Words of comfort for those who failed

Whatsernamex33 · 14-08-2013 10:14AM

The Leaving Cert doesn't determine what you do with your life - yes it helps get into college, but there is a wide range of options out there. Don't give up on what you want to do.

johnny_knoxvile · 14-08-2013 10:15AM

There is a shortage of drug mules in Peru...it's always an option. And if you're good looking and get caught you get to be on tv (without having to audition for Big Brother).

Amirani · 14-08-2013 10:18AM

Ireland is not a country where doing badly in your Leaving Cert will completely ruin your life. Sure, it makes things a bit more difficult but there's many avenues into college and good careers. Repeating the leaving cert isn't enjoyable, but it's always an option you can consider. Alternatively there's PLCs and apprentice types schemes that can provide direct pathways into college.

Some of the most successful people in the world of business and technology were abject failure in school or college. Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerburg all failed in their formal academic careers and overcame these failures to become arguably the most successful entrepreneurs of the past 50 years. What you do after failure says far more about you as a person than what you do after success. Joyce said: "A man of genius makes no mistakes; his errors are volitional and are the portals of discovery." Mistakes are failures are probably the most important ingredient of success. On the grand scale of things, leaving cert failure is pretty insignificant on the failure scale.

Funk It · 14-08-2013 10:18AM

lazygal wrote: »

College is way better than school. Loads of LC high achievers are burnt out by the time college rolls around and can't cope with non rote learning. So the average student usually does just fine once they're studying something they like. I can't tell you what I got in the LC, but I can tell you I had a blast in college and in the real world ever since.

The brightest bulbs burn out the fastest is the way I like to think of it. I certainly didn't have a great leaving cert, and it didn't hold me back thereafter alike yourself.

anncoates · 14-08-2013 10:20AM

"We can't all be clever like your brother".

"The world will always need street sweepers".

joe316 · 14-08-2013 10:26AM

Well i Was 15 points short of the course I wanted to do back when I did mine 13 years ago, could have done a different course but went back and repeated (in a different school), met some of the nicest friends I could have asked for, grew up immensely. 3 dropped subjects that I wasnt strong at, picked up 2 new ones. Sailed through exams, got the course I wanted, went on to do a masters, been working since the day after I left college and now planning to do an MBA in the next year and close to 6 figure salary.

Its not end of the world and I genuinely mean that, it was the best thing that ever happened to me. Getting the knock down first time around made sure it never happened again.

tin79 · 14-08-2013 10:26AM

There is always the priesthood. Easy to get in these days.

fryup · 14-08-2013 10:32AM

^^^^^^^^^^^^

but not enough altar boys

seamus · 14-08-2013 10:34AM

After a year, nobody will ever ask you again how you did in your leaving cert.

After five years, you won't even remember.

That's how unimportant it is.

Andersonisgod · 14-08-2013 10:36AM

“Each player must accept the cards life deals him or her: but once they are in hand, he or she alone must decide how to play the cards in order to win the game.” - Voltaire

Exams are really only about regurgitating, mostly useless, information and only judges what you were able to remember in a given 3 hour time period, personally I don't think it's a great indicator of knowledge.

OU812 · 14-08-2013 10:39AM

Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life.

Don't be trapped by dogma - which is living with the results of other people's thinking.

Don't let the noise of other's opinions drown out your own inner voice.

And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become.

Everything else is secondary.

~ Steve Jobs

Frank Black · 14-08-2013 10:42AM

**** the results. The whole testing process is racially biased so I wouldn't really...

Oh wait, you're white.

Sorry, never mind.

Jaxxy · 14-08-2013 10:43AM

seamus wrote: »

After a year, nobody will ever ask you again how you did in your leaving cert.

After five years, you won't even remember.

That's how unimportant it is.

This.

My LC results aren't even on my CV, I've no room for them after all of the qualifications I've received as a mature student.

I will also say that as young adults sometimes we're not all suited for further education. This was the case with me and many others I know. It's not a big deal if you can't go to college straight away, some of us perform better and have a greater interest in education when we get older and have more real life experience.

Don't sweat it, at your age the world is still very much your lobster.

Mary28 · 14-08-2013 10:52AM

That's a good point, you'd want to be some knob to put your LC results on your CV after a few yrs of working. College results and work exp are important. Only thing LC results are good for is getting into college. And there are plenty of roundabout ways of getting into careers these days. I've recently met a lot of student doctors who are mature students and got into the course cos they had a relevant related degree and they also skipped a year because of the other degree.

My advice is to try to get into something you think you will enjoy rather than be motivated by money or even employment chances alone. The working life is a long one.

Mary28 · 14-08-2013 10:55AM

We are obviously just talking to ourselves here.
Anyone getting their LC results today is highly unlikely to be reading this thread today.

Jester252 · 14-08-2013 10:56AM

Good luck finding a trade today you'll need it. Also Sugar enter the working world where you don't need a third level degree and three years experience to get an entrance level job.

Get on the dole until 22 and enter third level as a mature student.

Dante · 14-08-2013 10:56AM

I think this is only necessary.

Jaxxy · 14-08-2013 10:57AM

Mary28 wrote: »

We are obviously just talking to ourselves here.
Anyone getting their LC results today is highly unlikely to be reading this thread today.

