The Institute of Education

theowen · 14-08-2009 5:16pm #1

I'm just looking for some general info on the place.
1. How many subjects can you take? I'm guessing 6 but on the form there's like 8 spaces to"fill in the subjects you would like to do".
2. Athmospere? Is it really just full of posh ass holes who are more concerned about their appearence than their education; that'd annoy me for sure.
3. Tests? Are there any?

DyldeBrill · 14-08-2009 5:28pm

yes tehre are tests and like someone said before there are more knackers there than posh assholes.Anyways that shouldnt matter your main priority is to get tht best Leaving cert you can, your not there to make friends

theowen · 14-08-2009 5:37pm

how can knackers afford the hefty prize tag though:eek: Eh suppose less distractions the better.

DyldeBrill · 14-08-2009 5:41pm

listen there are rich thugs too.....

Fad · 14-08-2009 6:04pm

DyldeBrill wrote: »

listen there are rich thugs too.....

This man, he* speaks the truth.

*I really dont care if you claim to be a girl........

DyldeBrill · 14-08-2009 6:06pm

nope you got it right 1st time....I'm a he

yurmothrintites · 14-08-2009 6:16pm

Your leaving cert is determined mostly on the workload you personally put in. The school you attend has little signicance. The Institute does have very good notes but most people who go there want to do very well and that leads to the high success rate. True it has an effect on your results, but if you put in the work yourself in any decent school, you will do well.

If you want a school that's not so full of Dubliners why not try Yeats College in Galway or another alternative from outside the city.

leesmom · 14-08-2009 9:08pm

as far as i know you can do 9 subjects..
as regards the posh assholes that only care about their appearance and have a smoke while touching up their already heavy makeup and the guys who loooove their own voices.yes there are plenty of that type there but equally there are down to earth people,normal people and culchies too:)
tests ,yep there are regular tests, which are very helpful to keep you working.
i dont know if you do german but my german teacher had a lady come in every week,a german lady, with whom we could practice our oral work, i found that invaluable.
some of the teachers in there wont suit you, but you can change teacher early on in the year.

phlegms · 14-08-2009 9:18pm

I went there for 2 years and absolutely loved it. Granted it has it's share of ar*e-holes, but there is a larger demographic of genuinely nice people. Having said that, I did my leaving this year and only got 450 so the super results you hear of people getting from there depend on the person. Dont get too distracted and put the effort in and you will get good results. I did neither of those things so didn't get the results others did.

theowen · 14-08-2009 10:20pm

Leesmom and Phlegms you cleared alot up for me thanks:D

JM434 · 14-08-2009 11:15pm

leesmom wrote: »

as far as i know you can do 9 subjects..
as regards the posh assholes that only care about their appearance and have a smoke while touching up their already heavy makeup and the guys who loooove their own voices.yes there are plenty of that type there but equally there are down to earth people,normal people and culchies too:)
tests ,yep there are regular tests, which are very helpful to keep you working.
i dont know if you do german but my german teacher had a lady come in every week,a german lady, with whom we could practice our oral work, i found that invaluable.
some of the teachers in there wont suit you, but you can change teacher early on in the year.

Ditto, More nice people going there than p~$cks. I repeated there and I found the place excellent. An Academic eutopia! It gave me a lot of confidence to know that I was getting the best possible preparation for the exams. The number of tests you receive depends on your teacher. The Christmas tests were compulsory but mocks are optional.

Your Leaving Cert results, however, will reflect the amount of time that you spend studying and all the excellent notes in the world won't help you if you don't put the work in. Good Luck!

phlegms · 14-08-2009 11:26pm

Make sure you use the Study Hall as much as possible!
I only seemed to discover it in the last month, but it was very helpful nonetheless.

Stev_o · 14-08-2009 11:37pm

theowen wrote: »

I'm just looking for some general info on the place.
1. How many subjects can you take? I'm guessing 6 but on the form there's like 8 spaces to"fill in the subjects you would like to do".
2. Athmospere? Is it really just full of posh ass holes who are more concerned about their appearence than their education; that'd annoy me for sure.
3. Tests? Are there any?

1. As many as you can fit in really, alot of people did ordinary maths & Irish and had only one or two scheduled class a week to compensate for the other subjects. But to warn you the more you do the longer your day will be eg 8.30 to 4.30 in some cases or even longer.

2.Atmosphere in there is brilliant, bar some people trying to be smart asses in some ordinary classes the majority are all people who want to learn and have a bit of cop on. Teachers treat you like adults in there but to warn you alot of them won't cash after you if you don't pull your weight etc (bar Orla who if you do German will become your second mum and hunt you down). People in there are friendly remember everyone is in the same boat, most people won't know each other so make sure to stay after school for study to get know new people etc.

