Feel like repeating LC?????

lcstress2012

Does anyone else feel like there gonna do bad and think that they'll have to repeat the leaving cert? I need 400 points for my course and only got 300 in my mocks and always fail maths and biology not my best subjects. I may think I would have to repeat and I would just to get into the course that I want to do. If I did ever repeat I would change my subjects around and swap Bio for HL Geog as it's easier and you get the 20% before putting pen to paper and thinking of switching to HL English, doing OL at the moment.
So has anyone else ever thought of repeating or are you a repeat student and please tell us your experiences!

bookworms

I don't think you should be thinking worst case scenarios just yet. Even if you do not get the required points in the LC there are other avenues you could go down before you consider repeating. For example you could perhaps to a PLC course in the subject area you want to do in College/Uni and from there bridge the gap and add onto your points from the LC.

Thinking that you may have to repeat is probably not the best mental attitude you could have at the moment. I have known pleny of people in the past who felt they were going to fail, yet did great at the end of the day, got the points they needed and more. You should concentrate on doing your best, you can do no more. There are other avenues you can go down if you don't get the points you want.

paaula

Yep, im going to repeat if i dont get my first or second choice. Both are around 460 points. But sure we are still young, one more year of study just to get what you really want is not bad at all. If i do repeat though im not gonna do maths or english, that's too much work. I would probably take on ag science and geography instead of them.

coffeelover

I think I'll end up repeating too Need 400 aswell but my main problem is that i'm nearly certain I failed English. I don't think I could survive another Leaving Cert

paaula

Where would you repeat? I was thinking of rathmines college since i dont want to pay few thousand just for repeating. Or i could always do it at home but then i wouldnt be able to take on new subjects.

Whatsernamex33

I'm repeating, and even considering it again ha.. Only because of that disaterous geography exam which probably cost me like 50 points..
But if you know you'd be able to do it all again, you should, in all fairness I'm doing better than I done last year (:

MoyVilla9

How could you possibly put two years of English into one? That course is massive.

Whatsernamex33

When I done it, we done Hamlet for 2011 and this year, and four of the poets are the same, wasn't a bother with the comparatives either (:
It's probably alot different seeing as Macbeth is on the course next year... It's a thing to consider, but if you know you'll work for it, definitely should go for it (:

validusername1

All this talk about repeating..
I wouldn't bother. There's always PLC courses.

The entry requirement for the course I want in university is 420 points. No way I'm gonna get that cause I'm so lazy. Can't see myself getting less than 280 or more than 320. My plan is do to a one year PLC course (entry requirement: 5 leaving cert passes), then use that to get into the university course. There's too much emphasis on points, I think it's futile when you could just do what I'm gonna do

iluvgreenday246

Believe me..... i repeated this year and it doesnt make you feel any more prepared than you do the first time around. No matter how hard you study (in my opinion anyway) you're never gonna feel like its a breeze.... Just try as hard as you can for your next few papers!

Edit: although saying that, if you are young i actually would advise repeating. i only turned 18 this may and i know college would have been hell if i was so young. if you have a year to spare i think it might be better off spent repeating than going a long way into the course you wanted which could take an extra 5 or 6 years

Mysteriouschic

I'm already repeating and my maths exam went awful. The thought that I may be repeating again is so annoying I need at least a pass or c3 in most courses but I pretty much failed paper 1 and paper 2 I'm not very good at. I'll spend this weekend on it though. I really can't fail this. My other exams went fine apart from this. I can still get my insurance choice in England though .

I've done much better this year so the year was worth it.
I've took up English this year as I did ordinary and went up to honours. It's not too hard if you work at it. I didn't find it hard personally. I hadn't learnt Hamlet either so I learnt poetry, comparative all in a year except paper 1 wasn't focused on.

biohaiid

Don't really wanna think about that yet.
I need at least 505.
I'd repeat if I really had to, but I think I'd just do arts and get into my course that way.

coffeelover

biohaiid wrote: »

Don't really wanna think about that yet.
I need at least 505.
I'd repeat if I really had to, but I think I'd just do arts and get into my course that way.