Probably not, but a few parents of disappointed LCers might be!

Clandestine · 14-08-2013 11:01AM

Mary28 wrote: »

We are obviously just talking to ourselves here.
Anyone getting their LC results today is highly unlikely to be reading this thread today.

Hello!

Amirani · 14-08-2013 11:02AM

Mary28 wrote: »

We are obviously just talking to ourselves here.
Anyone getting their LC results today is highly unlikely to be reading this thread today.

Why not? You think many of them are going on the piss at 10am?

ghogie91 · 14-08-2013 11:03AM

My words of wisdom would be

"Are you crying cause you failed it cause mammy and daddy will be disappointed?... If its genuine academic disappointment the repeat, if its embarrassment or shame at what would everyone think, well then f**k them, leaving certificate does not even define a strand of hair on a persons head, go make something of yourself because your not going to be strapped to the same educational system as the average joe soap, you are free to go and get a bit of experience for yourself and see what the real world is like! All the academic overachievers will be sitting crying in 4 years time when they have to leave the drinking and acting he bollox behind and face the prospects of having to contribute and grow up. This is when you look at yourself and realise that graft and hardship endured over the years while others had it easier in college made you see what things are worth worrying about and what isn't, experience is key, printed degrees aren't"

keano_afc · 14-08-2013 11:05AM

"An education is what you're left with after you forget what they taught you at school".

Its not the end of the world.

Ishmael · 14-08-2013 11:08AM

For anyone that did badly in LC, just take heed in the fact that in a month or so, nobody will give a **** how good or bad you did so just do what all other LC's do, go get pissed. Then decide to repeat or move on to something else.

Ficheall · 14-08-2013 11:15AM

seamus wrote: »

After a year, nobody will ever ask you again how you did in your leaving cert.

It's ten years since I did my Leaving Cert. Yesterday I filled in an application form for a lecturing vacancy.
First box on academic qualifications asked for the names of the secondary schools I'd attended, along with dates, and subjects taken, including level and grade.
The next box asked for the university attended, dates, final year subjects with grades, and then degree title obtained, and then whether it was a Pass.. 1.1.
Then there was a box for "other qualifications" - other qualifications, membership of professional institutions, including conferral dates. I had to slip my PhD in there.
I presume the form is just a poorly-chosen generic one which is used for a multitude of jobs, but I'm half-worried that when they're whittling down the applications, the first thing they'll see is that I only got a C in Maths in the LC, and chuck the application.

But yeah, no sane person will ever care what you got in your LC.

Cianos · 14-08-2013 11:22AM

notnumber wrote: »

What a load of cock,its the school,its the teacher..No Its up to you how well you do in LC and in Life..Got lemons etc

Of course it's ultimately up to you - but the school and the teachers play a massive part in that.

If you have teachers that don't actually teach, then do you still think that's of no consequence?

Or can you explain to me how a student with a great teacher is on an equal level with a student who has a terrible teacher?

My point was that if a student does badly, there's a good chance that they went to a bad school, and that if they genuinely want to get ahead then repeating is an option and is of the most value to those who went to a bad school because they're likely to see a much higher % increase in their second attempt than someone who went to a great school.

Student B goes to a great school and gets 400 points. Goes on to repeat, works incredibly hard and gets 500 points: 25% increase.

Student A goes to a bad school and gets 200 points in their leaving cert. Goes on to repeat, works incredibly hard and gets 400 points: 100% increase.

Do you see where I'm coming from?

68Murph68 · 14-08-2013 11:32AM

NiallSparky wrote: »

Some of the most successful people in the world of business and technology were abject failure in school or college. Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerburg all failed in their formal academic careers and overcame these failures to become arguably the most successful entrepreneurs of the past 50 years.

All there of those you mentioned dropped out of college but the notion of them as "abject failures in school or college" is wide of the mark.

Gates and Zuckerberg both dropped out of Harvard to run the enterprises that made them rich rather than completing the process of gaining a formal degree. Both of them supposedly got 1590 out of 1600 on their SATs. The fact that both of them were in Harvard until their sophmore year would lend credence to this. In other words, at a minimum both of them were able to get into Harvard and pass their first year and then dropped out to pursue something that interested them more.

Jobs dropped out of college because his parents couldn't afford the cost of it. Given Jobs skipped a grade/year in school even though school officials recommended he skip two I find it hard to buy the notion that he wasn't intellectually able enough for college/university.

The notion of them "failing" in their academic endeavors because they weren't intellectual able enough is a serious erroneously interpretation of the circumstances.

Larbre34 · 14-08-2013 11:34AM

Really really hope that kids who may be a disappointed today decide on a naggin of vodka in preference to reading After Hours, theyd be better off......

biko · 14-08-2013 11:38AM

There's always the stripper option.

Richard Hillman · 14-08-2013 11:43AM

I had a very poor leaving cert and am just back from the dole office. The queue was non existent if thats any consolation.

tin79 · 14-08-2013 12:07PM

Frank Black wrote: »

**** the results. The whole testing process is racially biased so I wouldn't really...

Oh wait, you're white.

Sorry, never mind.

Come again?

Words of comfort for those who failed

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