26 year old going back to do the full leaving cert

petemg

Hi All
Im 26, completed my gcses in england, started my a levels towards medicine but half way through decided to take a year out and came over to ireland. I ended up getting a part time job in a toy superstore and stayed for 7 years working my way up to store manager. I then decided now was the time for me to go backand study what i wanted (medicine) and realize the only way its going to be in my hands is to do the whole leaving cert. so i have been accepted for Pearse college to do the 2 year leaving cert starting this September and was just looking for advice i guess. Also haven't received a book list yet
Thanks
Peter

Fair play to you


26 is still fairly young. My mother teachers Junior Cert English to mature students, her class ranges in age from 25 to about 65!

You sound like a focused individual, so just put the head down and go for it!

pathway33

www.education.ie is your friend for the syllabus. click the link on the left hand side of home page

www.examinations.ie is your friend for past exam papers, marking schemes and chief examiners reports.

petemg

hey stunner dunner thanks for that.

pathway33, i have checked those links and they are both very use full so thanks a million

pathway33

petemg wrote: »

pathway33, i have checked those links and they are both very use full so thanks a million

Cool. Just be careful when looking at the maths past papers. As you will be doing 'project maths' for LC 2012 there are parts of the old syllabus not relevant to you. All will become clear in September

Oh yeah and there is a new Irish syllabus for 2012 but maybe you are exempt from Irish if you were born in england

Larianne

Best of luck Pete with it!

I would suggest buying or taking out a book on study skills by Stella Cottrell. She explains how to use study journals. I found them a great help to get you back into studying and keeping you on track.

dr gonzo

OP i just wanted to say fair play to you, that takes some guts, i thought going back to college as a mature student was hard.

I guarantee that no matter how hard it is to uproot yourself now you'll look back at your decision to do this as the best one you ever made.

Not a very constructive post but i just wanted to say good luck to ya!

petemg

Hey Larianne, is there any title from Stella Cottrell you would suggest? any help is great at this stage especially with study,

Thanks dr Gonzo, was an easy decision in a sense of medicine was always what i wanted to do but leaving my job and comfortable salary was tough, like you said though its completely for the best and i just cant wait to get stuck in.

Larianne

Its called The Study Skills Handbook as far as I know. You might be able to get it in the library.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Study-Skills-Handbook-Palgrave/dp/0230573053/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1279487780&sr=1-1

There is also many websites out there to help with improving your study skills. But Stella Cottrell is very good.

louloubella

Going back to do the leaving at 26 shows unbelievable bravery-
Really admire ya,x:P

Feu

fair play to ya! I think your focus and passion will really carry you through the leaving.

Good luck with it!

jccf2003

Good luck to you - I'm full of admiration

petemg

Hey louloubella, feu and jccf2003,

thanks for the kind words, i really appreciate it.

petemg

Hi all,

just thought i would update this for anyone interested. I'm now 2 weeks in and seem to be doing good in chemistry, biology, physics, maths and okish in English and French. Quite a few times after class some of the lads have asked me to explain what we did in class as they didnt get it and was able to explain and help them get it so thats a good sign so far.

My chemistry and biology teacher have me doing work separate from the rest of the class as they feel i can handle it. physics i have to explain to some of the lads in our class what we are doing. maths the teacher so far hasn't impressed me (he spent the whole of our first lesson explaining how the meter was discovered) also what we are doing so far is simple enough equations and he says none of the class will do higher (which i want to do) because its too hard. So think ill have a word with my tutor and if he wont teach higher i will get someone who will as its my choice surely

English and French well i think i have to put more effort in these subjects as they don't come as naturally to me as the 4 above, but i still feel confident i will get there.

thanks
Pete

Feu

NERD! Ha ha, no seriously that is brilliant Pete. Sounds like you're off to a good start - I'm glad it's going well for you.

Re: the maths, definitely look into that, by the sounds of it you'd be well able for higher, and it would make a big difference to your points.

you know yourself you have to put in probably more time into the languages then the sciences, which come more naturally to you. Maybe you would consider doing something like meeting up with a french person to practice speaking french, as this can go a long way for the oral, and help overall comprehension? [one of those things where you speak french for half an hour and english for half an hour!]

That said, and not to take away too much from the "magic " of education, like the sciences, there is a formula to the languages, and once you've got to grips with the material and understand it, the formulas [past papers!!] will slot into place.