Ya I'm just going to do arts I think as long as I pass English

Lago

I can't understand why anyone would repeat if you know what you want to do. I'm doing bad enough in my leaving. If I scrapped 300 points I'd be the happiest person in the world. Geography went awful yesterday and I think I might fail OL Maths. If I do my CAO is basically useless.

I am worried but despite this the only way I'll repeat is when I become a mature student and doing one subject might be benefital to me. But by then, the Leaving Cert will probably be long forgotten and won't have any effect on my life. What people seem to forget is that the Leaving is exactly what it says, a Certificate. And a level 5 one at that. Yes it gives you more options but if you know what you want to do, doing a level 5 or 6 next year in that area is not a step down.

I'm refuse to deal with this stress and effort ever again

spurious

validusername1 wrote: »

All this talk about repeating..
I wouldn't bother. There's always PLC courses.

The entry requirement for the course I want in university is 420 points. No way I'm gonna get that cause I'm so lazy. Can't see myself getting less than 280 or more than 320. My plan is do to a one year PLC course (entry requirement: 5 leaving cert passes), then use that to get into the university course. There's too much emphasis on points, I think it's futile when you could just do what I'm gonna do

Your competing for a very small number of places going the PLC route, as long as you know that.

Incompetent

Where do I learn about PLCs? My guidance teacher would never tell me about them and told me to look them up myself

readystudypass

coffeelover wrote: »

Ya I'm just going to do arts I think as long as I pass English

You only have to pass one of english or irish to satisfy the matriculation requirements for Arts in St Pats Drumcondra.

Darren.993

I hope I manage to get enough points. I want to do secondary school teaching and it's going to look bad if I don't get an A in the subjects I want to teach.

That's seriously making me considering doing it again. I'll just see how History goes I guess.

Skerries

Whatsernamex33 wrote: »

When I done did it, we done did Hamlet for 2011 and this year, and four of the poets are the same, wasn't a bother with the comparatives either (:
It's probably alot different seeing as Macbeth is on the course next year... It's a thing to consider, but if you know you'll work for it, definitely should go for it (:

thought I'd help your English along

finality

Skerries wrote: »

thought I'd help your English along

You forgot "alot"

certifiedcrepe

I wouldn't recommend taking up geography. The amount of learning is ridiculous to be honest, it's all about essays and SRPs (significant relevant points) which pretty much have to be memorised by heart to get marks.. But if you're naturally drawn to it then completely go for it! I have been thinking about repeating and if I did I wouldn't do geography ever again.

spurious

Darren.993 wrote: »

I hope I manage to get enough points. I want to do secondary school teaching and it's going to look bad if I don't get an A in the subjects I want to teach.

Not at all. Plenty people do a degree in a subject they did not do themselves in ther Leaving.

sarahmocks

I was just wondering if anybody could shed some light on this subject for me; Currently I'm doing higher level maths, i think i've passed paper one and feeling like i will pass paper two hopefully (btw il be happy with a pass) but if i decide to repeat and dont do honours maths do you automatically forfit your 25 extra points? i know you cant mix the points from the two years but tehnically i would have still passed the hl maths?

LeinsterDub

Consider all the options. With grants I got the course I wanted in Griffith for not much more than repeating the lc and to be honest no matter how many lc I sat I probably won't of gotten what I needed will I college it was my type of course and loved it.

validusername1

Incompetent wrote: »

Where do I learn about PLCs? My guidance teacher would never tell me about them and told me to look them up myself

www.qualifax.ie

has all the information you need to know. just click on the ''search all courses'' and then choose PLC in the drop-down menu for ''course type''.

it also has information about pretty much every type of course in ireland!

validusername1

spurious wrote: »

Your competing for a very small number of places going the PLC route, as long as you know that.

Already have my conditional offer for the PLC course, but if you mean how there is only a few places in universities for PLC people, yeah I know. But I don't care.. I've a better chance of doing a PLC course really well than I do at doing the LC really well, 'cause at least the PLC course will actually be something I'm interested in.

