I'm Torn Between Friendship and Opportunity

Dagnir Glaurung

Jesus, don't skip TY whatever you do. You''d probably never get the chance to have such a relaxed and organised year with a large group of people you like after this. TY is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, don't do it and you'll regret it.

Also, the thing about planning to repeat 6th year in an attempt to get 600 is because the mandatory subjects are quite hard to get an A1 in and have long course, so you do 6th year and get your required grades in them and then repeat the next year only having to worry about your six best subjects which will be soft option if you're smart

nedward

Dagnir Glaurung wrote:

Also, the thing about planning to repeat 6th year in an attempt to get 600 is because the mandatory subjects are quite hard to get an A1 in and have long course, so you do 6th year and get your required grades in them and then repeat the next year only having to worry about your six best subjects which will be soft option if you're smart

Dead right. Hey, you mentioned taking a gappie for a year after the LC. 'Fraid the rotten ol' med schools don't allow it, because of pressure for places.

God, I love being nosy.

Edit: In some grind schools, they spend 5th year at the core subjects,do the Leaving for those three subjects and then do eight for points in sixth year.

Brods

nedward wrote:

In some grind schools, they spend 5th year at the core subjects,do the Leaving for those three subjects and then do eight for points in sixth year.

That'd be what i'd do, if i had to do it all again! or else do pass Irish,English and Maths, and then pick 6 subjects u can just learn, unless you're quite gifted at english. or something. These mandatory subjects are quite hit and miss, and are ALWAYS the dodgy papers, and definitely take the most work.

Though ive never heard anyone actually doing this, it seems quite, eh, practical, if you're up for a bit of extra work!

NADA

Here is a thought to consider.If your worried about your social life in private school you should be really concerned if your doing medecine. Apparently med students have no social lives in College

GretchenWieners

How did this play out Z-Bunny?!

Kwekubo

NADA wrote:

Here is a thought to consider.If your worried about your social life in private school you should be really concerned if your doing medecine. Apparently med students have no social lives in College

That's not what I've heard... I know some med students who should really stay in more

the smiley one

For what its worth...

First of all do NOT diss TY. It was the best year of my secondary school career - and I'm sure that I WILL look back on it aged 30 and be appreciative. I would check out what exactly it is like in your school. You say it is very sports-based, but surely there are other opportunities which a more academic person could get involved in. I, for example got involved in Young Scientist (you say you are interested in science) and I did an exam in European Studies which was very "book-based". Conversely, however, I got involved in things that I nevernormally would have tried - I took up Kenpo Karate (despite being incredibly un-sporty) and took part in Form and Fusion recycled fashion competition, because even though I loved make-and-do I would never have done anything like that seriously. The cliché is painful - but it reallu broadened my horizons.

Also, a point that no one has made yet is that if you are really and truly serious about medicine, that means that you will also be applying to the UK. and in the UK they like to see a rounded person, not just someone who has been eating books for the past 2/3/6 years. My friend's conditional offer for Pharmacy in England, for example, depended on an A in English. Irrelevant you might say, but they wanted to see that their students were competant at EVERYTHING, not just their choosen niche.

Its really up to you about the schools thing. Only you know what you are capable of and in what environment. Your JC results should be a good indicator of this (not 100% reliable though). I went to a private school aged 12, made the decision myself. Granted, I lost touch with all my old friends but I made new ones for life and I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have got on as well as I had done if I had gone to my local school. Having said that, each school is completely different, and you should be able to gauge how academic your present one is.

On the friends front, I'd question how easy it is to see your current friends. Do you see each other often outside school time? Is it hard to organise? Is school the only thing that you have in common? etc. In a couple of years you will all be splitting up for college anyway and it really is sink or swim time. I found that the ones that you want to keep in touch with and them you will always be your friend no matter where they, or you, are. Yes it may be more difficult, but your friendship will last. Plus you will have the chance to make a whole other gang of new friends and probably be exposed to a greater mix of people which will, in itself, educate.

I reiterate, for what its worth...

sully-gormo

I havn't had time to read all of the posts, so excuse me if I repeat stuff.
1. TY is a great year, you will not be at any disadvantage academically if you do TY and then prepare for the LC whereever. In our school there was this student FK who was very bright and gifted and is now in Cambridge studing pure maths and got a silver medal representing Ireland in some international maths 'olympiad'. According to our dean, it was said that he wouldn't have done as well if he didn't have TY to grow and mature(and he told us this when we were in 5th Year). You will be at a disadvantage sitting the LC if you're 17 and everyone else is 18 or 19. Furthermore even if you do nothing during TY, it dosent make a difference, the point is that you enjoy it, that you have a year to do something else. Remember that you just have spent a year working for the JC, have two years of work for the LC ahead and, if you get medicine, more work on top of that; so a year for something other that academics might be a good idea.

Quote "That is the academic concern that I have. Are the teachers really going to care if the class does homework or not? Are they going to care if the class moves quickly enough to cover a substantial amount? Really, I don't think so."


