Leaving Cert hype???

ilovebiology · 09-06-2010 07:41AM #1

We all did the Leaving Cert, and were nervous doing it. What gets on my nerves is that when students get into college then, alot of them get no grinds, no help from lecturers, (Are not "Spoonfed") and its all up to yourself whether you want to pass your exams or not. As a result, many first year college students either fail or drop out.

There is such hype every year about the Leaving Cert, and when students get into college they are lost, as like I said many either drop put or fail. The hardest exams I ever did were my exams in college particularly my finals......there is no hype about college exams, and how difficult they are, and they lack of help from lecturers in college etc. Does this annoy anyone else every June?

IvySlayer · 09-06-2010 07:47AM

Well, tbh, my college exams were easier than the Leaving Cert because I enjoyed what I did in college.

ilovebiology · 09-06-2010 07:51AM

IvySlayer wrote: »

Well, tbh, my college exams were easier than the Leaving Cert because I enjoyed what I did in college.

I enjoyed my course in college as well. Some people find the Leaving Cert the most difficult exams they will ever do, and its an individual opinion to everyone. I just can't stand teh hype that surrounds it every year, and then what happens to them in first year in college?!!

Bloody Nipples · 09-06-2010 07:51AM

College exams can realistically be studied for in 6-8 weeks.
And I'm in bed while my brother is leaving for English Paper I so i'm finding it hard to be jealous :pac:

ilovebiology · 09-06-2010 07:56AM

The course I did in college was very tough. Monday to Friday 9 to 5, with course work to be done as we went along continous assessment, lab reports, labs etc. It might just be me, but during the Leaving Cert year there is a ridiculous amount of help available to any student ie grinds, revision courses, expensive private schools for the Leaving Cert.

It makes me laugh in a way, alot of them think when they have the Leaving Cert done they are over the worst, when the hard part id ahead of them! Its my opinion anyways!

Doop · 09-06-2010 07:56AM

Hype ???? :eek::eek::eek::eek::eek:

The leaving cert is the MOST important exam you will EVER do.

It will determine what you spend the rest of your life doing..

Rar rar rar
:P

IvySlayer · 09-06-2010 07:56AM

ilovebiology wrote: »

I enjoyed my course in college as well. Some people find the Leaving Cert the most difficult exams they will ever do, and its an individual opinion to everyone. I just can't stand teh hype that surrounds it every year, and then what happens to them in first year in college?!!

I remember in 2006 when I was walking to school in my uniform and the amount of people wishing me luck. Most of them strangers!

The LC is more than an exam, it's the first step towards their next stage of life. College/work.

Ilovebiology, I really don't know what you're saying here, you seem more than happy to point out ,'Ohh what I have to do is a lot harder than them damn LC students!'

They'll find out

College is much more independant.

DazMarz · 09-06-2010 08:01AM

The Leaving Cert is hyped up t'fúck. It's a memory test more than anything; remember this, that and the other, regurgitate it up on to a blank piece of paper and Robert's your father's brother.

I got a very good score in my Leaving, and I spent most of 5th/6th year drinking and gambling/playing poker... go figure. What frightens me is, what could I have gotten if I'd been bothered...

ilovebiology · 09-06-2010 08:03AM

I agree with both of you above completely. I cannot stand the hype of the entire thing every year though. I mean if you don't get the course of your choice, there is the next course you choose on your COA form. A student can also repeat, and get as "Spoonfed" as much as they want.

Its not the case in college. You can repeat exams over the Summer, which may leave a student only working part time over the Summer, and then they may not pass the exams. So, the student is left with less money going into repeating the year, and will have to pay money to repeat the year....its alot more difficult

Leaving Cert :rolleyes:

Anna Molly · 09-06-2010 08:08AM

I spent two years freaking out about that bloody exam, studying like a mo'fo. I remember **** all of it now, this was three years ago, tbh I couldn't tell you what I did for comparative studies.
It's all a massive memory test, at the time I could write down any given page or piece of information you wanted to know. The hype scares the **** out of students, makes them nervous and **** up. In my school, when it came to the LC one student was so nervous that he literally kept ****tin himself!

Then you go to college, there's no pressure, you booze your way through first year, realize you don't have to be up at 7am and thus you fcuk up! I hated my original course, was far too simple after the LC so I dropped out.

For my last exams I basically started studying the week before, and I did pretty damn great! [:

FCUK YOU, LEAVING CERT!

Tefral · 09-06-2010 08:21AM

Its not actually a test of knowledge, its a test of how much you can remember...

The leaving was the biggest anticlimax, it felt like doing normal summer exams.

