I moved up from the shticks to my lovely Appartment on the UCD Campus on Tuesday and started Orientation the following day. I was having a ball of a time there. Loved it. Myself and the student bar really hit it off.
On Friday, I moved all my stuff back out.
SCHLATERZ DUBLIN.

I’m sure most of you are wondering what the hell I was thinking. I repeat, dead set on getting Medicine and, after lots of bother, finally manage to get it, one year later than expected. Then I drop out!?

Well, basically, what happened is this.
I woke up bright and early Thursday morning, got dressed and set to go into my Academic Advisory lectures in UCD, when I got a phonecall from a number I didn’t know.
Guess who it was?
Trinity Admissions office.
Guess what they were offering me?
The 5 Year course in Medicine over there.
Guess what I did?
Jumped up and and down excitedly, before accepting my THIRD ROUND, RANDOM SELECTION CAO offer the following morning.
And then?
I dropped on out’a UCD and started calling myself a Trinity student.

It’s been a few days since I got the offer and I’m still somewhat in disbelief. Like, this doesn’t happen all too often.
Although, astoundingly, it also happened to a very good friend of mine last year.
I was loving UCD, it’s a great place altogether, and the craic is mighty, but I couldn’t resist Trinity. I mean, the course is a year shorter and it’s what I truly wanted. And I got it on Third Round offers. FATE.

So basically, I’m now a winner. A Trinner Winner. Life is good.
This will certainly be a final post from me, the LC and all that’s related to it is well and truly over.

Moral of the story though- Thank God I repeated. It’s a wee bit later than I’d hoped for, but I’m officially where I want to be, doing what I want to do.
Wooohoooooooo!

Good luck class of 2010!

EDIT: (09/10/09)
I’m so unbelievably fluky! I got bumped up on my Biology recheck to an A1. 575 points- hello!

As an opening, that probably makes it sound like I didn’t get what I wanted and I’m all angsty about it. In fact, I got exactly what I was expecting to get (arts in maynooth [MH101]), so I don’t really know why I’m angsty about it. Getting my first choice, psychology in Maynooth [MH106], would have made things a little easier, but ultimately the only difference is now I have to finish top 30 of my class in order to continue. Which is probably doable, considering that out of the 200 or so people that will be in my class, 150 will probably be dossers that just think it sounds cool. Still, it takes away from the relieved feeling of “I got what I wanted”. It seems like almost everyone else has got their future layed out in front of them (or at least believe they do). They’re off to become lawyers or doctors or mathematicians or whatever. Maybe I’m just in a pessimisstic mood, but I can’t help but see all the future roadblocks. If I don’t finish top of my class next year I’m screwed for psychology. Then again, I don’t even know if I like psychology. It’s not like you’re prepared for it at all up to this point. Up until this point psychology has been my goal — and it still is — but now I have to pick two other subjects, which I’ve barely given a thought. Yet if I don’t get into psychology, I’ll be forced to use them as a back-up. So should I pick easy subjects that I can coast through, to allow me to focus on psych? Or should I pick the other two subjects with a mind to making a career out of them if psych doesn’t work out? Or should I just go with what’s interesting and figure it out as I go? Then again the details about the courses are so vague it’s impossible to make a properly informed decision. I mean, what the hell is sociology? The study of societies? Society encompasses everything, so it’s basically a course about everything. How am I supposed to know if I’d like that?

Then there’s accommodation. My application for an on-campus dorm was denied, entirely on the basis of random selection. Which is crap,really. I’m neat and tidy and respectful (when I feel like it) and fairly quiet (when I’m not debating something). I’d pay on time, every time. Plus I’ve always lived quite far from my friends, my whole life, so I was kind of looking forward to this as a chance to have friends right down the hall or across the street. And I got the application in on the day they started accepting them, online. I was probably among the first 10 to apply. But now I have to go through the added stress of researching areas to live off-campus, visiting them, making sure they’re not hell holes, digging up dirt on the landlords for future extortion, etcetera. Hassle.

It’s always been like this for me, too. All through secondary school I suffered with headaches that kept me home over 50% of the time. That’s a lot of time. In Sixth Year, there wasn’t a single week where I came in every day. Everyone — friends, families, teachers — all expected me to fail. Or at least scrape by. I mean, I’m a smart guy, but I’m also lazy. And I’ve got a screwy biological clock which makes it impossible to get to sleep most of the time. So I’d end up sleeping through school hours. WAAY back in first year I actually cared enough to bother my friends for the homework. But then my absences became so frequent and stretched for so long, keeping up with it became overwhelming. Plus I was lazy and I didn’t care. Then I got 405. I actually beat my closest friends in points (granted, we’re of the cynical underachievers  crowd so that’s not too amazing. Still, I was considered least likely to succeed out of all of us). Like I said, I’m probably lazier than the average person, especially in terms of study (plus I had hard-ass subjects. History, Biology and Chemistry all together was a bit of a mistake in retrospect) and I rarely attended school. The fact that I even managed an above average score just shows how screwed up the system really is. Or maybe it just shows how much of a genius I am. Either way, I can’t help but feel that I’ve beaten it, somehow. I got what I wanted, and I didn’t even go to school or work particularly hard to get it. Hell, I probably put more time and energy into this blog than I did into study. Just goes to show there’s still hope, even for the seemingly hopeless.