Quote" If, for example, I didn't do TY (and all my friends are) and I got my points in my first sitting of the LC I could spend a year doing whatever took my fancy- "broadening my horizons". Then by the time I'd done that, my friends would be ready to head off to university too"

2 things
(a) you sound very flippant about TY, you shouldn't be. If you do it you should see it as something other than an academic year. You needn't do an iota of work in TY. Furthermore, doing nothing won't affect your chances of getting 600.
(b)You are perfectly capable of getting 600, but it will be on the basis of your work in 5th&6th yr. Whether you do TY is irrelevant


2.TY will also give you a chance to think of your career options. No matter what anyone says, you are making life choices at a very young age. Some people don't figure out what they wanna do until theyre in their twenties. I thought about teaching in TY and by the end of 5th yr I had decided on it. I'm not saying you shouldn't do medicine; i'm saying you should think it over alot because you could certainly change your mind sometime in the next three years. You don't have to make your mind up now. You may have to pick two science subjects....but thats about it. It means you're doin physics and biology, or chem and bio. You don't have to decide on medicine until after xmas in 6th yr.

You'll be a different person then too

3. It seems that you took the JC a bit too seriously. When you do LC you'll see that JC stuff is so SO basic. The gap between the level at JC and that of LC is HUGE. The fact that your school treated juniors badly in terms of resources dosent tell you much as you might think. The school's best teachers are going to be teaching the 5A1 and 6A1 classes (i.e. the top classes for LC). If you put in no effort for JC, you are more than capable than getting 600 in the LC.

My advice : Do TY,you have nothing to lose and everything to gain. then ignore academics, think long and hard about whether to go to your grind school and whether to medicine, and enjoy yourself.

EDIT:Sorry if im rambling there, I usually have trouble putting my thoughts into words

eth0_

Z-bunny wrote:

Should I take a leap out of my familiar waters, trust my parents and go to the private college? Or should I stay where I am, being with the people I love every day and finish school at a slower pace, in three years time, but with them....?? Honestly, I don't know what I want anymore... I hope I've outlined the pros and cons as I see them well enough for you to see how truly torn I am.

To be really blunt, I wouldn't be so attached to my friends if I were you. Most people don't stay in contact with schoolfriends once they go to college to do a regular subject, and with medicine it's going to be even worse because after first year you won't be getting the whole summer off and you'll have a lot more studying to do than the average university student.

What are your grades like at the moment? Are they bad or just not quite on target for 600 points in the leaving cert? If you don't feel confident with the teaching you're receiving in the school, and feel that just having grids isn't going to help enough, then move to the private school.

You can still see your friends outside of school after all.

But don't put your friends above your education.

Hmm,You say you did not do well in science.If you are not getting an "a" in science for the junior cert.I reckon you should definitely go to private school if you want to do medicine.You would really need to catch up.Have you researched medicine?Is it really what you want to do?

I know at your age it was what I wanted to do.Then I seen there was a lot more interesting degrees you could do where the money is better.

Rockerette

yeah, i didnt knwo what i wanted in 3rd year.. hell, i still dont really

1st year - convinced i wanted to be a vet. grew outta that..
3rd year - moved onto interior design (ahahahaaaaaa)

now - eeh.. im rocking the journalist idea.. it'll end in tragedy no doubt, but sure i'll give it a lash. i really want to do it, have done for a few years now. and thats why im 100% happy with my course choices.. I've really thought it through.. looked at so many options.. and thats what important, just once you know deep down that medicine is what you want..

and dont ever feel bad if over the next 2 or 3 years that changes

Raphael

I was convinced I wanted to do architechture when I was in 3rd year, but the first choice on my CAO is Theoretical Physics. Which I decided I wanted to do the summer after 5th year. I don't know anyone who's known what they want to do all along.

Naikon

Ive always wanted to do something which involves computing since primary school:D
I guess i am in the minority:(

eth0_

I think if you want to do medicine and you can't get an A in junior cert science, you need to seriously re-evaluate your commitment.

You need to be really committed to doing medicine to put yourself through a 5-6 year course with barely any holidays, all for a job that involves 100 hour weeks for very little money. You won't get any let-up until you're a consultant or if you decide to be a GP where you can set your own hours. Getting 600 points in your leaving cert is the *easy* part.

sully-gormo

It dosent really matter if u did badly at ur JC science, ull be well able to catch up, if ur able

Attractive Nun

There should be nothing stopping anyone from getting 600 points as long as they have the mind for it - the intelligence, dedication etc - where you sit the exam shouldn't matter. I know I had some great teachers last year, and some pretty bad ones, but in retrospect they didn't affect things as much as you'd think. I'm good at maths, had a great maths teacher, and I messed up the exam; I'm alright at French, had a terrible French teacher and I did really well. So much of the LC is just rote learning anyway, I found that any work I did at home was far more important than what I was doing in class for the most part. The school just gives you a grasp of the subject, IMO it's up to you to get the A1 on your own time. I'm looking for high enough points (not as high as you, granted) too - and if that's the case you should really be able to get that proper grasp pretty easily.

Plus taking the weekend off and spending time with friends was key for me. I had a great time in 6th year tbh, in my experience it wasn't the day and night shut-in/hair falling out-stress inducer it's made out to be, at all. If you were to do 2 hours of intelligent study+all your homework right through 5th and 6th year, I doubt you'd have a problem getting any points you need.

And, as an aside, I couldn't study to save my life before the Junior Cert. After TY, for whatever reason, I found it very easy to study in 5th year.