My son started into fifth year last month. He is anxious to secure the maximum grades possible as he wants to study commerce at UCD. He wants to drop down to ordinary level Irish and add an eighth Leaving Cert subject by registering with a grinds school. I am concerned that he feels so pressured at such an early stage of his studies.
This is not an uncommon view among students heading into the Leaving Cert cycle: they target subjects with a view to maximising their points. It is, in my opinion, utterly wrong – for a whole series of reasons.
Irish is regarded as one of the most difficult subjects. However, it is one of the “easiest”, based on the proportion of students who secure high grades.
The oral exam – which takes place over Easter in sixth year – is worth 40 per cent of the overall marks at both higher and ordinary levels. The five poems and texts are the same at both levels, as is the CD listening test, worth a further 10 per cent, even though the questions on the content may be different. For a student who has the ability to take Irish at higher level, it makes little sense to drop down to ordinary level.
Taking on an additional higher-level subject in the evening or weekend in a grind school runs the risk of destabilising a student’s performance in the other Leaving Cert subjects they are studying at school.
Of course there may be circumstances where an individual student needs one-to-one support in a subject at some stage over the Leaving Cert cycle. But the belief that, alongside day-to-day schooling, parents need to invest in a parallel programme of ongoing grinds is to my mind driven by an irrational fear that their child will somehow lose out because so many other parents are funding additional grinds.
The reality is that there are multiple pathways for your son to progress his career aspirations.
He currently identifies commerce in UCD as his preferred option. He may secure the entry requirements through his Leaving Cert in 2027. If he is not so fortunate, he could take a one-year Post Leaving Cert (PLC) pre-business course in his local further education college and, if he secures distinctions in his eight modules, secure his commerce place through that route. Alternatively, he may change his mind over the next two years and select a route forward that does not require such high grades.
My advice is to stay with the three optional subjects he has already selected and obviously enjoys, alongside the core subjects of Irish, English and maths, and his continental language. He should take them to the highest level he is capable of and participate fully in his school’s cultural and sporting life. Try to ignore all the hype around taking extra subjects.
