Political science, philosophy, sociology and economics

AnotherYou

Hello all!

Okay, here's the thing then, I'm having a hard time looking at any other courses or even careers after reading up on this one at Trinity.

It seems like it may well have been made with me in mind, I've always HATED school. There was at time when I thought this meant that I hated learning, but as it happens I love learning, I love thinking and I generally love being capable of predicting any outcome in the realms of peoples reactions to the world of politics.

But school, it would seem, was to bear the brunt of my teenage rebelion against a conservative society never willing to just let kids become both opinionated and open-minded and not just twats who repeat and imitate every flipping computer game or film they get their hands on.

I went the other way. And to paint it in broad strokes for you guys, I never really re-joined the path to get a decent go at a leaving cert. I'm doing it this year and I'm doing 4 subjects, Its not looking like I'll make the grade for anything close to this course.

I think I'm able, but the system says no. Now, after that steaming pile of irrelevant information. I need to know how I can some how fandangle myself a way into this course as soon as possible without waiting until I'm 23. (Thats 5 years away maths fans.)

If anyone, any of you beautiful college going folk might be able to tell me something I'm overlooking here, or someone I might be able to get in contact with. I would honestly be greatful to you for my lifetime.

Perhaps you did something similar to the medicine undergrad courses or something? I hear people tell me all the time that there are always ways to do this granted you have the willpower. I do.

God knows anyways guys I know nothing about school or college I just know that I don't think that that fact or this system should be the ultimate authority on whether I can one day help make the world a bit better.


Wow, I do go on.

Thanks for reading!

-James

t0mm

This may or may not be relevant to you. If you are from a disadvantaged area or from an ethnic minority then this could be the way to go: http://www.tcd.ie/Trinity_Access/

andrew

Is giving the LC a decent go completely out of the question?

AnotherYou

AnotherYou wrote: »

I need to know how I can some how fandangle myself a way into this course as soon as possible without waiting until I'm 23.

Do the work like the rest of us did.

Seriously mate, you put the effort it and get the points, the course is yours.
You can't expect to both get into the course and not go through the slog the rest of us did. Looks like the only option for you is to repeat.

Also, you do know that you have to work while in college right? It doesn't get easier and there are a lot of courses you have to take that you will find boring. The same self discipline requirements that exist for the LC also exist for College. Work gets more interesting, but you still have to work.

AnotherYou

Deleted User wrote: »

Do the work like the rest of us did.

Seriously mate, you put the effort it and get the points, the course is yours.
You can't expect to both get into the course and not go through the slog the rest of us did. Looks like the only option for you is to repeat.

Ah, I wrote that comment very late, I also did a terrible job of explaining my situation Zaraba I apologise.

I'm doing a repeat leaving cert course as its all I could get into, I had a stress overload situation in and left during 5th year January 2007. I just couldn't handle the concept of investing so much time learning such silly ****, I hated it and I just didn't have the will-power at that age to do it in spite of that.

So this is my deal in a practical sense, I'm doing the leaving in amazingly small amounts of classes (2-3 hours a day.) among people who are studying the material for the 3rd year in a row now, whereas I'm doing it for about 6 months. I just won't feel right about going back to school again for another year, even if it would help it goes against my desire to learn practically applicable subjects instead of this crap I'm studying at present.

Plus I really want to get a bit of momentum towards this end so that I can begin to contribute more money at home and stop relying on mummy and daddy.


To the other guys who commented on here so far thank you so much I'll check that link out. May I ask how much these courses cost? I'm saving already anyway.

andrew

AnotherYou wrote: »

I just won't feel right about going back to school again for another year, even if it would help it goes against my desire to learn practically applicable subjects instead of this crap I'm studying at present.

I think you should put your "desire to learn practically applicable" subjects aside, play the game, study the pointless stuff, and get the points. You'll have to study crap you don't like in college too. The mark of someone who's motivated and willing to succeed (as you claim you are) is a willingness to put up with shít in recognition of your long term goals. You have to take the good with the bad etc.

AnotherYou

andrew wrote: »

I think you should put your "desire to learn practically applicable" subjects aside, play the game, study the pointless stuff, and get the points. You'll have to study crap you don't like in college too. The mark of someone who's motivated and willing to succeed (as you claim you are) is a willingness to put up with shít in recognition of your long term goals. You have to take the good with the bad etc.

