Terrified of having to repeat

LegacyUser

Hi,

I am in my last year of school and as you can tell from that big circle of light in the sky the leaving cert is nearly here.

I have been doing study throughout the year but there is still so much stuff I don't know. I keep getting so scared that I'm going to fail. I honestly could not repeat this year. It has been the worst year of my life.

From your experience were your results better than you thought you would get. I am so scared.

Can anyone give me tips on how to calm down and not completely freak out about it all the time.

Thanks!

LoonyLovegood

The Leaving Cert is one of the most difficult periods in ANYONEs life. Anyone. But I managed to get through it, and you will too. Try rescue remedy before exams, it's probably a placebo but it works. And remember, you've spent two years working towards this, you know it. I got 185 points in my mocks, I'm now studying law in university. If I could do it, you can. Promise.

littleblackDRS

The leaving cert is not the be all and end all. I got quite ill coming up to my leaving cert, and obviously I feel like I massively underperformed because of it. Like you, I knew I would not be able to handle repeating. But it all worked out in the end. Worst case scenario, it takes you an extra year to get your course. College is massively different to school, so I would just say try to get through the next couple of weeks, and everything will fall into place for you! Good luck!

The J Stands for Jay

The Leaving doesn't really matter that much. If you do badly, you can always get onto your degree by doing a certificate then a diploma. Performing well in the Leaving just determines how long it will take you to where you want to go.

Stavro Mueller

One of the worst things we humans do to ourselves is to stress over things that haven't even happened yet. You don't know yet what exam papers will be put down in front of you and you sure as hell don't know what results you'll get in August. You're jumping too far ahead and stressing about things that may not ever come to pass.

Worry about what to do next when you get your results in August. If your results aren't what you want, it might not necessarily mean you have to repeat. There are choices out there and they might be worth chasing up. If you have to resort to a Plan B. You don't know yet if Plan A has gone out the window.

Rubberchikken

in the scheme of things the LC is very small fry.
please dont stress about it.
do revision up to the exam and do your best.
you say LC year hasnt been the best but there is a whole world out there and that year is gone.
if the worse comes to the worse, it can be repeated in a college in a year, but as the worse hasnt happened yet, remain calm and good luck.

Queen-Mise

If you have filled in the CAO form OP and all the points etc. An example will work better for this. Just say your first choice is Law UCC and its 500 points - make sure you have something filled in on the second tier (Level 6/7) - that is entrance level Law.

If you get points YEAAAH, and if not, then you will get where you want to go also.

It is not possible to know the whole course, no matter how much study you have done, you will always think you can do more, Unless you have one of those weird eidetic memories. And even that is not particularly helpful - just because you remember something exactly on a page, doesn't mean you understand it, and can apply it in practise etc.

Do the best you can, keep working. Grit your teeth, you'll get there.

miss no stars

Be honest with yourself.

It matters, of course it matters. However, it is not the be all and end all. It's stressful because it's the biggest exam you'll ever have done, it's probably the most important thing you will do for yourself so far. There's no point telling you it doesn't matter in the long term because it matters to you now. But in a few years time you'll barely remember it. I'm not kidding, I'm 25 and my memories of the leaving cert are: Freaking out because I HADN'T studied and didn't know any quotes for english (I genuinely hadn't studied) and having an argument with the vice principal who wanted me to sit in a wool kilt for 3 hour stints in a stuffy classroom during the typical leaving cert June nice weather and I had shown up in light cotton tracksuit bottoms that weren't going to irritate my skin during the exams. That's it. Vague memories of results, but not a lot more. I'm serious, it's important to you now, it's important in determining what your next steps will be but after that... It's not something that will decide your fate.

You say you've been working all along so you obviously don't have issues with sitting down and working. The worst thing that could happen is you freak out during the exams, you repeat, you spend a full year revising and you nail the exams. That's the WORST case scenario. That might seem awful to you now but it's really not. Try to take some pressure off yourself. Besides, the leaving cert takes a couple of weeks. Most people find it very hard to stay worked up over that long a time-frame

Oh and here's something you might take comfort in: You have to know a lot about something to realize how little you know about it. If you only know a little about something there's no way you can possibly be aware of what you don't know, so why panic if you're not even aware of how you can be caught out? Ever notice how the smart kids who get good grades are more often in a panic before an exam than the kids who don't bother and scrape through? That's because the smart kids have been revising, they know where their weak spots are. The other kids haven't bothered, know a bit and reckon they'll get through on it. The leaving cert is the motherload of information to remember. It's obscenely difficult to remember everything from a 2 year course. But OP, in my experience those exams where you go into them knowing 80% of the material you're supposed to know, but it's possible for the entire exam to be based on the 20% you don't know? I've never had it happen that the exam is based on that 20%. I've done a lot of exams. Plus, if you're aware that you know very little about a topic, the fact that you know the topic exists means you know SOMETHING about it and can get some marks from a bluff answer on it.

You'll be fine. Do not spend all day tomorrow studying - take a few hours out to look after yourself and do a few hours revision. Eat well, get a bit of exercise, some meditation/yoga/breathing exercises when you feel yourself getting worked up and try to remember - it's important, but it's not everything.

hfallada

The most important thing you do is out down the course you wanna do on your cao. The amount of people who say I wish I put down that, but I didn't think I would get the points, but I actually did. I know tons of people who did better than they thought they would

Overheal

5th year is not the same thing as 6th year, to be perfectly honest.

Why was this year so bad for you?

