU

Rob30888 wrote:

I put getting 500 points down to having no social life, he should have the balls to admit the same

But he didn't admit it. He said he still had a broad social life, didn't he? I had no social life for all of sixth year and fifth year for that matter - I admit that.

projectmayhem

UU wrote:

But he didn't admit it. He said he still had a broad social life, didn't he? I had no social life for all of sixth year and fifth year for that matter - I admit that.

he said he plays football and stuff on the radio this morning. i'd say he's been playing footie since the end of june or whenever his 9 exams ended. bet he's never seen a woman before either...

Kovik

I think we should all remind ourselves that in finishing the leaving and saying goodbye school entirely today we no longer have to listen to this crap.

Rockerette

in fariness, do we care that he got 900 points? nooooo.


i coudlnt give a sh!te :rolleyes:

oRlyYaRly

walt0r wrote:

..."student puts 9 A1's down to hard work and to being bullied every day of his living life, having no friends, having no social life, never kissing a girl or having his pleasure pinky touched by a female and to his mammy and daddy beating him around the head with a stick every time he leaves his study dungeon"

Right, let's assume the lad is fairly bright. This schedule should be sufficient for 9 A1s.

8am~ Get up, go to school
9am~ School + an hour of free time at lunch
4pm~ Study/Homeowrk for 3 hours
7-12~ 5 hours of free time before ge goes to bed.

So during the week he has 6 hours each day to meet with friends, have fun etc. etc.

Then at the weekend, he does 3 hours a day each day from 11am ~ 2pm and then has two full days to enjoy himself.

And anyway, don't we all waste time doing feck all? Surely studying during free time is more productive if you've got nothing else to do?

And... *brace yourself* maybe he likes some his subjects? Maybe he likes school altogether?

smemon

UU wrote:

I think it really puts other students down who thought they did really good and then find this person with their nine A's showing everyone up!

thats exactly what i hate. that's the sole reason i wouldnt pose for pictures or indeed go up to the school today because i knew there'd be lads who would fail maths and get way below what they needed.

9 A1's is stupid. why the hell would you do 9 subjects and aim for 9 A1's when the maximum you can get is 600 points? blatent glory hunter imo.

that guy has wasted 300 points in reality. it probably cost him 2 hours a day extra for 6 years also :rolleyes:

if this was a business, he'd be sacked for being stupid and for doing unnecessary work as well as wasting time and resources doing so.

MB44

It makes me proud to be irish when i read stuff like this and realise that yes, it is true, We are a nation of begrudgers and I salute all you begrudgers for begrudging little ronan for his success of memorising books.

(This is not a sarcastic reply in case you think, i really find it funny that you all slag off this 900 point scorer)

Rob30888

UU wrote:

But he didn't admit it. He said he still had a broad social life, didn't he? I had no social life for all of sixth year and fifth year for that matter - I admit that.

I've never had a social life Had best tag along with some people tonight

smemon

MB44 wrote:

It makes me proud to be irish when i read stuff like this and realise that yes, it is true, We are a nation of begrudgers and I salute all you begrudgers for begrudging little ronan for his success of memorising books.

it's the irish way. everyone has to be taken down a peg or two just to remind them that we will not accept self-glorified success stories

abetarrush

Rob30888 wrote:

I put getting 500 points down to having no social life, he should have the balls to admit the same

exactly


He's well a 45 year old midget

NADA

Seriously though. That was such a waste of time. He should have just done 6 subjects becasue the extra three made no difference. Also it cannot be healthy doing all that work.

Kurtosis

You can't blame him for not doing just 6 subjects, it's good to have a safety net in case some exams go badly. In his case, the safety net was rather big.

Agent Smith

penguin88 wrote:

You can't blame him for not doing just 6 subjects, it's good to have a safety net in case some exams go badly. In his case, the safety net was rather big.

whats the bets he went to a All boys school?

lucernarian

Eh mabye I'm missing something here, but all I see is a kid who did the extraordinary and worked "beyond the call of duty". He gave his reasons for the extra subjects. The L.C. is not all about the CAO.

