Looking for Repeat Leaving Cert Advice

Darrell25

Hello,

I sat my leaving cert this past June 2017. I was happy enough with the way the exams went. However when the results came out I only got 410. In terms of the leaving cert in was a good result. But I was almost 100 points off what I wanted.

I spent the following three weeks trying to decide between repeating the leaving cert or doing a PLC. My parents didn't want me to repeat.But I felt that I could have given it more and possibly gotten what I wanted. It was my own fault I didn't. I fully admit that. And That's what makes it so hard now, knowing that if I had work properly I could have been in my dream course right now.

In the end I went with the PLC. But I'm not very happy with it as I feel that it won't get me to where I really want to go. And I don't want to head down a route I'm not interested in. I am also worried that what I originally wanted is not what I want anymore.

Would it be a good idea to drop out of the PLC and If I were to drop out of the course now would it be too late to start repeating the leaving cert? And would it be possible to come up about 100 points?

I managed to bring myself up two grades in all my subjects between the Mocks and the actual exams so I feel that I could do it.

But I am not sure how to approach the subject with my parents. They were both teachers so they have seen people repeating and not getting the points and they didn't want that for me. I understand that. They feel that the PLC is the safest way.

The subjects I took for my leaving cert were:
English (H)
Geography (H)
Biology (H)
Art (H)
Economic (H)
Religion (H)
Irish (O)
Maths (O)

If I repeated I would be dropping Irish. I would like to drop English, but what other subject could I take up as I wasn't using maths for my points. I was thinking about Agri Science.

Does anyone have any advice? Or have any idea how many people have repeated sucessfully? And would it possible to come up 100 points.

I feel so torn right now and I'm not sure what to do. I'm conscious that the clock is ticking. I would appreciate any advice so much!

Thank you.

everesteduc

The CAO is open now for 2018. There could be a new course that wasn't there last year. Have a look to see if there are any courses within your 410 points that could get you to where you want to end up. There could be a level 7 degree that you can add on to in 3 years to get to a level 8 honours degree. Even if you cant find a degree that exactly matches where you think you want to be in 5 years, you can always do a postgrad conversion course.

You could just finish out the PLC and still apply through CAO using last year's points. The PLC may not seem to be of benefit now but it could turn out to be useful in a few years. It's common to change direction. Nothing wrong with that.

You could repeat the leaving cert as an external student but you'd really need subjects that do not have projects to be signed off by teachers.

Students repeating the leaving cert externally would do subjects like English, Maths, Applied Maths, Business, Economics, Accounting, Classical Studies, Applied Maths, Modern Languages. You could also do Physics, Biology, Chemistry, Phys/Chem but you would perhaps need to attend a college leaving cert science practical day (eg NUI Maynooth usually in January) to do the experiments.

You can apply on examinations.ie from around Christmas. I think the closing date is late January.

If you did find a place to repeat the leaving cert in your old subjects you could definitely come up 100 points. Still 7 months to go. Best of luck