How can I get 600 points in the leaving Cert?

Seanf999

Sounds like a child's question but it got your attention, I've just started 5th year and my goal is to study medicine at RCSI (but if I got accepted elsewhere I could live with it )

My Subjects are HL English, Irish, French, Biology, business and Geography and OL maths (I just plan on passing maths nothing more)

I'm actually aiming for 550 but when I'm there I may as well go for 600!

How can I get 600 points in my leaving?
How much study should I be doing on average daily/weekly?
And finally any tips on the leaving cert in general be it study wise, exam wise or socially?

Looking for to your answers!

Oscar.

Did you do HL Maths for the Junior Cert? If so, I would recommend keeping on HL Maths.

Roquentin

queensinead

(a) Be very bright academically. There is a point (no pun) where nothing can compensate for this. Slogging will get you far, but only so far. You have to have lots of innate ability. Amazing the number of students, parents and sometimes teachers who cannot grasp this simple fact: ["But he can't do Pass Maths. He needs Honours Maths to get the points for his course..."]

(b) Cut to the chase. Don't waste psychological or intellectual energy moaning about rambling, off-topic teachers, unfair marking schemes, etc. Get past it.

(c) Concentrate. Focus on the task in hand. "Do the task that lies nearest thee" as the nuns used to say. Whether it's listening in class to boring stuff, or completing two hours non-stop solid study at home

(d) Do it your way. Not everyone studies, or wants to study, like they tell you in school or in the Irish Times. Maybe colour-coding and sorting by topic are not your thing.

(c) Just do it. Rather than talking or thinking about doing it or planning to do it. That means studying Yeats or Shakespeare or Larkin by doing several watertight 4 page essays inside one hour, like you have to do at Leaving Cert. Your first effort will make you cry--all those poetry notes scattered everywhere, the hopelessness of trying to pull it all together and stretch your knowledge to match the question asked. But you'll improve....

(d) Treat study for the Oral component of Irish or French as fun, late night stuff. Listen to French speakers on Youtube or Apps. Get a fluent French speaker or teacher to speak your story into your mobile phone. You should also record yourself and play it back to them for correction

(e) Take vitamins. Eat and sleep properly

(f) Don't delude yourself that you're studying when you're not. Dossing is ok, and is necessary sometimes, but be honest with yourself. Sitting at your desk staring at books and flicking pages doesn't really count.

(g) Six hundred points is a big ask and you may not reach it despite all your efforts. That's life. Mayo are knocked out of the All Ireland despite training and playing their hearts out and being very good. Nothing is guaranteed. You can slave and slog and be bright, and still fall short because of one tiny glitch or one bad call.

(h) Don't put all your eggs in one basket

Seanf999

Oscar. wrote: »

Did you do HL Maths for the Junior Cert? If so, I would recommend keeping on HL Maths.

I didn't bother my arse for JC to be honest but I mean I slept during the break between exams for example..

I did OL and got a B , and on Friday we had a test to see where we were maths wise and I was give or take half a page of everyone else and I was giving others help when needed...
So if it goes well I will be moving up to higher level.

Thanks, some great tips there, I've always been told I'm smart by teachers but that I was wasting my time (this was in 2 year..) I didn't study whatsoever bar for one Christmas test and I got 99%..

Roquentin

queensinead wrote: »

(a) Be very bright academically. There is a point (no pun) where nothing can compensate for this. Slogging will get you far, but only so far. You have to have lots of innate ability. Amazing the number of students, parents and sometimes teachers who cannot grasp this simple fact: ["But he can't do Pass Maths. He needs Honours Maths to get the points for his course..."]

(b) Cut to the chase. Don't waste psychological or intellectual energy moaning about rambling, off-topic teachers, unfair marking schemes, etc. Get past it.

(c) Concentrate. Focus on the task in hand. "Do the task that lies nearest thee" as the nuns used to say. Whether it's listening in class to boring stuff, or completing two hours non-stop solid study at home

(d) Do it your way. Not everyone studies, or wants to study, like they tell you in school or in the Irish Times. Maybe colour-coding and sorting by topic are not your thing.

(c) Just do it. Rather than talking or thinking about doing it or planning to do it. That means studying Yeats or Shakespeare or Larkin by doing several watertight 4 page essays inside one hour, like you have to do at Leaving Cert. Your first effort will make you cry--all those poetry notes scattered everywhere, the hopelessness of trying to pull it all together and stretch your knowledge to match the question asked. But you'll improve....