Well I am doing the leaving cert, as I said its not just a case of I dont want to do these subjects. But the things that stand in my way that are of a bit more substance than just a dislike for learning some silly and unnecessary things are the facts that 4 subjects will not yeild the points I require, I also haven't had the best of chances to study this subject matter.


I completely understand that what I'm saying I want to do here may well seem condradictory to most academics work-ethic, but I think that I have been unknowingly nurturing the congnative faculties required to do well in this feild from a young age, I remember being 14 and skipping school to read 1984 and animal farm over a 3 day period, not the most common of day-off activities I dont think.

It seems a bit silly to wait until I'm 23, but if thats what the pedantic massess say is necessary then that will be what I have to do. Somehow in 5 years time all this work will have been rendered irrelevant and I will finally be judged on my merits and not a stupid system of points that really say nothing about how well I might do in the career and course I want to do.

But until then, I'm going to keep looking for some reason and logic in the system.

AnotherYou

AnotherYou wrote: »

Ah, I wrote that comment very late, I also did a terrible job of explaining my situation Zaraba I apologise.

I'm doing a repeat leaving cert course as its all I could get into, I had a stress overload situation in and left during 5th year January 2007. I just couldn't handle the concept of investing so much time learning such silly ****, I hated it and I just didn't have the will-power at that age to do it in spite of that.

So this is my deal in a practical sense, I'm doing the leaving in amazingly small amounts of classes (2-3 hours a day.) among people who are studying the material for the 3rd year in a row now, whereas I'm doing it for about 6 months. I just won't feel right about going back to school again for another year, even if it would help it goes against my desire to learn practically applicable subjects instead of this crap I'm studying at present.

Plus I really want to get a bit of momentum towards this end so that I can begin to contribute more money at home and stop relying on mummy and daddy.


To the other guys who commented on here so far thank you so much I'll check that link out. May I ask how much these courses cost? I'm saving already anyway.

thing is mate, you have to play the game.

I hated the LC, it got to the stage where I was puking up breakfast each morning in the last few months. Thing is, if you want to go to college, you gotta do it. No otherway around it.

We all liked to do stuff that interests us - I went the otherway and picked up basic carpentry and electrial skills as I worked in theatre, but at the end of the day, I worked for the LC. You have to do it, there are a lot more fun things out there but if you want to go to college, then you gotta go through the slog.

Sorry! But thats the only way. All of us here went though it.

claire h

AnotherYou wrote: »

I completely understand that what I'm saying I want to do here may well seem condradictory to most academics work-ethic, but I think that I have been unknowingly nurturing the congnative faculties required to do well in this feild from a young age, I remember being 14 and skipping school to read 1984 and animal farm over a 3 day period, not the most common of day-off activities I dont think.

Can relate, but it's always a lot easier to go and read/investigate subjects when you don't *have* to for your course - just because you may well have the cognitive abilities and thinking skills to approach the stuff on the course doesn't mean that you won't find much of what you have to do for college somewhat reminiscent of the 'jumping through hoops' for the Leaving Cert. (It's less likely to happen as frequently, and you're definitely given more freedom re: choosing your own things to research, though this does vary from course to course, but even in the most delightful of courses there will be modules that you have to do that will bring back the feeling of 'oh, god, I can't believe they're making us do this.')

How do you feel about other school-leaving exam systems? (http://www.tcd.ie/Admissions/undergraduate/requirements/) Would it be possible for you to take something like the IB (International Baccalaureate) or A-levels?

Alternatively, waiting until you're 23 is really not the worst idea in the world - get a job and work for a bit, read up on the topics that you're interested in, read the newspapers, go into it with a clear sense of what you want to get out of it (which I do think is often difficult to do when you've just stepped out of the school system). It's a fairly generous definition of 'mature student' and that does mean that it's a real option for school-leavers to consider, rather than some far-off-in-the-future vague hope.

the flananator

thing is mate, you have to play the game.

I hated the LC, it got to the stage where I was puking up breakfast each morning in the last few months. Thing is, if you want to go to college, you gotta do it. No otherway around it.

We all liked to do stuff that interests us - I went the otherway and picked up basic carpentry and electrial skills as I worked in theatre, but at the end of the day, I worked for the LC. You have to do it, there are a lot more fun things out there but if you want to go to college, then you gotta go through the slog.