I’ve never mentioned my absenteeism here before because I figured it would make me harder to identify with. Seeing as how most of the other bloggers were bright young ladies and gentlemen pursuing medicine or law or journalism, I felt I could reflect more of an everyman’s perspective: smart, but not too pushed about the whole school thing. It seemed to work, too. I dunno if any of you were following that Aidan O’Something’s column in the Irish Times, but that (paid) job was actually offered to me, then snatched away at the last minute by some nepotistic editor (ooh, love that sound – nepotistic – rolls off the tongue) who apparently knew the bitch. And then that Aidan punk didn’t have the courtesy to suffer a terrible mishap and let me take over, so I was left with but a broken dream. Although the journalist who contacted me felt a bit guilty about it, so she seemed to give the blog extra media attention. Which was alright. Plus it gave me more time to not study…

I guess this’ll be my last post. Unless I steal think of something really funny or interesting to post about before the next batch of Leaving Certers come along. Poor guys. They’ve got big shoes to fill. Wonder who the new me will be. Maybe it’ll be a chick. Ooh, maybe she’ll be hot. Always wondered what my personality transposed into the body of a hot chick would be like. Undoubtedly sexy.

Well I thought it was about time I wrote my last blog post, since we’re going to be booted off any day now to make way for the next batch of helpless leaving certs.

Despite promising myself weeks ago that I would check my results online (so as not to return to that awful place I’m so glad to be rid of), last Wednesday found me making that familiar trip into school. I’m glad I did to be honest, there’s something more concrete in collecting an envelope bearing such news rather than viewing it online. I was pretty much delighted/relieved/completely overwhelmed when I read my results, which guaranteed me a place in Arts at UCD. Why UCD you might ask? Am I not from Cork? Indeed I am, but why ever not I say.

I’m still not positive on my subject choices within Arts, with the prospect of journalism in mind I’m torn between English and Politics which, cheers karma, clash. Oh well. So now I’m off looking for accommodation and the likes, which is rather exciting albeit terribly confusing. How about everyone else? Where will you find yourself come September/October?

I do hope everyone was happy with their results. Last week I was inundated with people who wanted to know how I’d done, apparently a simple “I was really happy with my results, thanks!” doesn’t suffice. It drives people crazy. “But what did you GET?!” I never was one to divulge useless information.

So good luck everyone! And may the road ahead be paved with success and bunny rabbits and blah blah blah.

Slán leat,
Grace

I’m not sure what I expected to see, but I didn’t dwell too much on expectations when I opened my envelope. This is what I saw:

English-B1

Maths-B2

Irish-A1

French-A1

German-A1

Chemistry-A1

Biology-A1

Music-A2

Bam. 590 points. Delighted doesn’t even come close to how I felt. Try “shaking like a leaf”. Despite my happiness at my results there was the knowledge at the back of my mind that while last year I could have had my pick of Medicine courses in the country, my low HPAT score wouldn’t be enough to get me into any course this year. I spent the next 5 days gearing myself up for Human Health and Disease in Trinity, planning Freshers week and convincing myself that,actually, medicine wasn’t the course for me. All those whingy patients? Being on my feet for hours and hours? No sleep for days? No thanks. Well you can imagine my surprise after staying up all night fretting with friends on Facebook I saw a scan of Monday’s Irish Independent at 3am containing all the CAO points for 2009. Twitter had been hopping with rumours of a 715 cut off point for medicine in RCSI but I tried not to believe it until I saw it in print, but there it was: 715 for RCSI, 720 for UCD, 729 for Trinity. In 4/5 weeks I will be a med student. My 718 just scraped me in to RCSI.

You’d think I would have been ecstatic, but a combination of shock and 3am sleepiness caused me to burst into tears and have to be comforted by my sister (a fellow night owl) offering water, chocolate and vodka (I declined the latter). To tell the truth, I hated the idea of going to RCSI. I wanted to go to Trinity since I was about 5 and had spent all Summer expecting to be studying Human Health and Disease there. Now that I’ve slept on it I’m really looking forward to studying at RCSI, though I still hope Medicine might come down by 2 points in UCD and I’ll be offered it in round 2. If not, I’m hoping Trinity will let me in after 1st year if there are any places due to people dropping out.

