How to make the most out of Transition Year

GraceLucky

I have been in transition year for almost 5 and a half months now, and so far it has been a bit of a doss. I mean, I have made friends, decided what lc subjects I was doing and I matured a bit, but at the same time I feel like it's been a bit of a waste of a year.

It's almost halfway through February and I feel like I have achieved very little so far. I really want to make the most out of the following months, but I do not know how to approach this.

Does anybody have any tips on how to prepare for the next two years in school? I know a lot of people say ty students have a hard time adjusting to 5th year, so I was hoping to ease my workload by doing a bit now.

The subjects I am doing are english, irish, maths, french, biology, art, geography and ag science as an extra. Could somebody maybe give me advice on how to learn the basics for these subjects, so that when September comes, I won't have such a shock to the system. (Any website links or stuff like that would really help)

Thank you so much for reading this and have a good day

Mr Rhode Island Red

Is it a case in your school's TY that you find yourself taking a "backseat" from the activities being offered or is it a case that there are no activities being organised in the first place?

If it's the former, then I'd recommend signing up for everything that's on offer (within financial and time-constriction reason) even if you don't think you'll like it. Eg. I signed up for a Tag Rugby Coaching course at the beginning of the year even though I don't play sport, but it was still worthwhile as we got a chance to organise blitzes and whatnot and got involved with the town's national school kids.

If it's the latter, then perhaps try to politely suggest activities to your co-ordinator(s) and ask if you could help with the organisation of such activities eg. day trip, sports day etc. (I'm saying to do this politely because a TY group in another school in our locality tried to do this a bit...aggressively...and it didn't end well whatsoever)

I can't say I'd recommend getting a head start on fifth year though. I'm sure after 2 years of studying for a leaving cert we will be well sickened without adding on a few months to it.

Enjoy what's left of Transition Year, whatever you decide to do:)

smiles_1998

Do you have many hobbies outside school? I know in our school the trips and workshops really slowed down after Christmas and it was my extra-curricular activities that kept me from cracking up with boredom!
You don't have to be doing anything too expensive; if you like reading, aim to have x amount of books read by the end of May, if you like art aim to make something to decorate your room. If you do have the money, I would recommend maybe learning an instrument or a language.
TY is not for everyone, I 've seen that in my school (in fact, I think I am one of those people) but it is a great year to find new interests and learn new skills and (perhaps most importantly) add to your CV. In this regard, if you could do some volunteering that would look really good on your CV.
If you really wanted to get a head-start on Leaving Cert material, I suppose you could focus on your languages. In my French class, we do a lot of oral work. It's only simple and nowhere near Leaving Cert standard, but it is beneficial in that it eases us into speaking French as we had no oral at Junior Cert. Also, you could revise the grammar in both French and Irish. I'm not sure if you could start anything else without having a teacher there to guide you through it.
Whatever you decide to do, I hope you enjoy the last few months of TY and at the end of it feel you got at least one benefit out of it!