leaving cert as an external student

ceeebeees

Hi,
I am considering doing the leaving cert as an external student, I have been thinking about it for a while and got the books a couple of months ago, and I really think its worth giving it one more shot for what I want to do. I have already completed a degree and am doing a masters at the moment, its part time so I will have plent of time to study.
The thing is I really wanted to do history and it seems as if its almost impossible to do this unless you are attending a school.
As far as I am aware a teacher would have to sign off for me and also the principal in the same school.
Does anyone know any way around this or would there be any teachers in the galway area who would be willing to help me out on this one.
Any help or advice on this would be greatly appreciated,
Thanks.

Piste

I know there's a grinds school in Galway (think it might be called Yeats...) and you might be able to do history there and the other subjects at home.

rainbowtrout

What do you want to do exactly? There may be another route aside from doing the leaving cert again?

ceeebeees

The course I want to do is veterinary in UCD. I know the points are extremely high but I have already looked in to the gamsat route, it seems so difficult and there are a very limited number of places, the leaving cert definately seem like the better option. Not saying its easy by any means but I think if you work hard you will get the results. It just seems more straightforward. I have looked at the papers for both and decided to go with the lc.

pathway33

is there not a graduate route into veterinary? not sure. if you are doing a masters you must be pushing on a bit....no spring chicken and all that .... could you apply as a mature student if you are over 23 although you might have to show practical experience with animals.

what subjects are you doing for the leaving? for simplicity you should do

irish
english
french, german, latin, greek etc
maths
applied maths
economics
business
accounting
classical studies

that way you don't need any supervisory teacher for projects. of courses some of the above subjects are the hardest

i think theres something about only being able to use one of latin or classics / greek or classics

ceeebeees

well the graduate entry would be through GAMSAT, which covers both medicine and veterinary but really there's a seriously limited number of places available if you go down this route.There's stiff competition aswell as lots of people who have done science based degrees opt for this route, most of the exam is based on physics, chemistry and biology.Just the whole process seems alot more complicated than the leaving cert.
Its true although I don't like to admit it I could qualify as a mature student!! I'm 25, but medicine and veterinary are not like other courses where students may be offered a place based on their status as mature students.
the subjects I was thinking of doing were:
French
Business
Economics
classics
chemistry
Biology
The only one I'm a bit iffy about is classics because I can't seem to get much info on the subject at all, so I would prefer to do history instead. It seems quite a straghtforward course which is exactly what I want. I'm only going to give this one go so I need to get it right.