Course requirement increase ?!

nenagh_lad

Hey,

My Dads a Civil Engineer and did Engineering in College. Recently I found his Leaving Cert results, which were 4 C's and 2 D's all Higher. Now this was before the points system, I would say around mid-'70's.

Today with those results you wouldn't get within an ear shot of an Engineering course, my Dad puts it down to the fact that the subjects were more difficult then, which I don't particulary buy. I was just wondering how come it's so difficult now to get into a course like Engineering where you need almost perfect results, I personally put it down to supply & demand. It's just not particulary fair for young people today compared to then

He even told me could of gone into Medicine if he wanted.

Seaneh

in the 70's a LOT less people went onto 3rd level.

randylonghorn

Seaneh wrote: »

in the 70's a LOT less people went onto 3rd level.

Aye, and a lot less people even did LC.

Free secondary schooling was only introduced in the 60s (I think) by Donough O'Malley, Des O'Malley's father, then Minister for Education.

Supply and demand is a lot of it OP, it has turned into a points race.

mink_man

civil engineering in sligo is only 280 points, if that even??

randylonghorn

mink_man wrote: »

civil engineering in sligo is only 280 points, if that even?? :confused

Possibly, but you have to remember that civil engineering / anything construction related has taken a major hammering this year.

Even at that, civil engineering in NUIG, the nearest university to Sligo, is still at 400 in the first round; it's 410 in UCD.

And if the OP's father went to college in the mid-70's, he wouldn't have had the option to study engineering in an IoT (or RTCs as they were originally), or certainly not to Honours Degree level, they simply didn't offer courses at that level that far back.

Even if the OP's father had the highest C1 and D1 classifications for all those 4 C's and 2 D's (not that such sub-classifications, or the current points system, existed in his time) he would still have only clocked up 390, so he wouldn't get into NUIG or UCD this year, at least in the first round, even though the points for such courses have suffered a hit.

There has definitely been points inflation over the years; even though there are far more places, the number of people applying has increased proportionally even more, and thus everyone is striving for the highest possible points (and in turn driving the points up again).

Whether those entering college these days are actually better educated than the OP's father ... that's a whole different debate!

GallowsGhost

That thread title almost gave me a heart attack! I thought they were talking about introducing more entry requirements for 2010 :eek:

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Fad

The leaving cert wasnt an essential qualification back then, so many more people dropped out after the intercert.

Colleges often took people on the basis that they could pay fees (No free fees then) so you could get into Medicine on really low grades, but then get kicked out once they took some money from you because you simply not good enough.

The Leaving Cert was simply harder back then, Our Irish teacher told about her essay title when she did the Leaving, "The Shannon is the Spirit of Ireland", I'd (Greatly) struggle to write about that in English, and they had a grammar section too, I'm not sure if an A1 in honours would even remotely compare to a C back then.

eoins2345

Well the standard of Irish they had back then was alot harder.Less A's were given out and so on.Maths is supposed to have gotten way easier over the years with the amount you have to learn going way down and we can use a calculator now

Delta Kilo

Fad wrote: »

Our Irish teacher told about her essay title when she did the Leaving, "The Shannon is the Spirit of Ireland", I'd (Greatly) struggle to write about that in English,

Ah, I'm not too sure about that, Fad. Tagann na mílte turasóirí chun an abhann seo a fheiceáil. Then bring in the lovely views in the Shannon region and the historical places (Clonmacnoise, Athlone Castle). If you were good enough you could bring in the vikings. Then you could say that despite the Shannon, tourist numbers are dropping because of social problems and then bring in your trump card, daoine óga!

Fad

eoins2345 wrote: »

Well the standard of Irish they had back then was alot harder.Less A's were given out and so on.Maths is supposed to have gotten way easier over the years with the amount you have to learn going way down and we can use a calculator now

That's the point, so getting an C was actually an achievement of some description....

Delta Kilo wrote: »

Ah, I'm not too sure about that, Fad. Tagann na mílte turasóirí chun an abhann seo a fheiceáil. Then bring in the lovely views in the Shannon region and the historical places (Clonmacnoise, Athlone Castle). If you were good enough you could bring in the vikings. Then you could say that despite the Shannon, tourist numbers are dropping because of social problems and then bring in your trump card, daoine óga!

I'm a city boy, I know little of the Shannon and her lovelyness, chances are, people would just write an essay about the recession and stick the word "Shannon" in occasionally.