3. Loads for example if you do History expect a in class test every week. Subjects like English you will be given essays to write nearly every week or two, take them seriously and use them to plan out what you will write in June. Also if you do extra work hand it up they ll appreciate it and will correct it no bother, likewise if you have a problem with a certain aspect with the subject ask the teacher and most will be very helpfull (Had one teacher give me a 20 min session with a particular difficulty for example)

not bakunin · 14-08-2009 11:48pm

DyldeBrill wrote: »

yes tehre are tests and like someone said before there are more knackers there than posh assholes.Anyways that shouldnt matter your main priority is to get tht best Leaving cert you can, your not there to make friends

well thank f uck i escaped this terrible grind school culture than........

theowen · 15-08-2009 12:51am

Thanks all:) The only thing I'm unsure of is which subjects to pick up. I only had four honours this year due to poor subject choice so I'm planning on dropping 2 and picking up 2. Any advice on this would be greatly appreciated. I'm considering geography, classical studies, economics and argriculturall science at the mo...

phlegms · 15-08-2009 1:15am

theowen wrote: »

Thanks all:) The only thing I'm unsure of is which subjects to pick up. I only had four honours this year due to poor subject choice so I'm planning on dropping 2 and picking up 2. Any advice on this would be greatly appreciated. I'm considering geography, classical studies, economics and argriculturall science at the mo...

I would avoid Classical Studies tbh. I did it and although I thoroughly enjoyed it, the course can be too big to get through in a year. My recommendation would be to take up Geography and Ag Science. Ag Science isn't the easy A everyone thinks it is, but the course is small enough to cover almost twice in a year. It can be easy to do well in if you work for it. Geography is a grand enough subject. Most of it is common sense and a lot of it is repeated from the JC course just in more detail.

lou91 · 15-08-2009 1:35pm

A word of warning... Geography is the one subject in the institute that doesn't really have great teachers.
Do not, I repeat, DO NOT go to Jim Carberry.
Go for James Campbell if you must.

I'd advise business. Very doable in a year and both teachers are great.
Economics is a nice one for a b1, very tricky for the a1 though

theowen · 15-08-2009 4:14pm

phlegms wrote: »

I would avoid Classical Studies tbh. I did it and although I thoroughly enjoyed it, the course can be too big to get through in a year. My recommendation would be to take up Geography and Ag Science. Ag Science isn't the easy A everyone thinks it is, but the course is small enough to cover almost twice in a year. It can be easy to do well in if you work for it. Geography is a grand enough subject. Most of it is common sense and a lot of it is repeated from the JC course just in more detail.

That's a few times now that I've been advised against classics, sorta:( I know I'd really enjoy it but I'll take your advice. So I'm pretty certain on geography now, just have to decide between Business, Economics and Ag Science.

Btw RandomUserName! can you reccomend any other teachers? I'll be doing English, Bioligy, Chem and History for definite.

Anthem · 15-08-2009 4:36pm

theowen wrote: »

Btw RandomUserName! can you reccomend any other teachers? I'll be doing English, Bioligy, Chem and History for definite.

Tara Lyons for Chemistry, the woman is an absolute legend, and the best teacher I'd ever had.

For English, classes are divided up into 4 modules - Poetry, Comparative, Single Text(Shakespeare play) and Language(Paper 1).

I'd recommend Cathy Sweeney for Language, and Denis Creaven for Poetry. Have heard good things about Cian Hogan, and Paul McCormack is amazing too.

OxfordComma · 15-08-2009 5:09pm

theowen wrote: »

That's a few times now that I've been advised against classics, sorta:( I know I'd really enjoy it but I'll take your advice. So I'm pretty certain on geography now, just have to decide between Business, Economics and Ag Science.

Btw RandomUserName! can you reccomend any other teachers? I'll be doing English, Bioligy, Chem and History for definite.

I'd avoid doing business if I were you. I slaved away at that subject for months and felt more confident about it than any other subject. In the end, I got 600 points - and an A2 in business! I can't say I care all that much, but I did work very hard at it...

I didn't go to the Institute btw... Did the LC in my own school. I really abhor the idea of grind schools, but each to his own I guess!

phlegms · 15-08-2009 5:10pm

theowen wrote: »

Btw RandomUserName! can you reccomend any other teachers? I'll be doing English, Bioligy, Chem and History for definite.