Sorry! But thats the only way. All of us here went though it.

....puking up breakfast?

the flananator

the flananator wrote: »

....puking up breakfast?

That bit is optional.

AnotherYou

Deleted User wrote: »

thing is mate, you have to play the game.

Thing is, if you want to go to college, you gotta do it. No otherway around it.

Whats getting me is, there is a way, and its the easiest way of all. Wait 5 years and get in that way.

But I really do think I'd be capable at this point.

Its tough, I really have wasted so much of my young life on fighting this silly system of exams. I think it should be looked at, everyone seems so resigned to it just being the way of the world and although they're right, I just don't think it should be, there should be space for humanity in there somewhere.

Thanks everyone who's commented you've almost all helped in one way or another.

I'm still utterly lost though.

EGaffney

I would advise you that Uni is full of exams, because that's really the accepted way to test what you know throughout the education system up to postgraduate level. So if you have such a strong aversion to exams in general rather than the Leaving Cert in particular, you should look into areas other than traditional third level courses.

Brian

Do 4 A-Levels. Get 4 A's. Each is worth 150 CAO points.

---Edit iamanangryyoungman---

Monkey61

Okay I'm going to be harsh here...

The Leaving Certificate is not difficult. If you find it so hard that you can't do it, there is no way in hell you will be able to do well in college. I'm sorry but it is true. You can't just pick and choose what bits of the education system you are going to do and ignore the rest. Everybody else has to do it and so do you. You, as an adult, should understand that life requires hard work and dedication. Sure you can wait five years - what are you going to tell the college in your mature students interview then - Oh I couldn't be bothered memorising a few facts and passing a few exams? Come on.

The Leaving Certificate may not be perfect, but it is a pretty easy system to play providing you have the intelligence to do what you want. There is nothing big or clever about sitting around and thinking about how the system fails you. That is your problem, not the systems. If you want that course so bad, you should be dedicated enough to do anything to achieve it. You say you have the willpower - yet you are refusing to do the one thing that you need to get where you want.

Also once you go to college you will be surprised to learn that every subject is not going to appeal to you. There is masses of rote learning in an arts degree and it requires the exact same skills that getting a good leaving cert requires. The exams will be harder too. It is very easy to say that you can do it, but if you can't devote a year of your life to doing the LC, then there is no way you are ready for a college workload.

AnotherYou

EGaffney wrote: »

I would advise you that Uni is full of exams, because that's really the accepted way to test what you know throughout the education system up to postgraduate level. So if you have such a strong aversion to exams in general rather than the Leaving Cert in particular, you should look into areas other than traditional third level courses.

I have no problem with exams, I just question the validity of the subject matter in terms of its benefit to our nations young people.

Reading the comments might bring you up to speed on the matter.

EGaffney

I am perfectly "up to speed", but your comments so far indicate a general aversion to what leftists like to call "the system", so I thought it would help to clarify that no, university isn't all that different to second level as exams go, except that you also need to be able to guide yourself through studying things you may see as "silly and unnecessary", because those things are required for a proper education.

defiantshrimp

AnotherYou wrote: »

I have no problem with exams, I just question the validity of the subject matter in terms of its benefit to our nations young people.

You are in for one heck of a shock when you get to college if you think what you study in college is "valid". First year sociology comes to mind. As a final year BESS student (swap philosophy for business and it's essentially the same as the course you want to do) I can tell you that there are some strong parallels to the LC. I'm also pretty sure you won't just be handed a place in TCD when you reach the ripe ol' age of 23.

Futurism

Twats imitating everything they see in films and games? Can I ask if you've ever watched zeitgeist/addendum?

Wiffle

A borrowed profile will have to do as I'm currently banned on my other one, (off thread dealing on adverts)

EGaffney wrote: »

I am perfectly "up to speed", but your comments so far indicate a general aversion to what leftists like to call "the system",

The system of the leaving cert examination, not THE system. WoooOOOOooo

Monkey61 wrote: »

Oh I couldn't be bothered memorising a few facts and passing a few exams?

I think if things were that simple the better part of the country would be studying medicine first try.

Futurism wrote: »

Twats imitating everything they see in films and games? Can I ask if you've ever watched zeitgeist/addendum?

A little off topic but intriguing, yes I have, are you suggesting I'm imitating that film by having an opinion contrary to what seems like everyone on here? Do elaborate.