Knowing French is obviously useful for travel or for getting jobs both here and at home. Applied maths for studying engineering is a no-brainer...

hullaballoo

walt0r wrote:

..."student puts 9 A1's down to hard work and to being bullied every day of his living life, having no friends, having no social life, never kissing a girl or having his pleasure pinky touched by a female and to his mammy and daddy beating him around the head with a stick every time he leaves his study dungeon"

An authority on these symptoms are you?

EdgarAllenPoo

penguin88 wrote:

You can't blame him for not doing just 6 subjects, it's good to have a safety net in case some exams go badly. In his case, the safety net was rather big.

I did eight. The main reason being the fact that I was doing pass maths and pass irish and needed something more for points. I never really studied(don't really know how) and taught myself two years of geography,economics and business and one year of the other five. I did it from home. If I had gone back to school I probably would have gotten my points than I did.

wowy

Who here actually believes that he rang up Rte radio this morning and told them exactly why he's so brilliant? Clearly, he was hounded by the media to give some sort of inspirational comment; the if-I-can-do-it-then-anybody-can-do-it-if-they-just-apply-themsleves comment. All he did was say what they wanted to hear. As regards absence of social life; firstly it's pretty clear thet he's uber-intelligent so he wouldn't have had to devote as many hours as us mere mortals to get his marks. Secondly, look at his extra-curricular activities list. He had a social life. Doesn't mean he was popular though-only the people who know him well can say that; not a group of (sour-grape-eating) randomers on the internet.

I certainly won't begrudge him being in the spotlight (albeit briefly) for his achievement.

oRlyYaRly

Spot on!

Poster1~ Boy gets nine A1s bla bla bla...
Poster2~ Good on him!

Is it really that hard?

Glazun

Pfft, 9 A1's is fantastic, what ever course he applies to, he'll always have the knowledge of those classes, and he cant get into a variety of different courses, depending on the subject requirements. He could be our future president..

Earth,Calling

smemon wrote:

9 A1's is stupid. why the hell would you do 9 subjects and aim for 9 A1's when the maximum you can get is 600 points? blatent glory hunter imo.
.

I did eight, I got my results today.
I didn't get eight A1's, but I did alright. And I did eight because I like school, I like the subjects and there isn't one subject that I'd like to drop. I'm sure Ronan Mcgovern is no different.

This guy did exceptionally well, he should be given credit for that.

Anyway, well done to everyone who got results today. We've finished!
... What am I saying, you're all hammered by now.

Pet

****ing overachievers. Can't stand them.


I begrudge him and his ilk all the way!

Dilly1

He just didnt play any sports, Sports really takes up alot of your time when
in school (thats why girls do better in school, but they all have bellies that would put your dad to shame ), and you end up not getting much time to study. Hes a straight A student he maybe unfit but sure he has all these A's I am sure thats a good thing isnt it ?

JackKelly

wowy wrote:

Who here actually believes that he rang up Rte radio this morning and told them exactly why he's so brilliant? Clearly, he was hounded by the media to give some sort of inspirational comment; the if-I-can-do-it-then-anybody-can-do-it-if-they-just-apply-themsleves comment. All he did was say what they wanted to hear. As regards absence of social life; firstly it's pretty clear thet he's uber-intelligent so he wouldn't have had to devote as many hours as us mere mortals to get his marks. Secondly, look at his extra-curricular activities list. He had a social life. Doesn't mean he was popular though-only the people who know him well can say that; not a group of (sour-grape-eating) randomers on the internet.

I certainly won't begrudge him being in the spotlight (albeit briefly) for his achievement.

Spot On. He obviously didn't ring up the papers. An island of begrudgers.I love how everyone talks as if they could have got 9 A1's, they just didn't want to. The guy is clearly an academic and doing 9 subjects isn't that ridiculous for someone who finds it easy to learn. Congratulations to him

LikeOhMyGawd!

Fair play to the kid, if only there were more with his attitude, never mind the success. My one bit of advice to him would be: don't do engineering. I did engineering (it was long, tough and the class was full of thickos) and I realised before I graduated that working as an engineer sucks - the work is pointless, endless meetings, cheap suits, average cars, average house....AVERAGE LIFE. So, I got myself a job in another field where the environment is stimulating, the work is tough, there are fit women and lots of partying and the financial rewards are huge. Basically it's BITCHEN'. My colleagues mostly studied other subjects at university - law, history, arts...basically the dossy 9 hours a week stuff. I ask myself why did I bother with engineering and 30 hours a week in class to end up in the same job as the others? In the end the cream rises to the top, as will this dude. But he should cut himself some slack and not do engineering! With his brains he'd be wastedin engineering - but if he insists on undertaking an 'intellectual challenge' he should do something like medicine where he'll be sharing class with a bunch of social retards, as opposed to the general retards who populate engineering.

