Grindschools?? worth it or not??

Dandlion

hi everyone!!
i'm deliberating at the mo whether to depart wit my hard earned cash on goin to a grind school[prob in the institution lol] durin easter hols! can anyone tell me if its worth it and what r the infamous notes like?

David19

How motivated are you? Whats your current school like? I went to the institute(not institution lol) two years ago. If you go to a grinds school its not going to guarantee you a great leaving cert, as some people seem to think. You'll probably have more freedom there than your current school. This means that you'll have to be very motivated. No ones looking over your shoulder. The teachers do help to motivate you though.
The notes are good but you still have to learn them. They're not a guarantee of success.
I've heard from a few people that 5th year there is a bit of joke. If you're going to go, wait till 6th year(if your not in it now).
Im glad i went. Its expensive but it was better than the previous school.

Barry Aldwell

I'm in the institute right now, doing 6th year (didn't do 5th year, sounds like it was a complete waste of time anyway). It truly is an excellent school, and going there makes a big difference. I stress to point out, however, that the full time dayschool is completely different to what you would do at Christmas or Easter. The dayschool is just that, a normal school run in a marginally different way, not a grind school, while the week courses are grind courses.

angeldelight

Dandlion wrote:

hi everyone!!
i'm deliberating at the mo whether to depart wit my hard earned cash on goin to a grind school[prob in the institution] durin easter hols! can anyone tell me if its worth it and what r the infamous notes like?

I didn't go myself, but in my LC chemistry class last year, I'd say over half the ppl went to the institute at easter and they didn't get any different grade in the real exam than they did in the mocks. Also they came in after easter confused cause things were taught different ways (which will happen most places). What I did in maths was I got grinds off a teacher in the school, so there were only 3 of us and he worked with us individually so we learned a lot in specific areas we had problems with rather than being in a big group. And he knew the way things were taught in the school so we didn't need to start thinking about 2 methods, getting them confused that kinda thing. The notes aren't bad, I had a few of them and didn't use them, I preferred my textbooks but if you spent the time you would spend over the hols going into the institute, sitting in the room and coming home learning whatever notes/books you already have you'd probably learn more! Good luck with whatever you decide tho

David19

Sorry i thought you meant you were going to go full time. "durin easter hols" should have been a bit of a clue. I have no idea what the revision courses are like.

cajun_tiger

from what i've heard not the best, but i went to a day of maths in trinity and loved it it helped so much, but if you do go stay away from friends you won't learn anything if your mates are there

the smiley one

I'm actually doing an institute xmas course right now for the LC. I did one for the JC and found it really helpful. For me the actual classes weren't all that good, although they do predict what's going to come up on exams a lot - so if you like that then.... Neway what really worked for me were the notes. They are really excellent in subject which you have to give direct answers e.g. business and science at JC level. I'm hoping that the same can be said for the notes I'm gettin now, but havn't really started getting through them myself yet. Having said all that, the courses are really expensive(my parents are paying!), and also intensive and time consuming, so you really need to weigh out if you could do more work by yourself. This course at xmas was really beneficial to me cuz without it, I probably wouldn't have been doing much so........ it's really up to yourself and the way you study etc.

Hope that helped Dandelion (and not worked the opposite........!)

*Angel*

I'm doing the French crash course now in the Institute and it is so so good. It's helping me a lot, and all my friends doing courses there say only good stuff about them. The notes are good, it's almost worth giving the money just for them... But don't assume that if you just go to the grinds that you'll automatically get better, you really have to be prepared to put the work in.

Young Siward

Barry Aldwell wrote:

I'm in the institute right now, doing 6th year (didn't do 5th year, sounds like it was a complete waste of time anyway). It truly is an excellent school, and going there makes a big difference. I stress to point out, however, that the full time dayschool is completely different to what you would do at Christmas or Easter. The dayschool is just that, a normal school run in a marginally different way, not a grind school, while the week courses are grind courses.

Ah C'mon the institute wasn't that much better than St. Pauls!

Young Siward

To answer the question...ideally you should have gone to the xmas courses or best of all, the August courses before the start of term. The earlier you get some of the notes the better. In my experience, the courses are worth it, especially Maths/Applied Maths. English is excellent especially for the notes, yet I've heard less positive things about the Science courses.

Again, you'll find that you can take the same courses in the morning or in the afternoon, often with different teachers. Some are better than others...

Fast_Mover

hi,
i was thinking id do courses in the easter aswell......id prob go to bruce in Cork....anybody got any comments/experiences about the place or anywhere else to go in Cork.....

thanks!