There is for one, never any shame in repeating. It's one of the first things you do which nobody is forcing you to do, and everyone around you is in the same boat. I've repeated my leaving cert. hell I've taken breaks and come back to college after switching majors. I've taken summer classes. In my experience the summer class and the repeat year are the most beneficial experiences. Nobody around you is really a waster, everyone wants to succeed. If you have to repeat, it's far from the end of the world. Life is a big long thing it doesn't matter if you start college a year later, or finish it 8 or 9 years later as in my case.

With that in mind, stress ahead of exams can be managed in multiple ways. The hardest of which is during your leaving very admittedly: leaving cert is very much a measure of your GPA of 600 points, whereas college it's more about the pass or fail of specific subjects, so you can't necessarily just ditch your foreign language to focus on passing math. But then again, you should play to your strength: if you are so stressed out about doing badly in one or two subjects, does it make sense to abandon the study of the areas you're good at in order to bring those grades up marginally? Ultimately you should try to maximize your points in a logical manner. If you're going to get more points from AAABCD than ABBCCCC, then that class you're getting a D in shouldn't be allowed to drag down your good subjects. Also, remember that while only points from one year can ever be used for weight, to the best of my recollection and a quick look of the current handbook online, course requirements eg. a C in French, still count if you have to repeat, so if you believe there is a strong possibility you will have to repeat, it is wise to tackle your required courses for the major you want to take in college, then during a repeat year you can focus I taking subjects you have a stronger interest in, which will yield for higher points. I ditched my foreign language for economics personally, flipping a Pass level D into an honors level B.

Just remember there is nothing wrong with delay. Even when I repeated the Leaving Cert, I still managed to rush headlong into a degree that didn't suit me, and that just cause yet another delay in my life. Oh well, like, but it pretty much only happened because I felt pressured in to doing something at third level when I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life yet. Take a step back and relax, look at the whole board and all the pieces. LC is really stressful when you're in the thick of it but to be honest it's significance in your life is paltry.

Azwaldo55

You won't have to repeat if you study study study study right up until the exam.
Harness that fear and put it into trying to get the best result possible.
There is no other way.
And if you repeat? What of it? You'll just have to do it and that's it.

beauty101

I was exactly like you coming up to my LC exams but I handled the stress the wrong way, by procrastinating and doing nothing instead.

The best advice I can give you is to focus on your weakest subjects/subject areas. Pay attention to any hints/tips/past exam questions and at this stage just do what you can!

Stress is counter-productive. So try to take time out of your day to relax and just chill. Keep away from any of your friends who are super-stressed, because exam stress is contagious! Eat well, drink loads of water and try fit in a bit of exercise everyday.

Also, keep in mind that the LC is not the be all and end all. The worst that can happen is that you have to repeat, which really isn't a big deal!

Best of luck!

thegreatgonzo

scaredwitless wrote: »

Hi,

I am in my last year of school and as you can tell from that big circle of light in the sky the leaving cert is nearly here.

I have been doing study throughout the year but there is still so much stuff I don't know. I keep getting so scared that I'm going to fail. I honestly could not repeat this year. It has been the worst year of my life.

From your experience were your results better than you thought you would get. I am so scared.

Can anyone give me tips on how to calm down and not completely freak out about it all the time.

Thanks!

I finished my final exams recently and although I've done more exams than I can count, I was really worried about these because I was way behind my study schedule and had a very stressful semester.
I pretty sure I did ok, not my best performance ever but they are done. I found going for 15-20 minute walks really helpful when the panic started to close in on me. The fresh air and the activity really helped. Also accepting that I couldn't cover everything and focusing on past exam papers helped a lot.
Once you get the first 1 or 2 exams over you, you won't have that same sense of dread and you'll be better able to focus for the remaining exams.

edelg

I repeated my leaving cert and I have to say I had a great year! The idea of going back to my old school with all my friends gone was horrific so I repeated in a different school which had a year just for repeating students so everyone was in the same boat and it was really great! made loads of friends and had such good craic as well as having brilliant teachers and a more mature outlook on the whole thing!

Dave!

edelg wrote: »

I repeated my leaving cert and I have to say I had a great year! The idea of going back to my old school with all my friends gone was horrific so I repeated in a different school which had a year just for repeating students so everyone was in the same boat and it was really great! made loads of friends and had such good craic as well as having brilliant teachers and a more mature outlook on the whole thing!

That sounds like the business, wish I could repeat now!

There is nothing you can do at this time except to keep up a regular study plan and look after yourself physically and mentally. Eat well - rest well - excercise well.

At this point all you can do is your best - and you can not change that. So simply resign yourself to it and do what you can.

However on the fear of repeating - it is unfounded. I repeated. Like you 6th year was one of the worst of my life. I hated school. Back then I was something of a social outcast loser too - so I hated school from just about every angle.

Repeating was an eye opener for me and a lovely transition into college. I actually quite enjoyed it. It was a lot more easy going than "actual school". And I benefited from it in many ways. Not just improved leaving cert results to take into college.

For example (one of many but I will only give one) most people get a little shell shocked on the first day of college. They have moved on from their comfort social circles in school. Lost all their friends. And have to make new ones. I - of course - also had to do this when I was repeating. So when I got to the "shell shock" point of the first day of college I had "been there - done that" and I was actually the most relaxed and easy going of people on the first day. With the effect people sort of gravitated towards me.

So in summary - repeating is not the terror you think it is - and the experience is much different to your final year in school - and you get the new perspective of new teachers on the same subjects in a different school. But having said all that do not think about repeating now. Just focus on keeping up a healthy study and physical and mental routine