I just don't like the way people act like if you don't do well in the LC, that's it, you'll amount to nothing. There's always ways round it!

spurious

validusername1 wrote: »

Already have my conditional offer for the PLC course, but if you mean how there is only a few places in universities for PLC people, yeah I know. But I don't care.. I've a better chance of doing a PLC course really well than I do at doing the LC really well, 'cause at least the PLC course will actually be something I'm interested in.

I just don't like the way people act like if you don't do well in the LC, that's it, you'll amount to nothing. There's always ways round it!

I'm with you there. There's always another way.
You don't need to do Leaving Cert. at all to go to college later.

Nothing wrong with not going to college at all either.

QueenOfLeon

sarahmocks wrote: »

I was just wondering if anybody could shed some light on this subject for me; Currently I'm doing higher level maths, i think i've passed paper one and feeling like i will pass paper two hopefully (btw il be happy with a pass) but if i decide to repeat and dont do honours maths do you automatically forfit your 25 extra points? i know you cant mix the points from the two years but tehnically i would have still passed the hl maths?

Going by the current rules, you can only get points from one sitting, and requirements from any number of sittings, so your bonus points from maths would only count for this year as they'd be included in your total points. If passing honours maths was a requirement for your course, you'd be able to use this years pass when applying next year, but if things stay the way they are I can't see them allowing you to carry 25 points over.

Unless you're applying for medicine, its not necessary to sit maths at all next year, if you were repeating (and you shouldn't be thinking like that in the middle of the exams anyway! ). An A1 in a normal subject is the same as a B3 in maths, so if you're just passing maths now, concentrating on subjects you find easier than maths might be a better option.

Honest opinion

I think people need to stop with the idea that if you don't get your first choice its fine you can just do a P.L.C thats not always an option and from reading this thread a lot of people are claiming that to be true.

To be quite honest you should just do your best and stop doing a post mortem on your leaving cert before your even half way through.

I just finished my first year of college and you would be honestly amazed at how fast the memory of the leaving cert fades into a distant memory. by the way for all you people considering a career in Business or something close to it the points for griffith college are very low even at level 8 and you can study there even if you fail ordinary maths (although you have to do a mock leaving vert maths in september) then you can transfer after first year to places like D.I.T Trinity e.t.c

Lago

Honest opinion wrote: »

I think people need to stop with the idea that if you don't get your first choice its fine you can just do a P.L.C thats not always an option and from reading this thread a lot of people are claiming that to be true.

Well it is another option for people and does give them hope. Hell, I know absolute wasters who did **** all in their LC and went on the dole as soon as they could without even looking for a course and they're in PLCs now. Saying that is just ridiculous mate, if you don't get your first choice it's not the end of the world. Obviously you should be aiming for it but, if you don't get it there are so many other ways of doing what you want.

To be quite honest you should just do your best and stop doing a post mortem on your leaving cert before your even half way through.

Excellent advice

zinfandel

Honest opinion wrote: »

I think people need to stop with the idea that if you don't get your first choice its fine you can just do a P.L.C thats not always an option and from reading this thread a lot of people are claiming that to be true.

To be quite honest you should just do your best and stop doing a post mortem on your leaving cert before your even half way through.

I just finished my first year of college and you would be honestly amazed at how fast the memory of the leaving cert fades into a distant memory. by the way for all you people considering a career in Business or something close to it the points for griffith college are very low even at level 8 and you can study there even if you fail ordinary maths (although you have to do a mock leaving vert maths in september) then you can transfer after first year to places like D.I.T Trinity e.t.c

Are you saying if you miss out on points and go to Griffith for a year and do well, you can then transfer to a similar course in say DCU in year 1 much the same as you can after a year in a PLC course???

Honest opinion

zinfandel wrote: »

Are you saying if you miss out on points and go to Griffith for a year and do well, you can then transfer to a similar course in say DCU in year 1 much the same as you can after a year in a PLC course???

