Top student puts nine A1s down to consistent work

whassupp2

www.breakingnews.ie wrote:

The only pupil to score nine A1s in this year’s Leaving Certificate today put his success down to consistent studying.

Ronan McGovern, from Patrician College in Kildare, said a little bit of work all the way through school helped him score top marks – rather than weeks of stressful cramming.

“I suppose I did the work consistently. But I’d various things helping me out - like my parents helping me with the French and my dad helping me out with the sciences, the teachers in school, students in school, the system in school,” he said.

“Various things like that, everything kind of works together to give the results at the end of the day.”

Ronan also offered some advice for pupils preparing for the Leaving Cert.

“Just consistency, do consistent work over the years starting from first year. It doesn’t take necessarily five hours or four hours a day, it just takes a slow building up of the work,” he told RTE Radio.

“You don’t necessarily need to work a huge amount the weeks before the exams ... it’s the work you have done in advance that counts, so consistent work an hour or two starting from first year. Not even an hour or two just whatever needs to be done to keep up the work.”

Ronan took on nine tough subjects and scored maximum points. The teenager studied Maths, English, Irish, French, German, Accountancy, Applied Maths, Physics and Chemistry.

Education Minister Mary Hanafin congratulated Ronan on his achievements.

“Isn’t Ronan such a good advocate for broad education, for showing that cramming and grinds are not the things that help you to become the articulate, confident young man that he is.”


She added: “All the more reason why students should continue to be involved in sport and music and all of the things that our schools are offering them.

“Fair play to him and his school and his parents, he’s a credit to all of them.”

But Ronan insisted the last two years were not just long nights of study. He has a keen interest in music and sport, including football and hurling.

And to celebrate he plans to go to football training before meeting up with school friends.

“I took part in Les Miserables when we had that school show here – a resounding success in the school,” he said.

“I also play the clarinet with the Kildare County orchestra. Hopefully I’ll play maybe in college next year – I have plenty of time for other things as well.”

Ronan revealed he planned to study undenominated engineering in UCD in the autumn. The course allows students to get a flavour of several disciplines such as mechanical engineering, civil, electronic and chemical.

“Maybe with a view to going on to chemical, but leave my options open for a year,” he said.

He studied nine subjects whereas the average student takes on six or perhaps seven, but he insisted it was worthwhile.

“I had a reason for doing each one, it wasn’t for the craic like,” he said.

He said he picked Applied Maths because of the advantage it will give him in the engineering course and German to get a second foreign language.

Peter also studied Leaving Cert French at home.

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walt0r

..."student puts 9 A1's down to hard work and to being bullied every day of his living life, having no friends, having no social life, never kissing a girl or having his pleasure pinky touched by a female and to his mammy and daddy beating him around the head with a stick every time he leaves his study dungeon"

Smurphette

walt0r, are thse sour grapes in your pocket or are you just happy to see me?

smemon

tbh anyone who speaks publicly like this - 'selling their secrets' about their success is a glory hunter.

i hate those people and have said it before - anyone who bows to media attention or in this case, welcomes it - isn't worthy of our attention.

self-praise is no praise at all imo.

Kovik

Slow news day.

whassupp2

smemon wrote:

tbh anyone who speaks publicly about their success is a glory hunter.

i hate those people and have said it before - anyone who bows to media attention or in this case, welcomes it - isn't worthy of their attention.

self-praise is no praise at all imo.

....look who's talkin.........

smemons website wrote:

I completed my Leaving Cert in 2006, and bagged a respectable 480 points so I’m no dummy ;-)

Ok I'm only jokin;)

OctavarIan

Good for him. Obviously not smart enough to realise that you don't need to do 9 subjects though. He's got his few days in the sun, then he'll be brought back down to level pegging with everyone else in whatever course he's doing. Hate that.

Aoibheann

working from first year? wtf... that's.. quite scary and/or ridiculous.

Oh, and the average student takes at least 7 subjects, breakingnews.ie, so stfu. ;D

Fair play to the guy though, he did fantastically.

UU

smemon wrote:

tbh anyone who speaks publicly like this - 'selling their secrets' about their success is a glory hunter.

i hate those people and have said it before - anyone who bows to media attention or in this case, welcomes it - isn't worthy of our attention.

self-praise is no praise at all imo.

Even though it's a bit rich of you to speak about it, I do agree with you.

I felt like puking after reading that article. I just can't stand these students with their nine A's, they're such "goody two shoes" all over the radio and TV! We had two of them last year promoting those 3V vouchers. Talk about satisfying their ego! Also, I think it really puts other students down who thought they did really good and then find this person with their nine A's showing everyone up!

I'm not jealous or anything because I got what I wanted and refuse to compare myself to anyone else. It's just that it puts other people down who may have gotten a fairly good LC.

“Just consistency, do consistent work over the years starting from first year. It doesn’t take necessarily five hours or four hours a day, it just takes a slow building up of the work,”Okay. how many people do you know actually do this??? Studying since first year! Ha! Don't make me laugh! :rolleyes:

Fair play to him anyway, it's a hard thing to do.

UU

OctavarIan wrote:

Good for him. Obviously not smart enough to realise that you don't need to do 9 subjects though. He's got his few days in the sun, then he'll be brought back down to level pegging with everyone else in whatever course he's doing. Hate that.

True, true, true. Can't argue with that.

Rob30888

I put getting 500 points down to having no social life, he should have the balls to admit the same

Nehpets

He said himself he doesn't mean "study". Probably meant stay on top of the school work all the way til 6th year and then CHEAT!

