Your education questions answered
My son recently received his mock Leaving Certificate results. To say that we are disappointed is an understatement. He failed his Higher-level maths paper and did quite poorly in a number of his other Honours papers. He is at least 100 points short of his CAO choices. What advice would you give? Should he drop down to Ordinary- level maths? How about his CAO choices? Should he change them now?
Your son is not unique in his present predicament. There are thousands of Leaving Cert and Junior Cert students in the same situation.
The first thing we must realise about the mocks is that they are just that - a trial run. As with all trial runs, this is the time to make mistakes and learn from them. Remember that your son still has two months left to prepare for the examination proper and with an effective study programme, real progress can be made across all his subject areas.
Only 17.5 per cent of students take the Higher-level maths paper, which probably makes it the most difficult subject in the entire Leaving Cert. To succeed at this level a student must study and revise regularly, which your son may not have done. Depending on the level of his motivation and the amount of work required in his other subject areas, it might still be possible for him to complete his maths programme successfully.
Does he need to get an Honours grade in higher-level maths? If he is hoping to study engineering at degree level, for example, then he must achieve a minimum of a C grade at Higher-level. If this is his goal and he finds that he cannot succeed, then all is not lost. Students can study engineering at certificate/diploma level with Ordinary-level maths and progress on to degree level on completion of the diploma.
Given the consequences of failure in maths, which effectively precludes students from most colleges and courses, although, surprisingly, not from arts, social science, and law degree programmes in NUI colleges, I would advise your son to seriously consider dropping down to Ordinary-level, that is unless he considers Higher-level absolutely essential for his career plans. Before making a decision, he should discuss his options with his maths teacher and his guidance counsellor.
Regarding his CAO choices, he still has plenty of time to make changes. The CAO has designed their system to accommodate students, by allowing them to exercise a change of mind option after May 1st on www.cao.ie. They can make changes until 5.15 p.m. on July 1st. I would advise your son to open his mind to the full range of degree, diploma, and certificate courses available.
He should not spend a lot of time researching these options right now, as it would detract from the time he obviously needs to focus on his studies. He will have two weeks from the date of his last Leaving Cert paper to research these options fully.
Having said all that, the mocks are only a trial run and one should not be overly depressed by a poor result. There are two months to go to the real thing and an effective study programme can work wonders.
Brian Mooney is president of the Institute of Guidance Counsellors.
E-mail questions to bmooney@irish-times.ie
