What happens if you do bad in your mocks?

BetterThanThou

Well, my mocks are in less than 2 weeks, it only hit me yesterday how much study I need to do considering I missed a lot of first and second year and still haven't studied at all, ever.
Add to the fact I'm doing ordinary level in everything except Georgraphy and Science(And I'll probably end up doing higher in religion and likely English in my Junior Cert.) makes me really not want to fail.
But, say I do fail, could the school force me to do foundation in some subjects or is it still up to me?
Also, two more questions, is doing only higher English, Religion, Science and Geography bad in your Junior Cert?
I've always thought you should be doing mostly higher level, though, that could easily be my principal's mentality carrying over to me.
Also, my principal says if you do ordinary level in your Junior Cert, unless you get a high grade you can't do that subject higher level for Leaving Cert, is this true? Part of me doesn't believe him because I'm not sure if I've ever heard him speak without bringing up the fact the school has some of the highest grades in Dublin, plus my parents were never aware of this.

tl;dr - If you do bad in your mocks can you still do the same level, is only doing higher level English, Geography, Religion and Science bad, if you do ordinary level in your Junior Cert and don't get an A can you do higher level in Leaving Cert.

professore

Hmmm I think in theory it's up to you - but in practise you will need your parents to make a case for you too and possibly some teachers. You say you missed a lot of first and second year and have never studied - the reason for this would have a huge bearing, e.g. serious illness - leeway allowed, bunking off school for months at a time - less so.

hucklebuck

In my day if you failed a mock exam your teacher could decide to drop you jnto ordinary/ foundation if they felt you would not be able to pass the real thing.

If you are dropped down from higher to ordinary you are potentially losing 60 points from your maximum when doing the leaving cert. I never heard of a student who did ordinary in junior and got moved to higher.

I did pass maths for junior as I had 3 teachers that year and did not cover the book. I did no worse than an A in pass in 5th and 6th year and was not allowed to do higher.

monkeypants

It's a while since I did the Junior Cert...so long that it wasn't even called the Junior Cert...1990. At the beginning of each exam, the real exam not the mocks, you'll be asked what paper you want. There'll be no teacher there. You choose what level you're going to be examined at. People can change their mind and decide to sit a lower paper than they had planned if they lose confidence. Similarly, if you decide to sit a higher level paper, it's your decision. Make it wisely. A fail at any level is worth nothing. The subject has been failed.

Studying a subject for Leaving Cert at a higher level assumes that you did that subject at higher level for the Junior Cert. If you didn't, you're going to be behind right from the start and you will struggle to keep up with the class. That's why the teachers don't recommend it.

spurious

You are not usually allowed change level on the day of the Junior without a letter from the teacher or Principal. This is because (at Junior Cert.) the SEC do not have large numbers of papers printed at all levels 'just in case'. It is different at Leaving Cert.. If you insist, you may be left waiting on a paper while one gets photocopied.

The school will soon be sending in a form with the numbers of papers required at each level - make sure you speak to your teachers and get them to put you in for Higher.

It's not impossible to do Higher at Leaving if you have done Ordinary at Junior, but it is making a big hill for yourself. The two levels are different levels for good reason. Higher requires an entirely different way of answering questions.

You are well able to write, so you are well able to read. You have some of the best punctuation I have ever seen on Boards. I cannot see any reason why you would not be doing almost all subjects at Higher Level. If it is just laziness, you may live to regret it, so start working now and aim for as many Higher level papers as you can. It is certainly not too late.

Glee_GG

Realistically at the end of the day your mock results are just there so that you know how your getting on study-wise and to see where your at. Your school can't force you to drop to ordinary level, they can recommend it but the final choice is yours.

While in every subject I know of (except Irish, where you have to do honours at JC level to do honours at LC) if you do OL for your JC, you can take it up at HL for the LC, but honestly why would you want to do honours for your leaving, if your not able to honours at JC level? It would just be making life very hard for yourself!

IloveConverse

Glee_GG wrote: »

While in every subject I know of (except Irish, where you have to do honours at JC level to do honours at LC) if you do OL for your JC, you can take it up at HL for the LC, but honestly why would you want to do honours for your leaving, if your not able to honours at JC level? It would just be making life very hard for yourself!

That's not necessarily true; I know of a girl who did Ordinary Irish for her Junior Cert and did Higher Level for Leaving Cert.

Some students that get A's in their Junior Cert in Ordinary level subjects should have been doing Higher level to begin with, I suppose that with a lot of hard-work during their own time they can catch up, if you will.

It conveys the importance of making a right decision in the first place as regards subject level, as these decisions have consequences that will affect you later on.