How many points did you get in your leaving cert?

TonyStark · 17-08-2019 10:28AM

465

2 A2's in Biology and Latin

C1 in honours Maths which I was a little disappointed and yet unsuprised with. I remember Maths being a time sink and everything else seemed to fit in around it.

Work in IT now. Maths is by far the least of my worries these days.

Salary Negotiator · 17-08-2019 10:32AM

460 in old money, only needed 380 and didn’t do much work but was disappointed not to get an A in both History and Maths.

Took this level of effort into college and scrapped through each of my 3 years, regret that ever since. Graduated with a 3rd.

Go Home Paddy Cat!! · 17-08-2019 10:39AM

480 in old money as many are stating

No bonus points or any of that nonsense. Completely neglected the language based subjects (scraped passes) and excelled in maths and scientific subjects. It's strange because I started studying Spanish and Italian on my own years later and discovered I had an aptitude for languages but was completely apathetic towards them in school as I found them 'boring'. I put that down to how languages were taught when I was in school.

Flibble · 17-08-2019 10:57AM

405 on the first go, because I had a nervous breakdown before my history exam and decided I wanted to repeat before I'd finished all my exams. I was just gone 17 and was freaked out at the thoughts of the massive life changes ahead. I wanted to study psychology, so I repeated.

I decided mid way through repeat year that I didn't want to do psychology, just arts. Which I'd already been offered the previous year. So... I gave up again and got 425. Did English and History, which- to be fair- was very enjoyable and has stood to me.

Then I went on to study something entirely different afterwards privately, and have managed to make a successful career now out of something I'm very passionate about. I work for myself, and I'm constantly upskilling for the craic- I've not spend longer than 6 months without doing a course of some sort since 2012 and I've no intentions of stopping. I love my job- some days I do a happy dance at the end of the day. I feel so lucky to be doing this. And it had exactly zero to do with my leaving cert, beyond the requirement to actually have it. Points didn't matter at all.

Vowel Movement · 17-08-2019 10:59AM

245, I put zero effort in but got the course I wanted. Dropped out of college after a year to do an apprenticeship instead. Best decision of my life.

tedpan · 17-08-2019 11:04AM

I passed every exam by barely even going in after transition year. Never did homework and refused to go to detention. Was so proud of myself.

BuboBubo · 17-08-2019 11:12AM

320 points. I remember adding them up. I hadn't applied for college though (early 90's).

Didn't do the "mature student" thing as I got so used to earning my own money and driving my own car by my 18th birthday.

Looking back, I should have gone to college and done "something". Never too late I suppose but my bills and mortgage says otherwise

17-08-2019 11:16AM

Holy feck, surrounded by brain boxes in here haha.
I got 245 or something. Did some courses but chose not to pursue as a career.
Started a career and did 10 years before realizing I hated it and had no long term options.

Changed career just recently and finally feel happy. At 33. Hopefully it says this way lol

Obvious Desperate Breakfasts · 17-08-2019 11:30AM

Foweva Awone wrote: »

515 points. I spent a few years slutting my way around a few different colleges and courses (Psychology in DCU, Radiation Therapy in Trinity, Commerce in NUIG) but the degree I finally saw through to the end was a Business Studies one in a regional IT that I'd have only needed about 200 points for.

I'm one of those eternal students who just keeps on studying part-time for the sake of learning new things. I did a course in Community Addiction Studies earlier this year, and am about to start into a Criminology evening course. Completely unrelated to my current field of work (Finance.)

The Leaving Cert, in my opinion, is really only important for a couple of years after you do it. If you have a genuine passion for a particular course or career, you'll find a back-door into it if it's what you really want to do.

Sometimes. It’s not always possible, for many reasons. And sometimes a person doesn’t have the aptitude for their dream job.

This will be an unpopular viewpoint but I learned so much from sitting the LC. It’s a good challenge for a teenager. It’s a broad courses of study compared to, say, the A-Levels. The A-Levels might be more in-depth but there’s fewer subjects. With the LC, you have to figure out how to approach the broadness so it really sharpened my organisational and time-management skills.