(d) Treat study for the Oral component of Irish or French as fun, late night stuff. Listen to French speakers on Youtube or Apps. Get a fluent French speaker or teacher to speak your story into your mobile phone. You should also record yourself and play it back to them for correction

(e) Take vitamins. Eat and sleep properly

(f) Don't delude yourself that you're studying when you're not. Dossing is ok, and is necessary sometimes, but be honest with yourself. Sitting at your desk staring at books and flicking pages doesn't really count.

(g) Six hundred points is a big ask and you may not reach it despite all your efforts. That's life. Mayo are knocked out of the All Ireland despite training and playing their hearts out and being very good. Nothing is guaranteed. You can slave and slog and be bright, and still fall short because of one tiny glitch or one bad call.

(h) Don't put all your eggs in one basket

hes trying to get 600 points in the leaving not train for life on mars. FFS take vitamins, are you serious?????

Seanf999

Roquentin wrote: »

hes trying to get 600 points in the leaving not train for life on mars. FFS take vitamins, are you serious?????

Life on Mars is a little less daunting then getting 600 points.
Regardless even if it is a little over the top in your opinion, it is still some sous advice.

By the way taking vitamins helps, they improve your concentration amongst many other things.

amen

well you need to do more research.

1: you will also need to sit the HPAT
2: Nearly everyone studying medicine will have done Honours maths. Do it as you will get the 25 point bonus
3: Do chemistry instead of biology as the chemistry will be of more use.

queensinead

Roquentin wrote: »

hes trying to get 600 points in the leaving not train for life on mars. FFS take vitamins, are you serious?????

Very important during the LC year to watch diet and up the old Omega 3 and other vitamins

Coming up to June many students find that the hair goes dry, skin breaks out in pimples or rash, terrible fatigue kicks in

Your body is under stress and needs care, and an extra boost

Roquentin

Seanf999 wrote: »

Life on Mars is a little less daunting then getting 600 points.
Regardless even if it is a little over the top in your opinion, it is still some sous advice.

By the way taking vitamins helps, they improve your concentration amongst many other things.

the leaving cert is over hyped by parents and teachers alike. You want to get 600 points, you study hard and dont aim for 600. Just aim to do your best. That way you will go into the exams relaxed and perform better.

The suicide rate in medicine is very high in proportion to other disciplines. It is so because students put so much pressure on themselves to succeed and they start worrying. And this worrying starts in adolescence. They become so worried about school exams, college exams and then the real world. Freud said love and work, so you have to enjoy yourself as much as work. A narrow minded vision of work work work in the long run is not healthy.

I wont lie, you will have to study and study harder than those around you, but you dont want to put pressure on yourself. What the other poster wrote is madness. Thats what you need for a high performance athlete running a olympic sprint.

Study hard but enjoy yourself. If you have done the study you will get the points

EoghanIRL

Just work hard . Being intelligent also helps

wilser

Just do it twice @ 300 points each time

Roquentin

queensinead wrote: »

Very important during the LC year to watch diet and up the old Omega 3 and other vitamins

Coming up to June many students find that the hair goes dry, skin breaks out in pimples or rash, terrible fatigue kicks in

Your body is under stress and needs care, and an extra boost

LOL

the schools should hire dietitians. How will he survive in the real world, cause thats where the real stress is.....

Stress is brought on by how you perceive your environment and it affects everyone differently. So two students may both be good workers, but one may be relaxed and the other anxious. Why? It usually has to do with how they were brought up. One thing i know for certain is that people perform better relaxed.

If the op goes in anxious due to external anxiety built up by people like you proclaiming that you need vitamin supplements to get through it, he probably wont do as well. If he goes in with the mentality that all he can do his is best, he will do better and provided he has done the work he will comfortably get medicine.

The leaving cert is learning. You are asked to solve what has already been solved. Its not as if you are asked to design a new car from scratch. So much scraemongering goes on and it puts pressure on students. same with the colleges.

Work hard and enjoy yourself and remember that all you can do in this world is your best and if its not good enough, well you can find something else that will be good enough and there is plenty of choice....

Mahogany Gaspipe

Roquentin wrote: »

hes trying to get 600 points in the leaving not train for life on mars. FFS take vitamins, are you serious?????

Yeah, because taking vitamins is exclusively for elite athletes.
Brilliant.

partyatmygaff

Without HL Maths, you'll need to put in considerably more effort in to your other subjects to be competitive. That and you're capping your points compared to the majority of med students who'll be applying with HL Maths.

There's no recipe for doing well (or getting 600 points). No set amount of hours per today. No special techniques.

We can talk all day long but at the end of the day, you're going to need to be as expert as possible in all your subjects by the time of the Leaving Cert, even if only for the few hours of the exam. That takes good planning, dedication and perseverance and the solution is unique for each person. The most useful skill you develop doing the LC is how to assess yourself and improve.

