TY or 5th Year

whatyouthink

Hi Everybody,

Looking for some advice, My daughter is in third year sitting her JC mocks at present, She always does well in exams all
A & B, She has her heart set on medical school and knows that it is going to be really tough but its all she ever talks
about and is ready for years of hard work, The thing is she was all set to skip transition year and go straight into 5th,
But after PT meeting all except one teacher recomened TY for all students and say its a year to grow and mature and be
better able to make choices also saying its a bit of a break after junior cert, My concern is that It is going to be
difficult for her to get back into studying so hard also she is concerned that if she does'nt get the points in her leaving
cert and h,pat, That she may have to repeat one or both, I suppose my question is do you think TY will be a waste of a year
for her? Any input would be great, Thanks.

spurious

It very much depends on the school and the students involved.
The better able and motivated students in our school always mature greatly during TY, those who moan about school in general call it a waste of time, which it is, if you sit round and wait for things to happen.

One great plus for a potential medical student is the TY medical school which she won't have a chance of in 5th year.
http://www.rcsi.ie/tyminimed

From this year's course: http://www.rcsi.ie/index.jsp?p=100&n=110&a=2484

Bazinga_N

whatyouthink wrote: »

Hi Everybody,

Looking for some advice, My daughter is in third year sitting her JC mocks at present, She always does well in exams all
A & B, She has her heart set on medical school and knows that it is going to be really tough but its all she ever talks
about and is ready for years of hard work, The thing is she was all set to skip transition year and go straight into 5th,
But after PT meeting all except one teacher recomened TY for all students and say its a year to grow and mature and be
better able to make choices also saying its a bit of a break after junior cert, My concern is that It is going to be
difficult for her to get back into studying so hard also she is concerned that if she does'nt get the points in her leaving
cert and h,pat, That she may have to repeat one or both, I suppose my question is do you think TY will be a waste of a year
for her? Any input would be great, Thanks.

Honestly, it all depends on how TY is run in your daughters school. In my school, for example, it's fantastic! No one ever regrets it. The TYs never get a break, they're always working on some project or doing some work experience! Then in other schools it's quite poor and students tend to be lazing around not doing much. So it all depends on how the course is run. Ask the TY coordinator about what they do and you'll know straight away!

I was always set on doing TY because it's a chance to get extra-curricular items onto your college application and CV. Weirdly enough my schools changed our TY program for my year next year. TY's going to be split up into Extra-Curricular TY stuff and studying Leaving Certificate subjects. Imo this cuts out all the negatives of TY.

Best of Luck to you and your daughter! And congratulations to her and her great results!

positivealf

Speaking as a student, in my school Transition year is for losers. Mainly because everyone in my school's TY are always slacking off and causing trouble in the school roaming around during classes. My secondary school must suck.

MomijiHime

She can take up something in TY to keep up the studying. I'm planning on learning Japanese next year and really focuses on subjects such as art and music that I wouldn't be able to as much if I had to go straight back into studying again after Junior cert. It's a good year to get work and social experience. If you make use of your time, you can keep yourself busy for the year.

tr0llface

I think that it all boils down to the school in question. My school doesn't offer TY but almost everyone I know who did it in the other school where I live regretted it, mainly because all they did was sit around all day as the classes were hardly different to normal ones. Then again, in my friend's school there's an extremely wide range of subjects on offer.
Your best bet is to ask other people in TY/who have done TY in the school your daughter goes to.

XxMCRxBabyxX

Personally I would definitely recommend TY. For both myself and my brother TY totally changed us and we both really came out of our shells and matured during that year. I don't regret doing it in the slightest.

If nothing else, it's a year to get away from the exam stress. If your daughter is aiming for medicine she will have a lot of pressure on her and the year out after the JC will help her deal with that.

As others have said it's also great for extra-curriculars and getting away from pure academics as well as gaining work experience and expanding on social experiences. I found that my year really got on a lot better after TY than they ever had before. Cliques fell away.