Nah only joking

UU

Rob30888 wrote:

I put getting 500 points down to having no social life, he should have the balls to admit the same

But he didn't admit it. He said he still had a broad social life, didn't he? I had no social life for all of sixth year and fifth year for that matter - I admit that.

projectmayhem

UU wrote:

But he didn't admit it. He said he still had a broad social life, didn't he? I had no social life for all of sixth year and fifth year for that matter - I admit that.

he said he plays football and stuff on the radio this morning. i'd say he's been playing footie since the end of june or whenever his 9 exams ended. bet he's never seen a woman before either...

Kovik

I think we should all remind ourselves that in finishing the leaving and saying goodbye school entirely today we no longer have to listen to this crap.

Rockerette

in fariness, do we care that he got 900 points? nooooo.


i coudlnt give a sh!te :rolleyes:

oRlyYaRly

walt0r wrote:

..."student puts 9 A1's down to hard work and to being bullied every day of his living life, having no friends, having no social life, never kissing a girl or having his pleasure pinky touched by a female and to his mammy and daddy beating him around the head with a stick every time he leaves his study dungeon"

Right, let's assume the lad is fairly bright. This schedule should be sufficient for 9 A1s.

8am~ Get up, go to school
9am~ School + an hour of free time at lunch
4pm~ Study/Homeowrk for 3 hours
7-12~ 5 hours of free time before ge goes to bed.

So during the week he has 6 hours each day to meet with friends, have fun etc. etc.

Then at the weekend, he does 3 hours a day each day from 11am ~ 2pm and then has two full days to enjoy himself.

And anyway, don't we all waste time doing feck all? Surely studying during free time is more productive if you've got nothing else to do?

And... *brace yourself* maybe he likes some his subjects? Maybe he likes school altogether?

smemon

UU wrote:

I think it really puts other students down who thought they did really good and then find this person with their nine A's showing everyone up!

thats exactly what i hate. that's the sole reason i wouldnt pose for pictures or indeed go up to the school today because i knew there'd be lads who would fail maths and get way below what they needed.

9 A1's is stupid. why the hell would you do 9 subjects and aim for 9 A1's when the maximum you can get is 600 points? blatent glory hunter imo.

that guy has wasted 300 points in reality. it probably cost him 2 hours a day extra for 6 years also :rolleyes:

if this was a business, he'd be sacked for being stupid and for doing unnecessary work as well as wasting time and resources doing so.

MB44

It makes me proud to be irish when i read stuff like this and realise that yes, it is true, We are a nation of begrudgers and I salute all you begrudgers for begrudging little ronan for his success of memorising books.

(This is not a sarcastic reply in case you think, i really find it funny that you all slag off this 900 point scorer)

Rob30888

UU wrote:

But he didn't admit it. He said he still had a broad social life, didn't he? I had no social life for all of sixth year and fifth year for that matter - I admit that.

I've never had a social life Had best tag along with some people tonight

smemon

MB44 wrote:

It makes me proud to be irish when i read stuff like this and realise that yes, it is true, We are a nation of begrudgers and I salute all you begrudgers for begrudging little ronan for his success of memorising books.

it's the irish way. everyone has to be taken down a peg or two just to remind them that we will not accept self-glorified success stories

abetarrush

Rob30888 wrote:

I put getting 500 points down to having no social life, he should have the balls to admit the same

exactly


He's well a 45 year old midget

NADA

Seriously though. That was such a waste of time. He should have just done 6 subjects becasue the extra three made no difference. Also it cannot be healthy doing all that work.

Kurtosis

You can't blame him for not doing just 6 subjects, it's good to have a safety net in case some exams go badly. In his case, the safety net was rather big.

Agent Smith

penguin88 wrote:

You can't blame him for not doing just 6 subjects, it's good to have a safety net in case some exams go badly. In his case, the safety net was rather big.

whats the bets he went to a All boys school?

lucernarian

Eh mabye I'm missing something here, but all I see is a kid who did the extraordinary and worked "beyond the call of duty". He gave his reasons for the extra subjects. The L.C. is not all about the CAO.

Knowing French is obviously useful for travel or for getting jobs both here and at home. Applied maths for studying engineering is a no-brainer...

hullaballoo

walt0r wrote:

..."student puts 9 A1's down to hard work and to being bullied every day of his living life, having no friends, having no social life, never kissing a girl or having his pleasure pinky touched by a female and to his mammy and daddy beating him around the head with a stick every time he leaves his study dungeon"

An authority on these symptoms are you?

EdgarAllenPoo

penguin88 wrote:

You can't blame him for not doing just 6 subjects, it's good to have a safety net in case some exams go badly. In his case, the safety net was rather big.

I did eight. The main reason being the fact that I was doing pass maths and pass irish and needed something more for points. I never really studied(don't really know how) and taught myself two years of geography,economics and business and one year of the other five. I did it from home. If I had gone back to school I probably would have gotten my points than I did.

wowy

Who here actually believes that he rang up Rte radio this morning and told them exactly why he's so brilliant? Clearly, he was hounded by the media to give some sort of inspirational comment; the if-I-can-do-it-then-anybody-can-do-it-if-they-just-apply-themsleves comment. All he did was say what they wanted to hear. As regards absence of social life; firstly it's pretty clear thet he's uber-intelligent so he wouldn't have had to devote as many hours as us mere mortals to get his marks. Secondly, look at his extra-curricular activities list. He had a social life. Doesn't mean he was popular though-only the people who know him well can say that; not a group of (sour-grape-eating) randomers on the internet.

I certainly won't begrudge him being in the spotlight (albeit briefly) for his achievement.

oRlyYaRly

Spot on!

Poster1~ Boy gets nine A1s bla bla bla...
Poster2~ Good on him!

Is it really that hard?

Glazun

Pfft, 9 A1's is fantastic, what ever course he applies to, he'll always have the knowledge of those classes, and he cant get into a variety of different courses, depending on the subject requirements. He could be our future president..