Some of the subjects also really stood to me in college. And I think people complain too much about the rote-learning element. In any subject, there is a certain amount of stuff you just need to know. Learning something off AND understanding it too aren’t mutually-exclusive. In subjects I liked, I wanted to really understand the stuff I was learning off. Or there have been times where a poem I learned off for the Junior Cert pops into my head because something has happened that related to it. The poem was there in the vaults, waiting to be used.

Obvious Desperate Breakfasts · 17-08-2019 11:33AM

Paddy223 wrote: »

What do you mean they got rid of the honours maths bonus it's still there?

For a brief period in the late ‘90s, early ‘00s, they did away with the Honours Maths bonus points. If you reread my post, I never said they didn’t bring it back but when I was sitting my Leaving Cert, the bonus wasn’t there.

Martina1991 · 17-08-2019 11:42AM

Obvious Desperate Breakfasts wrote: »

480 points. They got rid of the Honours Maths bonus for a few brief years and I would have broke the 500+ barrier (just about) had it still been in place. Also regret not studying me Art History because my teacher said my practicals were well-scored. But it was my last exam and I couldn’t locate my motivation even if I had an electron microscope.

A1 in Biology. :cool: Which was good because I studied biology in college and it did stand to me. So did the maths. The effort was worth it.

Samesies. I was fairly confident I'd have the points for my course so I probably didn't push myself as hard as I could have.

But sure, even those with 500+ may not get the offer they want. It's a mad awl system.

Obvious Desperate Breakfasts · 17-08-2019 11:48AM

sugarman wrote: »

300 or so, it was more than enough for my college course at the time so I went in having done the bare minimum required.

I focused on getting 2 A1s in my 2 best classes to make up the majority of the points and the C1 minimum I needed in Maths. The rest I just needed to pass.. and I done just that.

Leaving Cert is so much unnecessary pressure for 17/18 year olds.. having it drummed into you that it's the be all and end all for 5/6 years of secondary. I know plenty who either didn't do it or made a balls of it and ended up in better jobs than those who smashed it.

I have to say, we were lucky, our Careers teacher was great at explaining all the different ways to get into a particular job or that you don’t need to choose a high points course, just because you got the points for it or are expected to. She was very level-headed and that put me at ease.

One thing I dislike (not saying you said this) is the need some people have to run down those who do well. “Oh well, the LC is pointless anyway!”. The 500+ pointers from my year are all still over-achieving in life. And even just applying yourself that way at that age deserves credit.

SCOOP 64 · 17-08-2019 11:49AM

SusanC10 wrote: »

510 (no bonus points). Got my first choice in Uni. No regrets. Was happy in my chosen profession. But stay-at-home Mum now for too long.

A talent wasted:D

Dravokivich · 17-08-2019 11:51AM

I never checked out the score. I was accepted into the course I did before I received them.

Obvious Desperate Breakfasts · 17-08-2019 11:54AM

Martina1991 wrote: »

Samesies. I was fairly confident I'd have the points for my course so I probably didn't push myself as hard as I could have.

But sure, even those with 500+ may not get the offer they want. It's a mad awl system.

Very true. One of my friends got 520 points. I was delighted for her and was enthusiastically congratulating her but noticed she looked sad. She wanted veterinary science and already knew she didn’t have the points. Luckily, she only just turned 17 around the time of the LC so kind of had a year to play with. She repeated and got in. But doing well the first time wasn’t much good to her as it wasn’t what she needed.

touts · 17-08-2019 11:54AM

40 something. Can't really remember. It was more than I needed to get into uni back then.

That was before they decided the easiest was to improve grades and make kids feel better about themselves was to multiply all the points by 10. That worked out well.....

Buford T. Justice XIX · 17-08-2019 11:59AM

Dravokivich wrote: »

I never checked out the score. I was accepted into the course I did before I received them.

I remember checking out the newspaper for my CAO number and course and it wasn't there at all. I just felt drained and dreaded the thoughts of having to go back and repeat.

And then looking through the numbers again later and finding mine and my course which wasn't where it was supposed to be printed. A pretty messed up day, tbh.

Loved the course I did, though the first two years were crap but needed doing for the basics. The final two years were fantastic, absolutely in my element and studying was a pleasure. Got offered a few Masters courses and took one but never finished as job offers came and the money and locations were ideal for me.