Smurphette

oh do be quiet all of you. It's an amazing achievement.

Dilly1

I got myself a job in another field where the environment is stimulating, the work is tough, there are fit women and lots of partying and the financial rewards are huge. Basically it's BITCHEN'.

Are you a drug dealer ?? :cool:

or maybe you work in Sales

Earth,Calling

Dilly1 wrote:

He just didnt play any sports

Yes he did, you're not even getting the article right.

Does anyone know what the statistics actually are on girls vs boys in this round of the Leaving? In my school there is only one girl in the top 5 from the year. Not that it matters, just like to know. Maybe the tide is turning on yonder girls... boys are back in town:D

spurious

Generally girls are scoring higher in most subjects and gaining ground in the ones they are not yet highest in. Less of them take subjects at Foundation Level.

It's not yet seen as 'uncool' among many girls to work hard and do well.

Look at some of the reactions to this lad with 9 A1s and you can see what some people think of working hard and doing well.

EdgarAllenPoo

A girl in Booterstown got 8 A1's and only gets her name in the paper today. Fair play to the other guy but he did seem a bit "media friendly."

Princess Consuela Bananahammock

Getting 9 A1s in your leaving and thinking your intelligent is a bit like getting drenched in the rain and thinking you can swim. Not saying he isn't intellectual, or intelligent, just saying the leaving cert is no judge.

Girls do better than boys because the leaving is all about using the left-side of the brain, which favours women in general. Men tend to use the lateral/creative/spacial right brain more.

dermot_sheehan

minister wrote:

Education Minister Mary Hanafin congratulated Ronan on his achievements.

“Isn’t Ronan such a good advocate for broad education, for showing that cramming and grinds are not the things that help you to become the articulate, confident young man that he is.”


She added: “All the more reason why students should continue to be involved in sport and music and all of the things that our schools are offering them.

“Fair play to him and his school and his parents, he’s a credit to all of them.”

Blah, blah, blah,

cramming ftw

Got me through leaving cert and college (actually supposed to be cramming now).

Heinrich

Getting 9 A1s in your leaving and thinking your intelligent is a bit like getting drenched in the rain and thinking you can swim. Not saying he isn't intellectual, or intelligent, just saying the leaving cert is no judge.

I have met some intellectuals who get confused about nitty-gritty like changing a light bulb.

spurious

In fairness, I don't think anyone ever suggested doing well in the Leaving Cert. is a sign of intelligence.

It measures only a limited aspect of intelligence, arguably the least useful 'in real life'.In life, interpersonal intelligence is far more useful, but barely addressed in the standard LC - the Leaving Cert. Applied is a little better in that area.

LikeOhMyGawd!

Heinrich wrote:

I have met some intellectuals who get confused about nitty-gritty like changing a light bulb.

'Intellectuals', you mean a arty-fartys who dribble when they wee? There are loads of people who can't change a light bulb. There are also those who CAN change a light bulb but don't know how a lightbulb is manufactured or how it works. What are they then? Only partially stupid?

Anyway, some people are suggesting that getting 9 A1s in leaving cert is not a sign of intelligence. What then is being rubbish at school and failing every exam? A different type of intelligence?

In my experince any kid who is great at mathematics is great at everything. I bet this guy is no different.

Dilly1

hes lying about the sports (it wouldnt be a newspaper if it didnt bend the truth) .... he never leaves his room.


I know people like that, too brainy, they end up getting taken advantage of in the work place, people get them to do everything for little or no pay and they quite happily accept.

I had a friend who was unbelievable with numbers, brainiest guy in school. But he used to get shafted in business or even by any Salesman around, I could never understand why, its a funny old world.