I went from a "grinds" school to do Chemistry and Physics teaching in Ul, i dropped out after 6months, because i just went mad. I took a year out, reapplied to the CAO and went and did quantity Surveying. My college exams were harder than any leaving cert..

If you dont do well in your leaving its not the end of the world, afterall there is more than one way of skinning a cat

09-06-2010 08:26AM

I dunno. The material I covered this year was fairly intense stuff but I would rather have 10 times more Human Physiology and Physical Pharmacy than look at Peig ever again.

ilovebiology · 09-06-2010 08:26AM

cronin_j wrote: »

Its not actually a test of knowledge, its a test of how much you can remember...

The leaving was the biggest anticlimax, it felt like doing normal summer exams.

I went from a "grinds" school to do Chemistry and Physics teaching in Ul, i dropped out after 6months, because i just went mad. I took a year out, reapplied to the CAO and went and did quantity Surveying. My college exams were harder than any leaving cert..

If you dont do well in your leaving its not the end of the world, afterall there is more than one way of skinning a cat

I agree completely, so much choice for Leaving Cert students. Like if they don't get their first choice they can get their second choice etc. College exams in my opinion ALOT harder

Einstein · 09-06-2010 08:32AM

Theres no point saying the LC isn't important, it is...cos if you don't do well yer folks will burst ye..:P

But in reality, there's soooo many PLC courses and things that can be done to give you access to your desired course, should you not do well in the LC these days.
The stress and pressure thats thrown on school leavers when it comes to LC is just insane...

4zn76tysfajdxp · 09-06-2010 08:35AM

Deleted User wrote: »

I dunno. The material I covered this year was fairly intense stuff but I would rather have 10 times more Human Physiology and Physical Pharmacy than look at Peig ever again.

Is Peig still on the curriculum? It wasn't in my day.

ilovebiology · 09-06-2010 08:36AM

Einstein wrote: »

The stress and pressure thats thrown on school leavers when it comes to LC is just insane...

It is, but on the flip side of the coin, the amount of help students can get in their Leaving Cert year is just as "Insane" in a way....in college there is no help whatsoever!

Einstein · 09-06-2010 08:37AM

ilovebiology wrote: »

It is, but on the flip side of the coin, the amount of help students can get in their Leaving Cert year is just as "Insane" in a way....in college there is no help whatsoever!

wow, you went to a shít college

ilovebiology · 09-06-2010 08:39AM

Einstein wrote: »

wow, you went to a shít college

I went to university in Dublin

09-06-2010 08:40AM

ilovebiology wrote: »

It is, but on the flip side of the coin, the amount of help students can get in their Leaving Cert year is just as "Insane" in a way....in college there is no help whatsoever!

Did you go to a bad college or something? We had lecturers with open door policies who were more than happy to help out with anything.
I hated when I did the LC and hearing "oh this is the most important exam you'll ever do". Like hell it was. Barely qualifies as a 2 year course anyway.

ilovebiology · 09-06-2010 08:42AM

I'm not saying there was no help in college, there was alot less than what was available to a Leaving Cert student!

Einstein · 09-06-2010 08:43AM

i'm with bluewolf on this one...I had more than plenty of help if needed.

Remember, your in college, your supposed to be an adult and think for yourself...it's assumed you want to be there. Therefore they assume that your big and bold enough to seek help if you need it.

09-06-2010 08:45AM

ilovebiology wrote: »

I'm not saying there was no help in college, there was alot less than what was available to a Leaving Cert student!

How? There were grinds, tutorials, lecturers. I probably had more help in college than I did in the LC. I certainly don't think I could catch teachers in between classes and look for help!

In any case LC students are younger and maybe they need more guidance. By the time you get to uni you're an adult and you're supposed to take responsibility. There's lots of help there, you just need to be a bit more active in seeking it out.

ilovebiology · 09-06-2010 08:49AM

bluewolf wrote: »

How? There were grinds, tutorials, lecturers. I probably had more help in college than I did in the LC. I certainly don't think I could catch teachers in between classes and look for help!
In any case LC students are younger and maybe they need more guidance. By the time you get to uni you're an adult and you're supposed to take responsibility. There's lots of help there, you just need to be a bit more active in seeking it out.

In the first year of my course, there were additional grinds available in ONE subject, but no other subjects. 2nd, 3rd, and final year this additional help did not exist. I remember in my final year, asking my lecturer on a number of occasions about my thesis, I got no help, and was told to go to the library....no help....Final year, very little help....this was 20 times harder than any Leaving Cert

09-06-2010 08:50AM

ilovebiology wrote: »

In the first year of my course, there were additional grinds available in ONE subject, but no other subjects. 2nd, 3rd, and final year this additional help did not exist. I remember in my final year, asking my lecturer on a number of occasions about my thesis, I got no help, and was told to go to the library....no help....Final year, very little help....this was 20 times harder than any Leaving Cert

You went to TCD didnt you

ilovebiology · 09-06-2010 08:54AM

bluewolf wrote: »

You went to TCD didnt you

I won't disclose which university I attended.....I might scare the Leaving Cert students hoping to go to the college I went to!