I'm not sure about DCU im not familiar with their entry policies, i do know that D.I.T are very transfer friendly for those of you looking for moving from course to course.

look up ; advanced entry ; but yeh to be quite honest thats the thing id do if i did'nt get my points in the leaving and an awfull lot of colleges only leave limited spots for tranfering students from P.L.C courses. In my expeirence you are far better of transfering from level to level e.g. level 8 to level 8 instead of climbings the rungs from a certificate to a degree.

My two cents anyway :pac:

validusername1

Honest opinion wrote: »

I think people need to stop with the idea that if you don't get your first choice its fine you can just do a P.L.C thats not always an option and from reading this thread a lot of people are claiming that to be true.

To be quite honest you should just do your best and stop doing a post mortem on your leaving cert before your even half way through.

Eh it is true in my case. I'm not saying that I can do a PLC course and get my chosen career without any substance. I've done the research, know what exact colleges I can use my PLC course for, and I have my offer. It is a clear and very viable option for me, as with many other people. I know I won't get the Leaving Cert CAO points necessary for the university course, which is why I'm going the alternative route. I don't know many people who say ''sure if I don't get the points I'll do a PLC course, no bother'' without ever having looked into it. It would be stupid to plan on going the PLC course route without knowing if it's viable. Most people planning on taking that path already know how it works. You seem like one of those people who thinks that if you don't get good Leaving Cert points, you're screwed for life.. Not true. ''Points'' are only related to people applying to the CAO.. There are many other options and many other types of educational institutions that people can go to. The Leaving Cert isn't the decider of the rest of someone's life.

SusieBlue

I repeated my Leaving because I didn't get my first choice - Big mistake.
I had tried my best the first time, and by half way through the repeat year I was bored to tears. I had started learning the Leaving Cert course in 4th year so it was my 4th year learning the same info over and over again..

Also, if you repeat, consider the fact that all your friends are going to be in college and the temptation to go out clubbing on week nights will be unbelievable. It'll be really hard to keep your head down when all your friends are out having fun when you're trying to learn Shakespeare quotes. You also may have to learn an entire new syllabus for certain subjects, in my own experience I had to do a new Home Ec project in less than 6 weeks and had to learn completely new texts for English.

I did very little work my repeat year and ended up coming out with only 20 more points than I got on my first attempt, which was still 10 points short for my first choice.

Honestly, if you really did do worse than you think, do a PLC. They aren't very expensive and at least if you hate the course you won't feel as guilty about dropping out than you would if you dropped out after paying your €2,000+ fees for a level 7/8. Go back as a Mature student and you can pick and choose what you want to do.

Good luck

Honest opinion

validusername1 wrote: »

Eh it is true in my case. I'm not saying that I can do a PLC course and get my chosen career without any substance. I've done the research, know what exact colleges I can use my PLC course for, and I have my offer.

Thats great its good to hear you have the option of a P.L.C ,people need to stop taking what i was saying out of context i did'nt say i could'nt be done i was merely making the point it is a more difficult route and is'nt always an option for many people. Im genuinly concerned about how flipant some people are are about their results and think its grand il just do a P.L.C and then transfer into my first choice.

Thats not necesarily true there are very few spaces for lower level transfers and when you take into account the absolute explosion in the numbers of mature students coming to colleges for the first time you can be dam sure there not making new slots available.

But yeh anyway i know il probably get an angry responce for this but ive been in the same position last year and i know what im talking about i was very lucky to have a suportive guidance counciler and managed to get to college at level 8 and now im transfering to my first choice next year.

By the way if i had gone the P.L.C route it would have taken double that

crayon1

Hi guys just thought I'd share my experience with ye seems I was in the same boat last year! I'm repeating this year as I missed my first choice and second choices by 5-15 points! I wasn't interested in my 3rd choice...for some reason I had decided when I got my results that I didn't want to do it. The only option for me was to repeat.

Please make sure to fill out your CAO correctly, because there probably is courses I would have had the points for and would have done but that wern't on my CAO. DO NOT put courses on the end of your CAO for the sake of it, ask yourself if you were offered that course down at number 9 or 10 would you actually want to do it??

