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A-Levels or Leaving Cert?

madgal · 2007-02-15 17:48:47

Ok, I've asked all me mates which would they prefer... 7 subjects for the leaving cert, or 3 A-levels in depth. Most of them said A-Levels. Personally I feel that the Leaving Cert doesn't concentrate enough on what a student is gifted at. I mean for example if your really big into the arts, you can't do 3 art courses and…

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#32 06-03-2007 3:02pm
Attol

Registered Users Posts: 2,386 ✭✭✭

Join Date: January 2005

Posts: 2188

At the end of 4th year I was moved to England. So at 16 years old I'm having to suddenly decide on my entire future and with no career guidance, no idea what I want to study and not realising that my subject choices will affect my options. I chose psychology, computing, English lang and lit and Spanish. General studies was compulsory. That was the worst mistake of my life. I couldn't get in anywhere without maths and the course I wanted to do required a lab science so I had to go to night school to do GCSE maths and science, which were of a lower standard than the JC higher level in my 2nd year. Near the end of my 2nd year i realised there was no way I could get what I wanted as my teachers were useless, the course was so random and I hadn't been trained for it at all. I coulda aimed for like 300 points(when translated to the Irish points), that was it. General studies wasn't counted as a real subject. In English there was no apparent structure and we had to study ye olde English. What a joke. You have 6 exams in each subject. Sitting down and writing for like 6 hours straight some days is not fun and it's really hard to concentrate that long.

I'm doing the Leaving in one year and love the structure of everything. It's so clear cut and you know what your objectives are. The coursework isn't a ridiculous amount. In psychology you have to conduct an experiment and write up a full report. In computing in AS and A2 you need to write a program, test it and write up like 100 pages explaining everything, 1 in each year.

I'm going to do far better in the Leaving as I get to try out a few things and figure out what I want to do. I've completely changed my mind since I was 17 and have the flexibility now to see what my strengths and weaknesses are and what sort of a course would be suited to me. And yes, the leaving is easier. I can do it in 1 year no problem but it has so many advantages over the A levels it's unreal.

In my English class people used to be irritated when they lost points due to spelling things incorrectly.

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