Susan Cashell for History, she is the most amazing teacher. The class will be tough and you will be getting hour long tests each week, but by the end of the year you will be cranking out A1 standard essays in under 40 minutes with ease.

Stev_o · 15-08-2009 5:48pm

theowen wrote: »

That's a few times now that I've been advised against classics, sorta:( I know I'd really enjoy it but I'll take your advice. So I'm pretty certain on geography now, just have to decide between Business, Economics and Ag Science.

Btw RandomUserName! can you reccomend any other teachers? I'll be doing English, Bioligy, Chem and History for definite.

English- Cathy Sweeney for both Language and Comparative, McCormak for Poetry and Hogan for prescribed novel thingy.

Biology-Mona Murray good teacher who has a small enough class most of the time and unlike Michael O'Callaghan finishes the course in a respectable time.

Chem-Tara Lyons

History-Susan Chasell, you ll head will ring from her high pitched voice but if listen to what she says you ll get a A1 in History no matter what comes up in June.

Maths-If your doing honours it ll be Aidan Rowntree who is a ledge, if your doing pass Mark Lynch does 3 classes a week and does enough to get you through the course

Irish- Good luck finding people who thought favourably of the Irish teachers in there :P

Geography- As said before there are two very meh teachers in the form of Carberry and Campbell, Campbell had a class of about 15 this year and most people ditched him for Carberry due to him having crap notes and being a bit of a joke (Come on he writes really really cringe worthy jokes on his notes). Carberry predicted the whole paper this year at least for what i prepared but i only got a c1 when i "should" of got at least a B1/A2/A1 ill get back to you on him when i see my script!.

theowen · 15-08-2009 7:08pm

Thanks guys, about History, I had Sean Delap for an Easter course, does he not work there full time? I don't really mind actually, considering the reccomendations for Susan Chasell:)

Beginning to reconsider geography from the above

I'll need a pretty top notch teacher if I'm to get through the course in a year, no?

Stev_o · 15-08-2009 7:21pm

theowen wrote: »

Thanks guys, about History, I had Sean Delap for an Easter course, does he not work there full time? I don't really mind actually, considering the reccomendations for Susan Chasell:)

Beginning to reconsider geography from the above I'll need a pretty top notch teacher if I'm to get through the course in a year, no?

He does but he does weird hours so be prepared for long days.

phlegms · 15-08-2009 8:28pm

theowen wrote: »

Beginning to reconsider geography from the above I'll need a pretty top notch teacher if I'm to get through the course in a year, no?

Yeah avoid it if you can, <snip> is a complete time waster.

Mod Edit: No naming individual teachers in a libellous way.

ironclaw · 15-08-2009 8:47pm

theowen wrote: »

how can knackers afford the hefty prize tag though:eek: Eh suppose less distractions the better.

Do you think all money, especially in this climate, is legitamate money? Anyone who can afford the Institute these days could defitely do with a tax audit.. :pac:

wowiee · 15-08-2009 9:40pm

Irish (HL) defo clare grealy was boarder line pass start of fifth year got an a1 in the leaving!!....if your doing pass though maybe dont go to her cus she reli doesnt like pass students

-Els- · 16-08-2009 2:38am

theowen wrote: »

Thanks all:) The only thing I'm unsure of is which subjects to pick up. I only had four honours this year due to poor subject choice so I'm planning on dropping 2 and picking up 2. Any advice on this would be greatly appreciated. I'm considering geography, classical studies, economics and argriculturall science at the mo...

The Institute is really good if you're unsure of your subject choice, not sure about 6th year but in 5th year the first two weeks are trial weeks where you can just try any subject you like, even up to halloween you can change your subjects....
your subjects sound ok, If you're thinking of Ag Science you should also consider biology. the course is longer but is much more interesting and most of it is easy enough. I know a lot of people find Ag science boring compared to biology...
The Institute is great though, I'd really recommend it, and despite what people say you do make loads of friends, and everyones not really posh and snobby....

unwyse · 16-08-2009 2:55am

Hers the proof that the irish education system is **cked, no money no results:mad::mad::mad: and thats a fact as someone famous once said.its a lickle bit like the healthcare system.

unwyse · 16-08-2009 2:57am

obviously hers should be "here's". before anyone notices!!!:p:p:p

spurious · 16-08-2009 8:49am

unwyse wrote: »

Hers the proof that the irish education system is **cked, no money no results:mad::mad::mad: and thats a fact as someone famous once said.its a lickle bit like the healthcare system.

But it's not a fact.
The fact is, people do just as well in schools you don't have to pay to go to.

The Institute of Education

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