Re-sitting Leaving Cert Maths

RoversRudie

I'm looking at applying for the Primary Teaching PGDE in Scotland but - having only got a C2 in pass in my Leaving Cert in 2012 – I don't meet the entry requirements for Maths so was thinking about doing one of the below in order to meet the criteria in that regard. Has anyone on here any knowledge of them? I'm currently working full-time so I'd like to have some idea as to which is the least taxing. Any feedback would be much appreciated. Thanks.


National 5 Maths.
 National 5 Lifeskills Maths.
 Standard Grade award in Mathematics at grade 1 or 2.
 National Qualifications in Mathematics at Intermediate level 2 – C or above.
 GCSE Mathematics grade B and above (England, Wales and Northern Ireland).

Postgrad10

You could just répeat your leaving cert maths externally. As in study in your own time and take the day of in June and register with the State Exams as an external candidate to do the exam in a near y school. You could study by getting grinds or doing an evening leaving cert maths course with your local vec/etb.

I can imagine it would be hard to organise to go a school to do gcse maths exam, dépending on were you live.

RoversRudie

Postgrad10 wrote: »

You could just répeat your leaving cert maths externally. As in study in your own time and take the day of in June and register with the State Exams as an external candidate to do the exam in a near y school. You could study by getting grinds or doing an evening leaving cert maths course with your local vec/etb.

I can imagine it would be hard to organise to go a school to do gcse maths exam, dépending on were you live.

Are there any Maths teachers on here who would have an idea of how feasible it would be to re-sit the subject – bearing in mind the change in syllabus since 2012 – and bring myself from an OL C2 to a B3 within a year bearing given that I'm working full-time so would obviously be looking at grinds/study in the weekends/evening?

How often would I need to be going for grinds and how much study to be done off my own back would be involved?

evolving_doors

Do you mean a C3 in honours? Anyhow I'd say it's doable if you get Grinds. The VEC night course is a good (cheap!) option but I think it might be designed as a 2 year course (maybe!). So if you're jumping into honours level and expecting to start learning from scratch the course tutor might want to move on. Again. I'm guessing, but it's worth exploring.
Grinds would be the way to go, there's also a lot more online videos now (some you have to pay).

As regards the exam paper it's 'all over the shop' compared to the old system where you knew what question was what. But you'd get used to it with practice.

Grinds:if it's honours definitely 2 a week, and a bit of study every night.
It really depends on your own ability and motivation though.

RoversRudie

Gebgbegb wrote: »

Do you mean a C3 in honours? Anyhow I'd say it's doable if you get Grinds. The VEC night course is a good (cheap!) option but I think it might be designed as a 2 year course (maybe!). So if you're jumping into honours level and expecting to start learning from scratch the course tutor might want to move on. Again. I'm guessing, but it's worth exploring.
Grinds would be the way to go, there's also a lot more online videos now (some you have to pay).

As regards the exam paper it's 'all over the shop' compared to the old system where you knew what question was what. But you'd get used to it with practice.

Grinds:if it's honours definitely 2 a week, and a bit of study every night.
It really depends on your own ability and motivation though.

Aplogies, I meant to say a B3 in pass. Thanks for the feedback.

evolving_doors

RoversRudie wrote: »

Aplogies, I meant to say a B3 in pass. Thanks for the feedback.

Did you really struggle with maths in school, or was it a case of devoting your time to other subjects or didn't get on with the teacher?

Just focusing on maths only, and in your own time sounds very doable to me.

mirrorwall14

It really depends on the reasons for the original OLC2.

What is your maths ability like?
Did you honestly work as hard as you could at it? Did you take HL junior cert?

The course is different now and there is are sections such as functions which have dramatically changed since 2012. However you did do the probability and stats course as far as I can see.

Which paper did you find easier?
You did P1 in the old style and P2 in the new style so that will give you a good indicator as to whether the new style suits you

RoversRudie

I did pass for the Junior Cert as well and would say I struggled with the subject to be honest. I went for a few grinds at the start of sixth year (maybe four or five) to get a better grasp on a few basics which could of potentially held me back from reaching my target of getting at least a C3 in the pass paper. Whilst a C3 upwards was what I was aiming for and I was unlikely to fail the subject, not passing wouldn't have been completely out of the question.

I would have worked quite hard to get the grade I did but it was always going to be the subject I didn't count amongst my points so perhaps if that wasn't in the back of my head I might (and I emphasise the word might!) have had a little more in the tank.

With regard to which paper I preferred, I think I preferred P1 to P2. I found P2 very long and failed to get a sizeable chunk (possibly a quarter to a third) of it done.

mirrorwall14

Ok. Unfortunately both papers will now be in paper 2 style. There is no choice whatsoever and every question has to be answered. Give that history you may struggle particularly in the time frame while working full time but you won't know until you start.

My advice would be start small and redo your basics entirely from scratch. If you want to be a primary teacher you need to get confident in maths and that is the only way to do it. Get the OLJC project maths book and work your way through it. Once that is done try the OL exam papers which will let you see the new style of questioning. However there is a significant leap up from JCOL to LCOL level so next up I would do that same for HLJC book. Finally get the LCOL book and go through that with plenty of exam paper work leaving out the most recent year. The marking schemes are all online so once your think you are ready get someone to time you and honestly attempt the most recent year. Mark it with the Scheme and you will know where you are

I know people who really only got maths when they are older so this could be a lot easier than it looks but one way or the other it will check your knowledge and abilities in maths properly before beginning a career where you should be instilling a confidence and love of maths into primary school students

RealJohn

Not what you want to hear but I have to seriously question whether you should be teaching at all, at least at primary level.
If you worked hard and still struggled to get a C2 at OL, you don't sound like your maths is strong enough to teach it.

Now I'll grant you, you'll hear about primary teachers (and indeed secondary teachers) who weren't that good at maths but still turn out to be good at teaching it to the level required of them but for the most part, what I see is primary teachers who barely reached the standard required of them and as a result, their students suffered.

Remember, this profession is not about you getting the minimum requirements to get you a job. It's about making sure you reach a standard that you can teach your students properly. The goal is not to become a teacher. The goal is to maximise your students' achievements. You don't seem to be focused on that.

Maybe you should look at secondary teaching in a subject you are comfortable with?