I really admire your commitment - good luck with it now! Oh and keep posting to let us know how you're getting on!

laurashambles

petemg wrote: »

He says none of the class will do higher (which i want to do) because its too hard. So think ill have a word with my tutor and if he wont teach higher i will get someone who will as its my choice surely

English and French well i think i have to put more effort in these subjects as they don't come as naturally to me as the 4 above, but i still feel confident i will get there.

thanks
Pete

I go to Pearse too and I'm having the same problem with Irish. Gonna have to have a chat with the guidance councillor about it. Unsure as to what can be done though.

petemg

laurashambles wrote: »

I go to Pearse too and I'm having the same problem with Irish. Gonna have to have a chat with the guidance councillor about it. Unsure as to what can be done though.

hey

well i talked to my tutor who told me they were not gonna do maths higher level so was all set to go to institute for higher maths. I told my maths teacher and he was like look go round all the maths classes in LC1 and see who wants to do higher and who is able for it and if i get at least 15 he will do it. The also had a meeting about higher maths today, maybe you could try the same with Irish as im sure a few want to do it

laurashambles

Unless there are 13 people in the other classes I don't know if that'd work. I'm in the "higher level" class for the two streams that have Irish timetabled for that slot and I'm one of two people who want to do HL. The teacher said she'd divide the class up again next year but do the OL course with the OL book for this year. I just find it really frustrating because we're going over stuff that's been hard-wired into my brain since I was a kid. (I went to a gaelscoil) At the same time, I'm not fluent so I'm eager to get cracking with the proper course. I know I can do really well, it was my highest grade at Junior Cert.

Can't afford grinds or the institute either.

(Sorry, I've kind of hijacked your thread here :P)

petemg

only 2 people in your class want to do it? thats fairly poor, what stream you in? ill ask in my class if any fancy doing HL Irish. I think in most subjects they are starting with the OL topics first and then after maybe Christmas decide who is going onto HL but ultimately its your choice what level you do. I understand your frustration though, i'm the same with Chemistry but luckily my teacher has me doing topics separate from the class, which means i have to do more on my own. If it was your highest grade at JC then you should be a good candidate for HL so just don't take no for an answer, keep pushing (in a nice way) and show what you can do in any tests or homework.

haha no worries for hijacking my thread sure its here to help others too. Hope ya can get sorted

petemg

Feu wrote: »

NERD! Ha ha, no seriously that is brilliant Pete. Sounds like you're off to a good start - I'm glad it's going well for you.

Re: the maths, definitely look into that, by the sounds of it you'd be well able for higher, and it would make a big difference to your points.

you know yourself you have to put in probably more time into the languages then the sciences, which come more naturally to you. Maybe you would consider doing something like meeting up with a french person to practice speaking french, as this can go a long way for the oral, and help overall comprehension? [one of those things where you speak french for half an hour and english for half an hour!]

That said, and not to take away too much from the "magic " of education, like the sciences, there is a formula to the languages, and once you've got to grips with the material and understand it, the formulas [past papers!!] will slot into place.

I really admire your commitment - good luck with it now! Oh and keep posting to let us know how you're getting on!

Haha thanks Feu, i think i am pretty nerdy but i think that is a good thing so thanks,

well i think maths is almost sorted so should be doing higher where i am, and im getting better in english, so just french to drag up to a decent level.

Thanks Feu i will keep you updated

Feu

sounds good here's the kind of thing i was thinking of, btw http://french.meetup.com/cities/ie/dublin/

laurashambles

petemg wrote: »

only 2 people in your class want to do it? thats fairly poor, what stream you in? ill ask in my class if any fancy doing HL Irish. I think in most subjects they are starting with the OL topics first and then after maybe Christmas decide who is going onto HL but ultimately its your choice what level you do. I understand your frustration though, i'm the same with Chemistry but luckily my teacher has me doing topics separate from the class, which means i have to do more on my own. If it was your highest grade at JC then you should be a good candidate for HL so just don't take no for an answer, keep pushing (in a nice way) and show what you can do in any tests or homework.

haha no worries for hijacking my thread sure its here to help others too. Hope ya can get sorted

Yep. And the other girl is a beginner (she needs HL to do teaching) who I'd say would have to stay at the level we're doing now, at least for a while. I'm in one of the arts streams. I'm gonna have a chat with my tutor tomorrow as the guidance counselor's been proving a little elusive. I'd talk to the teacher directly, but I kind of get the idea that she wouldn't take it very well. :P
I'm sitting the HL exam whatever happens, even if I have to study for it entirely by myself. I want to do as well as I possibly can but I can only do so much by myself.