While I am so glad I didn't go ahead and do a course I didn't want to just for the sake of going to college, repeating isin't a decision to be taken lightly. I have friends now who went on doing PLC courses for a year, and a year on have no idea what they are going to do now! IMO I am now in a much better position provided I improve in points.

However, repeating is a mental challenge!! Believe me! You must ask yourself if you go and repeat are you actually going to give it the same effort if not more than last year? Some people that repeat are just wasting a year....they come back because they feel they can do better, but put little effort into doing so.

Also you have to factor in that those friends that you have spent 6 years with will all have moved on to bigger and better things next year. Ask yourself can you face going back to a new yeargroup going through the same stress and pressure! It is extremely depressing for the first few months not having your friends around. You have 2 choices, actually try and fit in and make new friends, like I did or another person who is repeating with me chose to have nothing whatsoever to do with the year and gave the time on their own. I could never do that!

I am so glad I decided to repeat and I hope to god it will pay off. It does take a lot of bravery though having to face people day in day out being "the repeat"! If you decide to do it, good on you, but make sure you are going to be 100% committed!!! Realise it will be stressful, depressing and there will be stages when you feel like giving up!!!! Stick it out and when you get that college course it will all be worth it!

Mysteriouschic

I repeated this year.
There weren't any plcs which suited me , or any courses that I liked.
There's nothing wrong with repeating it's only a year if you do decide. I decided I'd rather repeat and get into a college I really want to go.
Just make sure to work hard from the start.
There will be many others that will repeat.
I found it to be a great experience and the year was a benefit to me.
If you do end up repeating it'll be fine. See what else is available as well.
I also didn't want t go to courses I could've done because I didn't want to go to the colleges they had links with.
I also failed maths which closed many doors my courses required it.

Mardybumm

Im going for veterinary so ended up repeating this year, always told myself I would never repeat but I ended up doing it and really enjoyed the year!
Really hope it pays off in the results and I definitely feel far better about all the exams this year than last year, if you want something bad enough I would definitely encourage you to go for it, its only one year and you can still see all your friends and have a social life, and if not all the people you are with are in the same boat as you
Its difficult to keep up the intensity and motivation though through the entire year, with any luck I'll make up the points this year :')

niallio93

lcstress2012 wrote: »

Does anyone else feel like there gonna do bad and think that they'll have to repeat the leaving cert? I need 400 points for my course and only got 300 in my mocks and always fail maths and biology not my best subjects. I may think I would have to repeat and I would just to get into the course that I want to do. If I did ever repeat I would change my subjects around and swap Bio for HL Geog as it's easier and you get the 20% before putting pen to paper and thinking of switching to HL English, doing OL at the moment.
So has anyone else ever thought of repeating or are you a repeat student and please tell us your experiences!

I finished the leaving today for the second time! I repeated after getting 330 last year I needed 345 for Arts in UCC. Let me tell you repeating was the greatest decison of my life. I worked hard it was all revision really except a few subjects changing. I was more mature and had a better understanding of subjects. Don't think about repeat till August but I have to say I have done a great leaving and I would recommend it if you absolutely have to

Nitsuj

Yes, yes, I shouldn't be stressing over it until I actually get my results, but having a back up plan, in this case repeating, will calm my nerves for the upcoming two months.

If I were to repeat, I'd do my four choices, which I did badly in because I didn't study much, but am confident I could get A1/2s in, I would do OL maths (like I always have) and I would take up applied maths and maybe technology, because they seem so easy.

My questions are, if I pass HL English, would I have to do it next year or would it carry over? Also, say I get an A1 in Lithuanian this year. Would I have to do it next year or could I use it for points this year? Basically, can I mix the subjects for points from the two LCs?

Mardybumm

If you wanted to count English next year then you have to do it again, you can carry over subjects for matriculation purposes but you can't carry over single subjects to count them as points, you have to count your 6 best from whichever year you did best in.
For example, this year im only doing 6 subjects as opposed to 8 last year, Im not doing English or Irish because I passed them both last year and I won't be counting them this year, and I got an A1 in Japanese but I have to do it again this year if I want to count it! It would be nice if I could carry it over and already had 100 points guaranteed!