Ficheall · 17-08-2019 12:07PM

Worked my ass off at maths, did feck all study for anything else. All higher level, got two As, four Bs, a C and a D.
The C and D were in maths and applied maths.

Idiotically decided to do maths in uni, and spent four years memorising answers I did not understand - far worse than the LC.

After graduating, I had no idea what to do, so I applied for a masters. No one else applied for the masters so they didn't run it, and they didn't want to leave me in the lurch, so one of the professors who had some research funding asked if I wanted to do a phd. Having no better ideas, I agreed, and got through that as the work was almost entirely computer based.

Then did a terrible maths postdoc and produced very little after a pretty crappy eighteen months research, and decided maths wasn't really for me.

Difficult to sort of back out of maths now, though, so I now (it's been just over three years) proofread the grammar and typesetting in real mathematicians' research papers prior to journal publication. The only mathematics I ever use is to decide whether I need to add parentheses when unstacking a fraction.

Wouldn't mind leaving maths behind entirely some day..

Mad_maxx · 17-08-2019 12:10PM

One of my sisters got 525 yet can't walk and chew gum at the same time

Never had a job in her life despite being thirty two

Mousewar · 17-08-2019 12:34PM

Weird how many 480s there, especially since that's what I got. It was the second highest in my school that year. 485 was the highest. (Not a great school).
A1 in English was my highlight.
I only put one course down on the CAO form and it ended up needing 480 points. Scraped in by the skin of me teeth.

SpannerMonkey · 17-08-2019 12:45PM

330 but failed maths and irish.

Went and did an apprenticeship . i have completed 2 engineering degrees since then and numerous other certificates, currently enrolled in a H.Dip.

The leaving means very little in the long run if you are willing to put in the effort and its a lot easier if you study subjects that actually interest you instead of the crap you are forced to learn for the leaving

thomasdylan · 17-08-2019 12:46PM

590. I thought I'd be interesting so did medicine.

Leg End Reject · 17-08-2019 12:50PM

I can't remember but I think about 340ish after dossing for 2 years.

Copped myself on later and went back to study and slugging away at it ever since. I still don't know what I really want to do though, so it's no wonder I was lost at 17.

jcorr · 17-08-2019 12:52PM

375 for me, but I was useless at studying.

I spent too much time faffing about in my final year. Even my English teacher gave out to me about the pre leaving cert results.

Honestly I think the leaving cert is a joke and I would still think that even if I got 600 points.

Kitty6277 · 17-08-2019 12:56PM

260. Still a bit ashamed to admit to it

I suffered a lot with anxiety during school which affected my attendance massively, but I was lucky enough to get offered the course I wanted on a reduced points place due to the DARE scheme. 4 years on, I’ve never gotten anything less than a B at university level.

KatW4 · 17-08-2019 12:57PM

435. Didn't really try too hard and was devastated I didn't get the points for teaching. I ended up doing Arts, applied for the PGCE in London and got into teaching that way. Absolutely delighted it worked out the way it did!

Danzy · 17-08-2019 01:00PM

I don't remember at this stage.

Mad to think it was such a big deal at the time.

Even a short few years later, it hasn't much relevance.

Potential-Monke · 17-08-2019 01:01PM

320 and I didn't apply myself. I was against my school at that stage, as they forced me to do French instead of German and Business instead of Technical Graphics (as it was clashing with French, and i HAD to do French). The principal handed me my results and said I didn't deserve them. I told her they didn't deserve me and walked out, leaving her sour face all confused.

Tbh, I had no idea what I wanted to do after school, and ended up paying for a private college for 2 years as I didn't get enough points for the 1 course I applied for. If I could go back knowing what i know now, I would have tried harder, but at 18 I barely knew what I wanted to do the following day, let alone for college/rest of my life.

road_high · 17-08-2019 01:03PM

2001 leaving cert here- what is all this H1 Bollix they are on about now? What was wrong with A, B C etc grades? Were they too crushing for today’s little snowflakes or what?

Dickie10 · 17-08-2019 01:05PM

got 240 points and failed maths im now a fully qualified secondary teacher teaching history and geography , plus never studied history in the leaving.

How many points did you get in your leaving cert?

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