Leaving cert and college

Helppleaseidie

This is my second year doing the Lc and it's been so hard for me.I had no money and I found it difficult to concentrate on school and new friends .its been a nice year as I met new friends and we had so much fun which I missed in my previous school.so now I have my chemistry exam tomorrow or you could say today ! I feel like I did really bad and I think I will fail my sciences and this mean I will not get enough points. I don't mind repeating again but I don't know what I will tell the poeple people around me and my parents are expecting high of me this time.i was thinking of doing plc but they are all expensive and didn't find any cheap ones and when I ask my friends they just ignore me I don't know who will I ask.my point is if I do plc can I also repeat my leaving cert? I just want to do it in secret .please anyone answer me is this possible !

spurious

What course do you want to do in college?

Helppleaseidie

spurious wrote: »

What course do you want to do in college?

I applied for random things.i just want to go to college.also I will apply for plc . Thanks for answering

user53

Helppleaseidie wrote: »

I applied for random things.i just want to go to college.also I will apply for plc . Thanks for answering

I wouldn't recommend going to college just for the sake of it, find something you enjoy first. It's quite expensive to switch courses if you discover (after more than couple of months) you don't enjoy what you're studying.
Good idea applying for a PLC, choose a PLC you think you'll enjoy and then see about investing thousands of euros and years of time into a degree.. that's my advice anyway.

A97

Helppleaseidie wrote: »

I applied for random things.i just want to go to college.also I will apply for plc . Thanks for answering

Between now and the CAO closing date, you should think hard about what you might like to do in college. What might you enjoy? What would you like work as in the future?

I'm sorry that some of your exams didn't do well. When doing the CAO, fill it out assuming you'll get enough points, and if you don't, they'll move down the list. Similarly, you should apply for PLC's assuming you'll get in.

The route through life isn't always easy. But you'll find that there are sometimes many different paths to where you want to go. So sort out your thoughts for college courses/PLC's, and when the results come out, assess whether you'll be happy to do what you get offered, or whether you might like to repeat the Leaving Cert, or maybe take a year out to work. Although one warning about taking a year out is that some people find it hard to get back to education, but sometimes it suits people as they can gain a different perspective on life and it gives you time to consider what you really want to do.

covfefe98

Helppleaseidie wrote: »

This is my second year doing the Lc and it's been so hard for me.I had no money and I found it difficult to concentrate on school and new friends .its been a nice year as I met new friends and we had so much fun which I missed in my previous school.so now I have my chemistry exam tomorrow or you could say today ! I feel like I did really bad and I think I will fail my sciences and this mean I will not get enough points. I don't mind repeating again but I don't know what I will tell the poeple people around me and my parents are expecting high of me this time.i was thinking of doing plc but they are all expensive and didn't find any cheap ones and when I ask my friends they just ignore me I don't know who will I ask.my point is if I do plc can I also repeat my leaving cert? I just want to do it in secret .please anyone answer me is this possible !

You still have till the 1st of July to change your CAO. I'd suggest researchig your course online by going on youtube, qualifax, university werbsites etc.

spurious

As others have said, don't just go to college to just do anything.
Pick something you are interested in. Don't mind what your mates think or how many other people are doing it.

I'm not sure what price range you are calling expensive, but PLC courses run by ETBs should not be prohibitively expensive.

There is no rule says you have to go to college straight from school. You could always take the opportunity to volunteer, gaining valuable skills and things to put on your CV. Some volunteer options carry a small allowance funded by the EU.

randylonghorn

Help, please don't go to college just to go to college.

Wait until you know what you actually want to do.

This is how that usually plays out:

1. Arrive in college, have a great time for first few weeks, meet new friends, out every night. Life is wonderful!!!!!

2. Discover that you are totally confused by your course lectures. You skip submitting minor continuous assessment because you don't understand it, and anyway, it's only a per cent or two, you'll catch up. Hmmm ...

3. Discover that you are totally bored by your course. Your new friends are enjoying theirs, and settling down a bit from all the partying, and going to lectures and handing in assignments. You try to drag yourself to lectures, and hand in an odd assignment, but you don't really understand the material / have no enthusiasm for it, and they get pretty poor marks. Life is pretty mank.

4. You fail first semester, or drop out before the end of it. There has been a significant cost incurred for accommodation / food / travel / socialising, plus the Student Contribution Fee. Depending on when you drop out, there may be implications for your fees when you actually decide what you want to do, and face into college again more maturely (if repeating first year, or one semester of it, you will have to pay full fees for that year or semester; if you're on a grant, it will impact on that too). You are stressed and depressed. Your parents are worried, upset, maybe angry. Life is total cow manure.


Believe me, I deal with people going down that particular road every single year!


Unless you find what you genuinely know is your dream course before the 1st July, leave college 'til next year.

Take your time, settle your head, figure out what you want to do. Look after your health (physical and mental). Try to sample some areas you might be interested in: as mentioned above, volunteering or work experience or a course like a PLC can all be good ways of doing this.

As Spurious said, PLCs run by the ETBs (old VECs) don't tend to be that expensive, certainly compared to the money you will waste in the scenario I outlined above. Just checked one of the local ones there, fees ranged from €350 to €900 (the latter being an area where you would need to get a fair few specialist tools / equipment and that's included in the fee).

Helppleaseidie

Helppleaseidie wrote: »

This is my second year doing the Lc and it's been so hard for me.I had no money and I found it difficult to concentrate on school and new friends .its been a nice year as I met new friends and we had so much fun which I missed in my previous school.so now I have my chemistry exam tomorrow or you could say today ! I feel like I did really bad and I think I will fail my sciences and this mean I will not get enough points. I don't mind repeating again but I don't know what I will tell the poeple people around me and my parents are expecting high of me this time.i was thinking of doing plc but they are all expensive and didn't find any cheap ones and when I ask my friends they just ignore me I don't know who will I ask.my point is if I do plc can I also repeat my leaving cert? I just want to do it in secret .please anyone answer me is this possible !

●thanks to everyone who shared there opinions I appreciate it !