Roquentin

Mahogany Gaspipe wrote: »

Yeah, because taking vitamins is exclusively for elite athletes.
Brilliant.

at that age provided he doesnt have condition and is eating three meals a day, you dont need vitamins. In fact if he started taking vitamins on top of the nutrients hes getting already heill probably get kidney stones from excess vitamin c in his system.

michael phelps used eat 12,000 calories a day because he needed them for his training. This guy like thousands others are studying for the leaving. He doesnt need extra vitamins, provided hes eating right. he just needs to train his mind. in fact meditation would probably be on the cards, just to stay relaxed.

Consonata

amen wrote: »

3: Do chemistry instead of biology as the chemistry will be of more use.

I would've thought that Biology would be a good deal more useful than Chem for Medicine.
Chemistry if you were wanting to do Pharmacy but, Biology? Yes, it is on the course but Biology surely plays a bigger role.

Roquentin

Consonata wrote: »

I would've thought that Biology would be a good deal more useful than Chem for Medicine.
Chemistry if you were wanting to do Pharmacy but, Biology? Yes, it is on the course but Biology surely plays a bigger role.

in fairness when he goes to college they start from a blank slate and train them up again. so if he hasnt done a subject, they will start anew in college.

Theboybang

Consonata wrote: »

I would've thought that Biology would be a good deal more useful than Chem for Medicine.
Chemistry if you were wanting to do Pharmacy but, Biology? Yes, it is on the course but Biology surely plays a bigger role.

LC biology is very basic and much easier to pick up , chemistry is difficult to pick up especially considering it is so precise and takes more understand

Seanf999

Theboybang wrote: »

LC biology is very basic and much easier to pick up , chemistry is difficult to pick up especially considering it is so precise and takes more understand

My reason for doing biology is that for me it is an easy A while chemistry although I enjoy it I would have to put in a huge amount of effort to get the points I'm looking for..

Roquentin

Seanf999 wrote: »

My reason for doing biology is that for me it is an easy A while chemistry although I enjoy it I would have to put in a huge amount of effort to get the points I'm looking for..

even if you didnt do biology, you start again (i assume you do biology in medicine) from the base line with regards any course in college. The only difference is they compress it into one year.

spurious

There is no 'easy A'.

queensinead

Roquentin wrote: »

LOL

the schools should hire dietitians. How will he survive in the real world, cause thats where the real stress is.....

Stress is brought on by how you perceive your environment and it affects everyone differently. So two students may both be good workers, but one may be relaxed and the other anxious. Why? It usually has to do with how they were brought up. One thing i know for certain is that people perform better relaxed.

If the op goes in anxious due to external anxiety built up by people like you proclaiming that you need vitamin supplements to get through it, he probably wont do as well. If he goes in with the mentality that all he can do his is best, he will do better and provided he has done the work he will comfortably get medicine.

The leaving cert is learning. You are asked to solve what has already been solved. Its not as if you are asked to design a new car from scratch. So much scraemongering goes on and it puts pressure on students. same with the colleges.

Work hard and enjoy yourself and remember that all you can do in this world is your best and if its not good enough, well you can find something else that will be good enough and there is plenty of choice....

Schools are already addressing poor diet among students--offering free breakfasts, free fruit, banning drinks machines, etc

Many students come to school without breakfast, and buy a can of Coke and packet of crisps for lunch. Teachers report this all the time and have raised awareness around the poor diet issue.

Getting your diet and vitamins right is important during your Leaving Cert year. Pointing that out is not "scare-mongering"

Bland cliches about how "all you can do is your best" and being "relaxed" are of little use really. Ambitious students have a certain amount of anxiety around the Leaving Cert, which is a normal human reaction. Of course they will "do their best".

But that is not what the OP is asking.
I know lots of super-relaxed people who made a mess of the Leaving. It's nice to be relaxed but on its own it will not necessarily deliver the result you hope for

And no, he will not necessarily "comfortably get Medicine provided he has done the work"

intellectual dosser

People who learn things get B's, people who understand them get A's.

Best advice I've ever gotten regarding education.

lulu1

I dont think you should start worrying about your leaving cert at this early stage. But really to get 600 points I know it takes an awful lot of hard work but you have to have the brains as well. You say for your junior cert you didnt bother your arse not the attitude of someone who now wants 600 points. I think that if someone wants to do well they will work hard from the day they start secondary until they do their leaving. Dont stress yourself out over a few extra points aim for your 550 and if you get extra great. My daughter got 450 this year and we are over the moon

Seanf999

spurious wrote: »

There is no 'easy A'.

