What is the institute like?

elaine93

I have a couple questions for people who went there/know people who go there. I hate my current school and I want to leave, but I'm a bit iffy on where to go. I am very academic and I like work as long as its not stupid work like 10 pages of verb drills.

1. What are the classes like, are they like university lectures where they talk at the front and you can ask questions and sometimes they ask you questions?

2. Do they only throw loads of notes at you to learn off by heart or can you learn your own notes?

3. What is the English like? Is there any discussion, reading? Do they teach you all 8 writers or just 2?

4. Is it all D4s or are there other people there too? Are people nice? (very subjective question I know)

5. Do they care whether you come to class?

6. Do they set stupid drill homework? Is there much more homework than what you got in your old school? Is it a system where you hand in as much or as little homework as possible?

7. Is there a library?

8. Did you enjoy the overall experience? Are you glad/ regret going?

9. Was it excessively stressful?

aarglynn

elaine93 wrote: »

1. What are the classes like, are they like university lectures where they talk at the front and you can ask questions and sometimes they ask you questions?

2. Do they only throw loads of notes at you to learn off by heart or can you learn your own notes?

3. What is the English like? Is there any discussion, reading? Do they teach you all 8 writers or just 2?

4. Is it all D4s or are there other people there too? Are people nice? (very subjective question I know)

5. Do they care whether you come to class?

6. Do they set stupid drill homework? Is there much more homework than what you got in your old school? Is it a system where you hand in as much or as little homework as possible?

7. Is there a library?

8. Did you enjoy the overall experience? Are you glad/ regret going?

9. Was it excessively stressful?

(1) A lot of classes are university-lecture type settings. The likes of Maths and classes with huge amounts of people anyway. Smaller classes in the less chosen subjects like Accounting, Economics etc. are taught on a much more personal basis. Either way takes nothing away from the quality of the teaching though. Plenty of enthusiasm and clarity. Questions and that can be asked anytime, and always questions asked to random students also to make sure your listening.

(2) Well to say they don't throw lots of notes at you would be a lie, but they're all examined thoroughly before you've finished with them, and can be condensed further for your own studying. So yeah if you mean compiling your own notes from the notes you got in class, then yeah you can learn your own.

(3) I don't do English this year, but from what I've heard, and also read, on the likes of ratemyteachers, they're supposed to be excellent classes.

(4) Haha. The very question I was asking to myself before I went to the Institute. Nah, while there are a lot of D4's, its mostly full of genuine people, easy to get along with like, there for the same reason you are.

(5) Again, depends on the class size. The bigger they are the less they know you and they won't notice you're not there. But the teachers who have you in smaller classes will note that you weren't there. But at the end of the day, are you gonna pay that amount of money and purposely miss class? Bit silly if that's the case.

(6) Same as any other school. Homework regularly in each subject, beneficial stuff though, exam questions and the like. Not too much pointless stuff, because of the fact it's pointless, I'd imagine.

(7) Nope, no library. Lots of information for universities and studying abroad though.

(8) Well I'm only a couple of months in, but at the moment i'm loving it, I've no complaints. Glad i chose the place to repeat.

(9) Much more stressful than an average school it has to be said. But this will vary from person to person so if you're already under a lot of pressure in the school you're in at the minute, the Institute will most likely pile a fair bit more onto your shoulders.

Wanna know anything else let me know, and I'm sure someone will answer your questions about the English classes.

theowen

elaine93 wrote: »

3. What is the English like? Is there any discussion, reading? Do they teach you all 8 writers or just 2?

You only have one class per week in paper 1, poetry, comparative and drama. For paper 1 we mainly read through sample questions/passages and then he goes through the method of answering. For poetry the teacher is simply immense. He recites the poems off by heart, explaining them in detail. We have 2 poets done already, not sure how many more we'll be doing. For drama, he reads the play in class. We've it nearly read so ye? After Christmas we're expected to have a thorough knowledge of the play and then we're concentrating on answering questions. And then for comparative we read a lot at home and then she explains it in class. Anything else?:p

MrsTed

1. What are the classes like, are they like university lectures where they talk at the front and you can ask questions and sometimes they ask you questions?
Yeah, pretty much. In some classes it has to be like that. I'm in fifth year and the classes are a bit smaller in this year than in sixth. You can have 100 people in a classroom or 8. Either way, the quality of teaching doesn't suffer - if the teacher's good, they're good.
2. Do they only throw loads of notes at you to learn off by heart or can you learn your own notes?
You get a metric ton of notes. Organisation is key from the get-go. You can write out your own notes if you want to bother or learn from a book. The notes are great though, and the class tests tend to be tailored around them.

3. What is the English like? Is there any discussion, reading? Do they teach you all 8 writers or just 2?
Ah, the English here is fantastic. Someone already explained the four class system and I think it's great - mostly because all of the teacher's are class. Yer man above me mentioned Denis:). Had him today. He called me a gazelle. Love the man. Paul McCormack's fantastic too.

4. Is it all D4s or are there other people there too? Are people nice? (very subjective question I know)
The majority is normal people but you do get D4s. The RossO'Carroll-Kelly crew tend to come in packs from other southside private school and tend to already be in their cliques when they arrive so they won't really bother you all that much. Granted in an 8.30 class seeing ten faces caked in orange slap surrounded by HUGE messy buns isn't the most aesthetically pleasing of all things, but you get used to it.

5. Do they care whether you come to class?
Yeah they do in fifth year, if the teacher bothers to take the roll. Overall though, the rules are more lax in 6th because you can't exactly give out to a mature repeat to get rid of the chewing gum now can you?
6. Do they set stupid drill homework? Is there much more homework than what you got in your old school? Is it a system where you hand in as much or as little homework as possible?

7. Is there a library?
No

8. Did you enjoy the overall experience? Are you glad/ regret going?
Ah I love this place

9. Was it excessively stressful?
This is it's one major downfall. I get stressed easily anyway, but jebus - they know how to put the pressure on. You have tests most days. It's odd because some weeks you'd have maybe one test and then the next you'd have eight in a week. You have to be constantly revising the material and although you'll find that most of the people in there aren't all absolute brainiacs, there's nothing too uncool about studying because the reality is, the general consensus is you have to get on.

Irishtrojan

(1) classes are fine, seats suck however

(2) loads of notes but its not as bas as it seems

(3) English is great especially Paul and Jim. Cian Hogan is annoying(I am not a child) and cathy sweeney is fine.

(4) Theres D4's but not many.

(5) not really

(6) Same as any other school.

(7) Nope, no library.

(8) Well I'm only a couple of months in, but at the moment i'm loving it, I've no complaints. Glad i chose the place to repeat.

(9) its stressful if you cant deal with it and put a test into perspective

elaine93

Thanks everyone,really useful answers (and generally positive, I wasn't expecting that, you hear a lot of horror stories!)

I just have one other thing I forgot about, what is the higher level maths like? I got an A in junior but it took soooooooooooo much work to get to that (up from an average of a c-) so I'm still not that confident.

theowen

elaine93 wrote: »

Thanks everyone,really useful answers (and generally positive, I wasn't expecting that, you hear a lot of horror stories!)

I just have one other thing I forgot about, what is the higher level maths like? I got an A in junior but it took soooooooooooo much work to get to that (up from an average of a c-) so I'm still not that confident.

It's supposed to be pretty amazing, though I don't do it. The teacher's name is Aidan Roantree if you want to google him or whatever.

Irishtrojan

Honors maths is fine.