09-06-2010 09:13AM

I think you'd be better off disclosing what university it was so that the LC students won't worry that it's every university.

The Leaving Cert is not the be all and end all. I studied absolutely feck all for mine, hated most of my subjects but was forced to do them, and got a mediocre score. But I still went to college and completed my course, with the possibility of being in a better position than those who scored higher marks.

And if you don't get what you want? Screw it. A person should not have to decide what they want to do for the rest of their lives at ages 16-18. There's some ludicrous about that.

KittyeeTrix · 09-06-2010 09:34AM

My son has gone off this morning to sit his JC and honestly he's not really arsed....I'm hoping that he will have matured a bit by time his LC rolls around as he says he would like to do science in NUIG as I'm currently doing.

I could if I wanted get him grinds and hold his hand along the way, but I haven chosen not to, as I have seen firsthand how many students flounder when they get into 1st year college and fail.

If he gets there on his own accord, I believe he will be able to withstand the pace and not be one of the science statistics which drop out or fail!! If not he will have the opportunity to go back as a mature student and get a decent degree at that stage which will actually be worth something.......:)

bonerm · 09-06-2010 09:40AM

The Leaving Cert is the new Junior Cert.

A degree is the new Leaving Cert.

A Ph.D is the new Inter Cert.

piby · 09-06-2010 09:51AM

The LC was just a massive anti-climax. You sweat and worry and work your ass for a couple of months and then you sit it and its no different to any other exam in school. Once you get English out of the way it's really quite relaxed. Most of the pressure comes from parents and the media. The latter is particularly bad. I opened some papers this morning and was met with the word 'D-Day' too many times to mention!

As for college I would say that the exams are considerably harder but you're doing something you enjoy and you're not having to spread yourself across so many diverse subjects. The problem is that college is assumed to be relatively easy so people come out of the LC expecting to be spoonfed and get firsts. College is meant to be hard but this has been forgotten by the sheer number of people going into it these days. At the end of the day if you have a problem you as an adult go look for the help. True sometimes the lecturers couldn't be bothered but in some ways that's part of the learning process. When you go on to work in a real job you can't be running to your supervisor every two minutes asking for help!

09-06-2010 10:02AM

bluewolf wrote: »

How? There were grinds, tutorials, lecturers. I probably had more help in college than I did in the LC. I certainly don't think I could catch teachers in between classes and look for help!
In any case LC students are younger and maybe they need more guidance. By the time you get to uni you're an adult and you're supposed to take responsibility. There's lots of help there, you just need to be a bit more active in seeking it out.

I think perhaps he means there's no spoon feeding in college. It was even difficult to get help when you wanted it at the 3 universities I attended (TCD, Imperial and a Spanish uni), it was just assumed that you'd work it out for yourself, and that was fine with me. The only thing I had an issue with was the lack of essay feedback in Trinity - totally pointless to keep making the same mistakes because nobody pointed them out. The whole idea of college is to improve. I got essay marks in the 50's all through college, even though I got firsts in all the exams, because I didn't know what I was doing wrong. I came to Imperial in London, got some great feedback back in October and have been getting firsts in all my essays ever since. So yeah. I think TCD sucks in that way. My department did, anyway.

Mayoegian · 09-06-2010 10:09AM

cronin_j wrote: »

Its not actually a test of knowledge, its a test of how much you can remember...

The leaving was the biggest anticlimax, it felt like doing normal summer exams.

I went from a "grinds" school to do Chemistry and Physics teaching in Ul, i dropped out after 6months, because i just went mad. I took a year out, reapplied to the CAO and went and did quantity Surveying. My college exams were harder than any leaving cert..

If you dont do well in your leaving its not the end of the world, afterall there is more than one way of skinning a cat

While that is true to some extent in regards to History, Geography etc. You cannot say that about Maths, Chemistry, Physics, Irish, French and the like. TBH, people speak about learning things off and regurgitating them on a sheet of paper, but it is necessary to do that for some sections of the course.
Try going into a history exam without learning off an essay-it's impossible to do. Unfortunately, there seems to be no other way of testing a person's knowledge on that particular subject. So, while what you say is true, you have to look deeper than that and appreciate all the facts involved.

Leaving Cert hype???

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