Any alternative to the Institute of Education?

Chreckles

So I'm 20 years old and I want to do the LC for two years -- finished secondary in a different country and did courses at unis that never worked well for me, but that's a whole and long different story. Now, problem is there seems to be an age restriction in most of the secondary schools I have enquired to! Would this be true in most cases? I'm just trying to weigh my options, and whilst the Institute of Education is one of my choices, it's pretty much my last resort as it costs seven grand a year! Quite extortionate in my opinion.

Yesterday I learned how Kilroy's College offers distance-learning courses on the LC subjects, but I thought, how am I suppose to do the practicals and orals even though I can sit the LC as an external candidate? I had been trying to decide for a long time, and earlier this year I realised that I want to do either Medicine or Dentistry -- that's why I couldn't just go to colleges of further education and similar institutions! I'm at lost on what to do

Sorry for the lengthy post, but I hope I do get a bit of help anyways. Cheerios!:)

Mongey

Chreckles wrote: »

So I'm 20 years old and I want to do the LC for two years -- finished secondary in a different country and did courses at unis that never worked well for me, but that's a whole and long different story. Now, problem is there seems to be an age restriction in most of the secondary schools I have enquired to! Would this be true in most cases?

Twenty isn't that old tbf, a good few people were 19 doing the LC in my school.

Chreckles wrote: »

I'm just trying to weigh my options, and whilst the Institute of Education is one of my choices, it's pretty much my last resort as it costs seven grand a year! Quite extortionate in my opinion.

Free education :rolleyes:

Chreckles wrote: »

Yesterday I learned how Kilroy's College offers distance-learning courses on the LC subjects, but I thought, how am I suppose to do the practicals and orals even though I can sit the LC as an external candidate? I had been trying to decide for a long time, and earlier this year I realised that I want to do either Medicine or Dentistry -- that's why I couldn't just go to colleges of further education and similar institutions! I'm at lost on what to do

Generally external candidates would just come in on the day of the orals, like anyone else. I'm not too sure what the situation would be with the practical subjects though.


Your best off to ring the local schools in your area and inquire about what you can do. I know that there is a school in my area that offer a 1 year repeat year, if that was an option.

pathway33

what you need to do is do the leaving cert on your own for 2010 aiming for say 350 points and then for LC 2011 go to a specialised repeat school that doesn't charge more than 300 euro and aim for your 550+ points there

www.qualifax.ie and type in 'repeat leaving' in the title box for repeat schools

pathway33

Chreckles wrote: »

I want to do the LC for two years

does this mean

1. you want to sit the leaving in 2011 or
2. you have wanted to sit the leaving for the past 2 years?

because if its number 2 ignore my previous post

Chreckles

Mongey wrote: »

Twenty isn't that old tbf, a good few people were 19 doing the LC in my school.


Free education :rolleyes:

Well, they were probably around 16-17 when they entered fifth year, whereas I'll be 22 by the end of 2011's LC :rolleyes: I don't really mind the age gap so much, and I do like the prospect of free education, but these schools just don't want me in *lol*. Either that or I'm not looking hard enough

I like pathway33's suggestion. I think I might go with it unless someone else comes along with a better idea!!

Chreckles

pathway33 wrote: »

what you need to do is do the leaving cert on your own for 2010 aiming for say 350 points and then for LC 2011 go to a specialised repeat school that doesn't charge more than 300 euro and aim for your 550+ points there

www.qualifax.ie and type in 'repeat leaving' in the title box for repeat schools

Sounds like a feasible plan! But do you think they'll they let me sit the LC without the practical work on biology and chemistry? As for the foreign language -- I'm planning to take up Spanish -- I could probably do with, say, a Spanish class somewhere else to help with the orals and perhaps writing, as well, so it wouldn't hit me too hard when the repeat LC comes. Oh, and do they let you do practicals in repeat leaving cert?

Trance

Phone O'Connells school on the North Circular Road, Dublin 7. They take repeat students every year and only charge a small fee for the year. (I don't remember how much it was exactly but it was only something like 300 euro.)

I know you're not a repeat student and you want to do it in two years instead but I'm sure they'd allow you to do that. They're very flexible and laid-back in regards to the whole thing. Although each year you'd be expected to keep with the curriculum followed by the repeats so you'd have to do the entire leaving cert course in one year and then the next year you'd do the same thing all over again.

spurious

Pearse College in Crumlin specialises in adult students for Leaving Cert.

pathway33

Chreckles wrote: »

how am I suppose to do the practicals and orals even though I can sit the LC as an external candidate?

If you were doing it on your own for 2010 NUI Maynooth runs practicals for the leaving cert covering all of them in one subject in one day I think.

This is from NUI Maynooth communications office:

'In this annual event up to 3,000 Leaving Cert students from all over the country will carry out their Leaving Cert Physics, Chemistry and Biology practical experiments in state of the art facilities under the expert eyes of the staff from the Science Departments at NUI Maynooth.
The feedback from schools and students involved in the programme has been extremely positive on several levels – for revision purposes, as a way to foster interest in the Sciences, and also as an insight into university life for each student.'

http://communications.nuim.ie/130109i.shtml

I know there's some college in the west of ireland does the same thing as well. Practical books for leaving cert sciences can be inspected (5% chance I think) so it would be good to get them signed off or else rumour has it you can be prevented from doing the exam. Don't know how true that is.

If you are going solo for 2010 the syllabus for english is on www.education.ie ( click curriculum, syllabi (orsomething) on the left and the range of subjects come up). There's great guidance there too for the sciences. www.examinations.ie have the history project if you are doing that as well as loads of past papers, marking schemes and chief examinaers reports.

You should look at the english syllabus for 2011 as well and try to get as much of an overlap between the poets and texts as you can. For example for the shakespearean play most will do king lear (2010) and hamlet (2011) [might be the other way round] but there's also another shakespearean play called 'The Tempest' which seems to be on every year. Same for the poets. Some will be on in consecutive years.

Re: the orals. That won't be a problem. The external candidate form is on www.examinations.ie and whatever centre you are at for the leaving in June will accomodate. I heard there's centres that specialise in external students but don't know if this is true or not.

If you find it hard to be disciplined study wise I would go with one of the suggestions above but for me personally I'd go with my suggestion

Fad

That thing in Maynooth is good, but you dont cover all of the experiments.


We got I'd say, six done?

pathway33

Fad wrote: »

That thing in Maynooth is good, but you dont cover all of the experiments.


We got I'd say, six done?

Chreckles: You'll have to ring every third level college in the country so and hope whoever does this practicals day does different experiments :eek:

D.R cowboy

What wrong with going back to your country and doing your exams there it wont cost as much

devereaux17

Great advice u absolute knob

eVeNtInE

This post has been deleted.

leesmom

im 21 just after repeating my leaving cert, tbh i didnt find the age gap to be a problem. i originally started in rathimnes college of further education, i left after xmas as i had previosly attended the institute for fifth and sixth year and the standard of teaching was much higher than rathmines, well obviously when you are paying for it.
if you want to do medicine i would seriously consider going to the institute, you will be helped a lot by the teachers in there and the standard of teaching is very high, there is a study hall open from 8.30 to 7 and then till 9 later in the year, its supervised all the time, which is perfect for when you dont have class or if you cant get study done at home and need quiet.
(please dont start slateing my post im just giving my honest opinion based on what i experienced)
hope this helps