Fine, an Easier A then say higher level maths for example.

Yogosan

Some food for thought!

"You teach best what you most need to learn."
-- Richard David Bach

An expert is a man who has made all the mistakes which can be made, in a narrow field.
-- Niels Bohr

"What we want is to see the child in pursuit of knowledge, and not knowledge in pursuit of the child."
--George Bernard Shaw

"Getting things done is not always what is most important. There is value in allowing others to learn, even if the task is not accomplished as quickly, efficiently or effectively."
-- R.D. Clyde

"It is important that students bring a certain ragamuffin, barefoot, irreverence to their studies; they are not here to worship what is known, but to question it."
-- J. Bronowski, The Ascent of Man

"A teacher is one who makes himself progressively unnecessary."
-- Thomas Carruthers

An education isn't how much you have committed to memory, or even how much you know. It's being able to differentiate between what you know and what you don't."
-- Anatole France

Roquentin

Schools are already addressing poor diet among students--offering free breakfasts, free fruit, banning drinks machines, etc

Many students come to school without breakfast, and buy a can of Coke and packet of crisps for lunch. Teachers report this all the time and have raised awareness around the poor diet issue.

Getting your diet and vitamins right is important during your Leaving Cert year.

Thats what part of being young is. You wonder why mc donalds is so big, because its children who go to it. All children eat a mixed diet. They wont fail their leaving cert over it. Because when you are that age, provided you are not eating mcdonalds three times a day like morgan spurlock did, your body will flush out the plaque. Its when you get old, thats when you need vitamins and to watch what you eat.

Having a normal level of zinc in your system isnt magically going to give you an A. As long as the op eats right, he will be grand. And getting your vitamins right is important every year, regardless of whether it is your leaving cert or your wedding or you are up in court for scaremongering

Bland cliches about how "all you can do is your best" and being "relaxed" are of little use really. Ambitious students have a certain amount of anxiety around the Leaving Cert, which is a normal human reaction. Of course they will "do their best".

Actually sir, being relaxed is a vital component to a successful attempt, regardless of what you do in life. If you were a heart surgeon and you werent relaxed before an operation, youd be struck off pretty fast for some botched attempt at inserting a stent or triple bypass. The same with sports performance. A golfer needs to be relaxed. if hes not, his shots will hit the water.

If you looked at all the top consultants at work, i guarantee you will find some striking similarities. And one of those similarities is that they are supremely confident and relaxed, because they have to be for their job. Because when you are relaxed and confident, you generally perform better at discipline in life. Your success at your job depends as much on your personality as it does on your education.

I know lots of super-relaxed people who made a mess of the Leaving. It's nice to be relaxed but on its own it will not necessarily deliver the result you hope for

So what are you saying: That they should go in all anxious and drenched in sweat and fear and they do better. Look at the psychology of successful sports teams, of actors, of barristers. They all are confident.

Its performance anxiety. The more one wants to do better, the more anxious they get. If you were going on a date with a woman lets say. If you go in relaxed and be yourself, you will be more comfortable and the body language and verbal language will be more better. If you in trying to force the issue and all anxious, well you wont be getting a second date.

And no, he will not necessarily "comfortably get Medicine provided he has done the work"

In case you dont realize it, that is scaremongering. You are basically insinuating covertly that he will have to study study study to get by. No. As i said. if he does the work and he will know himself, he will get the points.


Jesus christ, this is only the leaving cert, A baby step in his career. After this he has college, then more training and then the real world.

@queensinead Ive got a feeling you are a teacher or you give grinds or career advice to students? would i be guessing right? or you were one of those students who studied till four in the morning or something

spurious

Seanf999 wrote: »

Fine, an Easier A then say higher level maths for example.

Again, that depends on the person. Some people find Maths very straightforward, some people can't figure out Irish at all.

Don't put all your eggs in one basket yet and be mature enough to recognise if things are not working out the way you want.

Minera

A strict timetable and a genuine interest in your subject matter will make a huge difference! You won't learn if you don't understand it and after all that just remember there are alternative routes to studying medicine or any subject for that matter not just the leaving cert point system

Roquentin

@queensinead

On the day hes going to have done a set amount of study regardless of his psychological state that morning. Now hes sitting down to write an essay in english, which state would you rather the op be in: Confident with the ideas flowing the neurons firing and words bombing off his pen OR would you rather he is anxious about how he will perform, to the point that his heart is racing and he cant think coherently?

Now answer me honestly: Which psychological state will the op do better, with a three hour deadline?