I hope the people who’ve been reading this blog are all happy with their results and offered, please post a comment letting me know how you got on!

-Elizabeth

Today has been the much awaited CAO offers day. My lack of nerves in the run up to the actual Leaving Certificate Results was made up for, infinite times, last night as I gritted my teeth and crossed all of my fingers, hoping against hope I’d be offered Medicine today. I’m not a Religious person but, trust me, I was praying to just about anything that the CAO offers would treat me well today.
And treat me well they did!

I never got around to blogging my actual Leaving Cert results last week- the past few days have disappeared off in a blur of sleeping and celebrating. I was pretty delighted when I opened that horrible brown envelope, let me tell you.
I’d warned all of my friends and family in advance that the likelihood was that I’d get lower points this year than last year. I had myself convinced.
I’d totted up my predicted points over and over again, and it always seemed to land somewhere in the 510-525 bracket. I’d made my peace with it, and decided my 550 from last year would do the job.
However, I didn’t *actually* do worse this year! I somehow managed to scrape 565, which I was very pleasantly surprised and happy with!
I counted my points from the following:
Three A1s- Irish, English and Geography.
Two A2s- French and Biology.
One B1- Chemistry.

I was a little upset with Biology, admittedly, as I got an A1 in it last year. Also, Chemistry let me down. I got the same result in it last year, even though I felt this year’s paper went a lot better. I’ll have a look at the scripts and see if they could be brought up, but I don’t mind at all.
Leaving Cert results mean very little to me right now as they’ve been completely overshadowed with my CAO offer.

I, my friends and loyal readers, have accepted course DN002- Medicine in UCD.
I’m overjoyed. Deliriously content. Euphoric.
I can’t quite voice how I feel, because I really don’t think I’ve ever been this happy before. I honestly didn’t think I’d be getting Medicine today, especially not in Dublin!
I missed out on Trinity, my first choice, by a mere 3 points, but I got my second choice in UCD and that’s more than good enough for me.
UCD was, after all, my first choice last year.

I waited up all night, and as soon as the offers appeared on the internet (A cheeky little scanned copy on boards.ie) and I saw that I’d be studying Medicine this year I just began to grin. It’s a feeling like no other, and I’m incredibly delighted.
Had I not been offered Medicine today, I would have accepted Human Health and Disease Science in Trinity, but I would not have been quite as satisfied as I am right now.

As it turned out, had I not repeated at all and just taken a year out, I could’ve gotten exactly the same offers. UCD fell at 720, I was already on 723. This year’s Leaving brought me up to 726. Luckily, I can do nothing but laugh about the whole situation.
The introduction of the HPAT worked out very well for me. Less so for others, of course, but I’d never have gotten UCD if it weren’t for that bad boy aptitude exam. Although, if it weren’t for that bad boy, perhaps i’d have been more motivated.
For all my complaining and whinging throughout the year, things have worked out for me! I’ve had an amazing Summer, and looking back on my year it wasn’t so bad. I met plenty of great friends, saw many new and interesting faces.

This day last year I felt somewhat empty. The idea of repeating hurt. Seeing my friends accepting their offers to go off to every corner of the country and beyond sent pangs of disappointment through my very being. But, just a year on, everything’s after working out.
The year flew by, and I’m glad I waited around to get my dream course instead of jumping into something I wasn’t really happy with.

It’s a strange time of the year for us all- friends and classmates heading in opposite directions. Hopefully, mostly grinning.
To anyone reading my blog, I hope you’re all happy with your chosen paths. And for those of you who’re feeling somewhat upset, look at my story as one of success. In the end of the day, you’ll get what you want. It might take a little longer, it might involve a lot of stress and hardship, but it’ll be worth it in the end.

To anyone going down the repeating route, I wish you the very best of luck. I saw some amazing success stories among my own friends and classmates this year who went back to school, and the general consensus is that it was worth every single minute.

Best of luck everyone, I’m officially out for the very last time!
Thanks for reading all year, it’s been a pleasure.

-Jennie.

If you’re on this site you’ve probably paid my blog a cursory interest at least. Figure you might be interested in what I got, in the end. As of 12pm noon today the results have been available over the internet. You just need to remember your PIN number, which took me like a goddamn hour to find. I was more relieved when I found the damn thing than when I saw my results. Which weren’t bad.

Totalling 405 in points. Slightly above average. Story of my life.

