Top student puts nine A1s down to consistent work

Earth,Calling

smemon wrote:

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.
.

I did eight, I got my results today.
I didn't get eight A1's, but I did alright. And I did eight because I like school, I like the subjects and there isn't one subject that I'd like to drop. I'm sure Ronan Mcgovern is no different.

This guy did exceptionally well, he should be given credit for that.

Anyway, well done to everyone who got results today. We've finished!
... What am I saying, you're all hammered by now.

Pet

****ing overachievers. Can't stand them.


I begrudge him and his ilk all the way!

Dilly1

He just didnt play any sports, Sports really takes up alot of your time when
in school (thats why girls do better in school, but they all have bellies that would put your dad to shame ), and you end up not getting much time to study. Hes a straight A student he maybe unfit but sure he has all these A's I am sure thats a good thing isnt it ?

JackKelly

wowy wrote:

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.

Spot On. He obviously didn't ring up the papers. An island of begrudgers.I love how everyone talks as if they could have got 9 A1's, they just didn't want to. The guy is clearly an academic and doing 9 subjects isn't that ridiculous for someone who finds it easy to learn. Congratulations to him

LikeOhMyGawd!

Fair play to the kid, if only there were more with his attitude, never mind the success. My one bit of advice to him would be: don't do engineering. I did engineering (it was long, tough and the class was full of thickos) and I realised before I graduated that working as an engineer sucks - the work is pointless, endless meetings, cheap suits, average cars, average house....AVERAGE LIFE. So, I got myself a job in another field where the environment is stimulating, the work is tough, there are fit women and lots of partying and the financial rewards are huge. Basically it's BITCHEN'. My colleagues mostly studied other subjects at university - law, history, arts...basically the dossy 9 hours a week stuff. I ask myself why did I bother with engineering and 30 hours a week in class to end up in the same job as the others? In the end the cream rises to the top, as will this dude. But he should cut himself some slack and not do engineering! With his brains he'd be wastedin engineering - but if he insists on undertaking an 'intellectual challenge' he should do something like medicine where he'll be sharing class with a bunch of social retards, as opposed to the general retards who populate engineering.

Smurphette

oh do be quiet all of you. It's an amazing achievement.

Dilly1

I got myself a job in another field where the environment is stimulating, the work is tough, there are fit women and lots of partying and the financial rewards are huge. Basically it's BITCHEN'.

Are you a drug dealer ?? :cool:

or maybe you work in Sales

Earth,Calling

Dilly1 wrote:

He just didnt play any sports

Yes he did, you're not even getting the article right.

Does anyone know what the statistics actually are on girls vs boys in this round of the Leaving? In my school there is only one girl in the top 5 from the year. Not that it matters, just like to know. Maybe the tide is turning on yonder girls... boys are back in town:D

spurious

Generally girls are scoring higher in most subjects and gaining ground in the ones they are not yet highest in. Less of them take subjects at Foundation Level.

It's not yet seen as 'uncool' among many girls to work hard and do well.

Look at some of the reactions to this lad with 9 A1s and you can see what some people think of working hard and doing well.

EdgarAllenPoo

A girl in Booterstown got 8 A1's and only gets her name in the paper today. Fair play to the other guy but he did seem a bit "media friendly."

Princess Consuela Bananahammock

Getting 9 A1s in your leaving and thinking your intelligent is a bit like getting drenched in the rain and thinking you can swim. Not saying he isn't intellectual, or intelligent, just saying the leaving cert is no judge.

Girls do better than boys because the leaving is all about using the left-side of the brain, which favours women in general. Men tend to use the lateral/creative/spacial right brain more.

dermot_sheehan

minister wrote:

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.”

Blah, blah, blah,

cramming ftw

Got me through leaving cert and college (actually supposed to be cramming now).

Heinrich

Getting 9 A1s in your leaving and thinking your intelligent is a bit like getting drenched in the rain and thinking you can swim. Not saying he isn't intellectual, or intelligent, just saying the leaving cert is no judge.

I have met some intellectuals who get confused about nitty-gritty like changing a light bulb.

spurious

In fairness, I don't think anyone ever suggested doing well in the Leaving Cert. is a sign of intelligence.

It measures only a limited aspect of intelligence, arguably the least useful 'in real life'.In life, interpersonal intelligence is far more useful, but barely addressed in the standard LC - the Leaving Cert. Applied is a little better in that area.

LikeOhMyGawd!

Heinrich wrote:

I have met some intellectuals who get confused about nitty-gritty like changing a light bulb.

'Intellectuals', you mean a arty-fartys who dribble when they wee? There are loads of people who can't change a light bulb. There are also those who CAN change a light bulb but don't know how a lightbulb is manufactured or how it works. What are they then? Only partially stupid?

Anyway, some people are suggesting that getting 9 A1s in leaving cert is not a sign of intelligence. What then is being rubbish at school and failing every exam? A different type of intelligence?

In my experince any kid who is great at mathematics is great at everything. I bet this guy is no different.

Dilly1

hes lying about the sports (it wouldnt be a newspaper if it didnt bend the truth) .... he never leaves his room.


I know people like that, too brainy, they end up getting taken advantage of in the work place, people get them to do everything for little or no pay and they quite happily accept.

I had a friend who was unbelievable with numbers, brainiest guy in school. But he used to get shafted in business or even by any Salesman around, I could never understand why, its a funny old world.