Nitsuj

That kind of sucks, but I guess isn't that bad. I mean, the worst thing this year was that we didn't have the courses finished until December to April and most of us didn't even start studying until then. I didn't give a **** until like 10 days before the exam (yes, I'm an idiot).

Now, if I repeated, I have all the stuff covered, just need to polish up on the stuff that I kind of know, and learn off the rest, then just keep going over it. I'm confident that if I repeat and studied steadily from the start, I would be fit to get A's in pretty much everything.

In a way, I kind of think I'd be very depressed if I had to repeat, because I would disappoint my parents, but I also know that if I just scrape the needed points with the little work I have done, I know I won't learn my lesson - that I have to work hard if I want to achieve my goals. Something I haven't done this year.

Not to mention, now that I've looked at my subjects, I find it that they're much more interesting that I gave them credit for, e.g physics. That was always my least liked subject, but I think if I started practicing the mathematical problems, I would really get into it. It took me 6 years to cop on that maths is a great subject. The feeling of accomplishment when you get a problem solved is amazing - something I didn't experience until I got 25% in my mocks and started going to grinds to get some help.

iMMer5ion

I've deceived to repeat as I finally realized what it was I wanted to do and I didn't have Chemistry to do it. I will take up Chemistry and start studying it over the summer. I will need very high points and I am facing an intense, gruelling year but I will do anything for my course. It's ME who WANTS to repeat, my parents aren't making me. Can't wait to get stuck into it over summer.

reznov

Repeating is a huge advanatage. You have already sat the leaving cert, it is a matter of polishing up your subjects to achieve the coveted A1. Only thing you would have to relearn would be the English texts. Or you could simply ditch English in favour of simpler subjects with a higher reward. You've lots of experience and would know how to tackle subjects better. Definitely do it if you don't get first choice. Don't think there is any stigma attached to it because it is a wise move - in my book anyway.

Good luck. =]

Reventon93

I thought id share my imput, considering that i too repeated this year. Although my story is a little different from pervious posts, i guarentee that there are people who are facing the same thing.

Deciding to repeat was a pretty easy decision. I knew once my results came out that i was going to go back to school. I saw a lot of positives that could be gained from doing it. I didnt open a book for 2 years, well every now and again. I was failing 2 honours subjects. I dropped Maths in the end because it was unbelieveably time consuming and my other subjects suffered. I had a hard year with personal reasons and i knew that i wasnt doing my best. I could do a lot better!

Another problem i struggled with was that i didnt know what i wanted to do, so it made it hard for me to focus on study when i didnt know what points i needed to get. I had gone through every course you could think of. In the end i got science. Great course to get, but it wasnt for me. So i wanted to go back and get points for what i wanted when i figured out what it was that i wanted to do.

Another thing that hindered me from going to college was that i was still 17 for the first month. I didnt like the idea of moving away for college. I felt that i was too young and i wasnt ready. So i felt that another year would do me wonders, which is what all my teachers said to me. Even though ill be 19 this year (October) i feel a lot more convident moving away, and im actually excited. I feel a lot more independent. Its cliche, but i know that i have actually matured.

Another thing great about going back was that i made a lot of new friends even with my terrible anxiety. Now I have a lot more friends and they've made the year better for me. A few were even my age because they did T.Y. I have done so much better in school because ive actually put in the work. I have a friend that failled maths, who did eveything she could not to repeat (PLC's, appeals) and she ended up regretting not repeating. The one thing i do have to say about it though is that i think you have to be completely focused on repeating. I believe that if my friend had repeated, she would have struggled, because it was only around February that she became focuse and really wanted to repeat.

So in the end, it was the best decision i could have ever made. If you feel like its the best thing for you, do it. Study hard but have some fun. I also didnt have to worry about my friends going out, because im not one of those people. I prefer to stay home and read or play football with my dogs.
For now though just enjoy the summer and you can worry about things like this when results come out!