If I had the time back again, I would have just passed the leaving and started a business. Some of my closest friends did that and they are successful business owners now, The way they looked at it was like this, By going straight into business they were getting a head start on all the eejits in College, I suppose it takes more balls to actually make that decision, but it worked out very well for each one of them, it could also be down to timing, because they decided to do this before the BOOM and before the country became overpriced so they were well placed to reep the rewards.

democrates

I understand where people are coming from in having a go at the chap who got 9 A1's, and for what it's worth to anyone here's my view.

Don't let the fact that there are people who can do certain things better than you get you down. Even the best in the world will eventually lose their guinness book of records position, big deal. If the rest of us compare ourselves to extremes and consider ourselves to be failing in some way, we'll never be happy. Why do that to ourselves?

Comparing yourself to others can be useful for thinking about what might be achievable and can encourage us to try a little harder, but leave it at that, focus on living your own life and be the best you can be. So long as I do my best I score 100%, my 100%, and I'm fully happy with my performance.

So what if I'm never going to be the richest man in the world, or the fastest, brainest, most famous, etc. Those people have no bearing on my life, my goal is my contentment, and that is not attained by obsessing about what I'm not, it is attained by realising what really makes me happy and choosing to live that life.

It can be tough when you're young because you know you are capable of a lot, you have an idea in your head of what success means for you, and you want to be there now. Mark this well, people tend to overestimate what they can achieve in a year, yet underestimate by far more what they can achieve in ten. Have a strategy.

The trap to avoid here is forgetting to enjoy today, not being able to fully enjoy the moment because you're attention is diluted by dreams of tomorrow or other distractions. This is simply a time management issue. Set aside time for strategising about your life, then time for medium term tactics, and once you've taken care of your life business, the rest of your time is for 100% immersion in the here and now. Don't spend more time thinking about life than living it.

In your strategy, know that you can't spend your way to true hapiness any more than clothes maketh the man. I know plenty of guys who are wealthy, but unhappy with broken or unsatisfactory marriages. Money is a means to an end in providing security and life choices so manage it wisely - thrift is your friend, but only the relationships in your life can deliver truly priceless rewards, and complete the picture.

If being happy with yourself is the centre piece in the jig-saw puzzle of life, relationships form the rest. You alone can provide that centre-piece, you can't drain another person by constantly seeking their assurance that you are a worthy person, that's something you must realise for yourself. Up to a certain point, the better the centre-piece of your self-worth you establish (without getting arrogant which is ugly), the better the relationships you can form.

Those who seek only self-gratification go into self-destruct. Without a solid sense of self worth and good relationships we remain incomplete. Trying to fill the void with drink, drugs, casual sex or anything else does zero to solve the problem, we can get hooked on temporary pleasures and these can wreck lives, pleasure is no substitute for contentment.

That wasn't not meant to be preachy, it's just the quickest way to lay it down.

UU

walt0r wrote:

..."student puts 9 A1's down to hard work and to being bullied every day of his living life, having no friends, having no social life, never kissing a girl or having his pleasure pinky touched by a female and to his mammy and daddy beating him around the head with a stick every time he leaves his study dungeon"

Well that's a very rude and inconsiderate judgement to make!

Many kids get bullied regardless of their intellectual ability. I did and I didn't get straight A's in the LC!

Maybe he did have plenty of friends and maybe he did do some socialising. He's just naturally brainy it seems.

Many fellas I know got great marks and they've never kissed a girl. I've never kissed a girl because I'm gay. Maybe this chap is sexually fustrated or hasn't met somebody he likes yet.

From the extract, his parents seemed very supportive of him.

Although, I don't like the whole "limelight" thing people get for getting straight A's every year, that doesn't imply that they didn't deserve what got or that they're is something wrong with them. Different people have different intellectual abilities.

GrumPy

UU wrote:

Many fellas I know got great marks and they've never kissed a girl.

Thats because they never kissed a girl

EdgarAllenPoo

Meh, intelligence is a burden, I found out a few years ago that my parents had my IQ tested when I was young and turned out to be 143 or there abouts. That's supposedly quite smart. I have since done everything in my power to disprove that fact:D

You can be very smart and still be in a dead end job, some people like what they do evn if others think it's beneath them. My dad is intelligent enough to do accounting or medicine but just never had the oppurtunity.