If I had the time back again, I would have just passed the leaving and started a business. Some of my closest friends did that and they are successful business owners now, The way they looked at it was like this, By going straight into business they were getting a head start on all the eejits in College, I suppose it takes more balls to actually make that decision, but it worked out very well for each one of them, it could also be down to timing, because they decided to do this before the BOOM and before the country became overpriced so they were well placed to reep the rewards.

democrates

I understand where people are coming from in having a go at the chap who got 9 A1's, and for what it's worth to anyone here's my view.

Don't let the fact that there are people who can do certain things better than you get you down. Even the best in the world will eventually lose their guinness book of records position, big deal. If the rest of us compare ourselves to extremes and consider ourselves to be failing in some way, we'll never be happy. Why do that to ourselves?

Comparing yourself to others can be useful for thinking about what might be achievable and can encourage us to try a little harder, but leave it at that, focus on living your own life and be the best you can be. So long as I do my best I score 100%, my 100%, and I'm fully happy with my performance.

So what if I'm never going to be the richest man in the world, or the fastest, brainest, most famous, etc. Those people have no bearing on my life, my goal is my contentment, and that is not attained by obsessing about what I'm not, it is attained by realising what really makes me happy and choosing to live that life.

It can be tough when you're young because you know you are capable of a lot, you have an idea in your head of what success means for you, and you want to be there now. Mark this well, people tend to overestimate what they can achieve in a year, yet underestimate by far more what they can achieve in ten. Have a strategy.

The trap to avoid here is forgetting to enjoy today, not being able to fully enjoy the moment because you're attention is diluted by dreams of tomorrow or other distractions. This is simply a time management issue. Set aside time for strategising about your life, then time for medium term tactics, and once you've taken care of your life business, the rest of your time is for 100% immersion in the here and now. Don't spend more time thinking about life than living it.

In your strategy, know that you can't spend your way to true hapiness any more than clothes maketh the man. I know plenty of guys who are wealthy, but unhappy with broken or unsatisfactory marriages. Money is a means to an end in providing security and life choices so manage it wisely - thrift is your friend, but only the relationships in your life can deliver truly priceless rewards, and complete the picture.

If being happy with yourself is the centre piece in the jig-saw puzzle of life, relationships form the rest. You alone can provide that centre-piece, you can't drain another person by constantly seeking their assurance that you are a worthy person, that's something you must realise for yourself. Up to a certain point, the better the centre-piece of your self-worth you establish (without getting arrogant which is ugly), the better the relationships you can form.

Those who seek only self-gratification go into self-destruct. Without a solid sense of self worth and good relationships we remain incomplete. Trying to fill the void with drink, drugs, casual sex or anything else does zero to solve the problem, we can get hooked on temporary pleasures and these can wreck lives, pleasure is no substitute for contentment.

That wasn't not meant to be preachy, it's just the quickest way to lay it down.

UU

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"

Well that's a very rude and inconsiderate judgement to make!

Many kids get bullied regardless of their intellectual ability. I did and I didn't get straight A's in the LC!

Maybe he did have plenty of friends and maybe he did do some socialising. He's just naturally brainy it seems.

Many fellas I know got great marks and they've never kissed a girl. I've never kissed a girl because I'm gay. Maybe this chap is sexually fustrated or hasn't met somebody he likes yet.

From the extract, his parents seemed very supportive of him.

Although, I don't like the whole "limelight" thing people get for getting straight A's every year, that doesn't imply that they didn't deserve what got or that they're is something wrong with them. Different people have different intellectual abilities.

GrumPy

UU wrote:

Many fellas I know got great marks and they've never kissed a girl.

Thats because they never kissed a girl

EdgarAllenPoo

Meh, intelligence is a burden, I found out a few years ago that my parents had my IQ tested when I was young and turned out to be 143 or there abouts. That's supposedly quite smart. I have since done everything in my power to disprove that fact:D

You can be very smart and still be in a dead end job, some people like what they do evn if others think it's beneath them. My dad is intelligent enough to do accounting or medicine but just never had the oppurtunity.

GrumPy

UU wrote:

He's just naturally brainy it seems.

Or maybe he is just a dungeon dweller, who studies 36 hours a day! Doesn't make him smart. :rolleyes:

I dont like assumptions, he could be many things, He could just be very determined, hard working, or he could be a social disaster who has nothing better to do then read all day. You cant just make assuptions about him from the "lolz 9A's in all th3 pap3rzors, he must be t3h pwn4ge smurt"

If you wanna find out what he is really like, the only way is to meet him in person!

Anyway, fair play to him at the end of the day. But after all his 900 points, there is still no course that requires that, so as soon as he starts college he will only be as good as the fuvker next to him who barely got the course requirement.

Earth,Calling

Dilly1 wrote:

hes lying about the sports

He plays for Kildare Sarsfields.

Such bitterness in this thread.

Raphael

It could be that he wanted to do a course like medicine, where you really want 600 points. In which case he was right to do as many subjects as he could. He could have had a godawful paper in any of the 9 of them, or something else that no amount preperation can help you with. All of his essays could be read by people who didn't particularily like his stlye, and he'd lose marks.

Now, if you're just aiming to do well, a few drops to A2 don't really matter. But if you need 600 points, and are capable of the extra workload, then you should do a good few subjects. It just happened nothing went wrong for this guy in his exams, so his extras became extraneous

JackKelly

to be honest, whats going to said has been said, there's not much point to this thread anymore. Well done to the chap.