Arrgh, this is frustrating. :pac:

petemg

ahh its defo frustrating, any joy with your tutur?? no one in my class fancies HL Irish sorry

spurious

Pearse is part of the CDVEC. Get them to put in a word for you in Plunkett (also CDVEC) for a reduced rate at their HL night class.

petemg

Hey guys

So just though i would give an update for those interested,

so far everything science is going great with my test results across chemistry, physics and biology averaging out at 86% (we have had like 2 tests per subject in science and another biology one tomorrow) and i cant say i have really pushed myself with study yet so those grades could go up more when i start getting my mind maps sorted also the teachers say my experiment write ups are a1.

English at last is coming together, i feel more confident then i was. We wrote 2 essays and a short story, for which i got good marks. Started Hamlet now and although the language is tough, the story line is easy to follow.

French, well for something i was worried about im doing good, the teacher seems to think im going to do ok at honor level (news to me) and i seem to be able to answer the questions in class.

Maths, we have started higher at last, i feel well able for it but i know this time next year its going to get a lot tougher across all subjects. I think (and this may be a mature decision or silly decision) i am going to drop down to ordinary level maths (i feel i can get A1 with out studying too hard) so then i can keep my other subjects at a high level, as opposed to doing higher maths, which will take up A LOT of time and maybe have a negative result on my other subjects.

Thanks again guys
Peter

dr gonzo

I think you'll probably find that the fact you're a mature student means you're giving yourself better chances at a subject and putting more work in then you think you are, as you say yourself you've got an A average there. For example I always thought i was academically below average because i was taking my school results as a statement of my abilities but all they represented was my immaturity at the time and nowadays i can happily say that im getting good results which i feel represent me better.

My point is some days you may wish that you had done your leaving before now but if you had you, like myself, may have gotten results that didn't actually represent your abilities so this slightly later LC you're doing may very well be a blessing in disguise.

So congratulations on your results so far, be proud of what youre doing because it takes guts and keep up the good work. I expect the day youre beginning your internship in the Mater or St. Vincents is not nearly as far away as it might seem at the moment.

petemg

Hi Dr Gonzo,

Your dead right there are days when i think 'if only i did my leaving before now' but then i cop on and know that i have a great chance right now, more so then when i was younger, as i was not as dedicated to the hard work as i am.

Thanks, i am fairly happy with how its going so far results wise, but at the same time, i wont take it easy and let my grades drop.

Thanks for the encouragement dr gonzo, i appreciate it

Peter

Crasp

Just wanted to say fair play to you!

Arthurdaly

Well done man, I love someone with a bit of drive and commitment and doing something that the general populous says you shouldn't be doing!

I've always thought if you want something really badly and are prepared to put in the time and effort you will achieve!

petemg

Hi everyone

The first term is over so just though i would give those interested another update.

After feeling fairly nervous in September, i soon settled down and found my feet, there is a good group of students in my class and some healthy competition. All the teachers i have i get on well and fully respect them to help get the best out of me.

My Christmas tests went well, i got 100% in chemistry, 96% in physics and i let my self down in biology with a 52% but it was the last day of term and the weekend before i was Christmas shopping.

Overall i know i have still to reach my top speed and know where i can improve, i have already done a good bit of study of the holidays to keep me where around where i need to be.

I have also looked at other options including mature entry to a science degree and then grad entry medicine in UK, would take the same about of time as what i have left now and its always good to keep your options open.

Anyways thanks for all the kind words since my first post, hope you all had a lovely Christmas and all the best for the new year.

Pete

tropics

Hi Pete, Just stumbled on this thread now. Fair play to you, I know how hard it is to go back!

I repeated my LC when I was 24, it was the best thing I ever did.

The best of luck to you in your exams:)

Feu

Sounds great Pete, i'm delighted to hear the updates, and that you've settled in! but don't neglect the biology, as obviously it is probably the main course that will be of benefit to you!!

sounds like you're doing all the right things with research, definitely keep your options open, a science degree and a graduate entry is definitely attractive, but bear in mind cost, of doing the 2nd degree

Larianne

I looked for this thread to wish you good luck in the Leaving but then realised you have another year to go!

Hope exams went well for you anyways!

petemg

Hey Larianne

Thanks for that, hopefully you remember next year to send me good luck

Exams I feel went well although missed the maths due to the road closures for a certain American president ha. I'll do another update on here soon for those interested.