Funnily enough I was expecting to fall into the 320-360 range, so I did considerably better than I thought I would. So I’m happy enough. The A1 in english also provides me with some bragging rights (though for me it’s more of a “fuck off I got an A1 in english” in the holster if anyone gets more points than I and feels the need to express that sentiment)

I think most people got the same feeling as me. That “huh, did significantly better than I thought I would” feeling. See, I don’t think the Leaving is really about the results, in the end. And I think, for the same reason, the system has been kept the same all these years, despite the flaws. You see, every culture has what is known as a ‘rite of passage’, since the dawn of mankind. Something you have to accomplish, in order to prove your maturity and adulthood, which builds your character along the way. Something everyone goes through as a society. The Leaving Cert, I think, is the modern-day equivilent of bringing down a woolly mammoth and taking home its tusk, or hiking to the top of a sacred mountain and meditating for days without food.

The results are just a consideration. A minor point in the grand scheme of things. The important part is, we beat the Leaving Certificate.

Or I did, anyway. Sucks to be everyone who just failed everything. Day-um.

Like, we’ll be grand. A few years from now this will all be a distant memory, like seriously – does anyone out there still care about that re-arranged English exam? “Ohhh yah, haha, remember that” I hear you say. Well that’s because time is great. It seems to have a funny technique mastered which allows us to only really remember the good stuff. Whoohoo. No need to worry so..

I wish.
It’s not as bad as it could be though, I’ve been enjoying my wonderful summer of freedom and now I arrived home from Paris today and continue to be somewhat distracted from the impending doom that is reality. A throbbing insect bite and a debs dress predicament do serve as wonderful distractions though, promise.

Okay, there’s nothing any of us can say or do to make this feel better. Good luck everyone and I have my fingers crossed for you.

Over and out.

We get back the Leaving Cert results tomorrow. Huh. The thought that immediately pops into my heads is ‘uggghhhhhhhhhhaaaaaagggghhhhhhhhhhhhnnnnnhhh’. Kind of a prolonged, strangled groan. Words just can’t do that sound justice, but if I were to attempt to articulate its meaning, I’d say it’s the sound you make in the morning when you’ve just been startled awake out of a dream, at the sexiest part, in order to do something which you know is important, but just don’t care about right now, because all you want is to go back to sleep and continue your sexy dream. That sound.

Maybe it’s because I’ve spent the last week in bed with fevers and shit… (“HE’S GOT SWINE FLU! HOLY SHIT! THAT AMERICAN BASTARD IS TRYING TO DESTROY OUR FLIMSY ECONOMY WITH HIS FOUL VIRULENT AURA. WITHOUT HEALTHY WORKERS MOTHER IRELAND WILL FALL TO THE CAPITALIST SWINE.”) … Sorry, as I was saying, maybe it’s because I’ve been sick, but am I really the only one who just doesn’t really care? I even thought the results were out on the 13th, ’til I started getting texts. I mean, I’m not looking forward to it, and I’m expecting to be disappointed, but ultimately I just can’t get worked up about it. It’s done. Over. Whatever that number is tomorrow, I can’t do anything to change it.

It IS a big deal for me, like anyone else. A few points makes the difference between psychology and biotechnology for me, which is quite a big difference. And I really am not sure what I got, so tomorrow is probably a bigger deal for me than a lot of people who probably have a better idea of what to expect. Nonetheless I’ll still probably end up getting distracted tomo

rrow and forgetting about the results thing. Probably. Just can’t help but think of it as kind of a minor ordeal in light of the grand scheme of things.

As the saying goes: No use crying over spilled blood.

Or was it something else…?

One day left folks, and hasn’t August 12th rolled around a lot sooner than imagined?

I don’t have a whole lot to say here, this renewed sense of anticipation I’ve been trying to ignore is sitting rather uncomfortably somewhere in my stomach, competing for space with a family of butterflies.

I do wish everyone the best of luck in the morning, and feel the time is ripe to repeat the tired old gem that is ‘It’s just the leaving, it’s not the end of the world.’

How’s everyone else feeling? Excited? Nervous? Downright wretched?

Either way we’ll know soon enough how much we’ve been deluding and/or underestimating ourselves all year. As I’ve finished each and every one of my Irish essays (regardless of the subject matter): Is maith an scéalaí an aimsir.

Oh and be sure to be armed with a calculator and a copy of this in the morning

Nervous Yet?

Now, not to worry anyone but this day shall decide your future.
Will you be getting your course of preference?
Will you be repeating?
Will you meet all your matriculation requirements?
Will you be branded a success or a failure?

In just 7 days, you’ll know….

Seriously though, I’m just trying to freak people out because many of my own friends seem to be getting worked up about them.
Honestly, I’m cool as a cucumber. I love Summer far too much to be worried in the slightest.

But remember- YOUR WHOLE FUTURE DEPENDS ON ONE WEE PIECE OF PAPER. That you’ll be receiving next week.

*Grins*