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Transition Years: Start Your 3-Year Leaving Cert
Doing a 3-year Leaving Cert makes life so much easier. Make the most of Transition Year, consider taking on the 3-year Leaving Cert!
What is a 3-year Leaving Cert?
It involves taking one difficult subject for the Leaving Cert, like Maths or Irish, and studying the 5th Year course while still in Transition Year. Do grinds, learn from YouTube… whatever you have to do, but start in Transition Year.
It gives students 3 full years to prepare for the Leaving Cert. It really works. This is why our grinds for Transiton Year treat students as if they are preparing for the Leaving Cert.
Before you roll your eyes or stop reading this post, I’m not suggesting that students should spend the majority of their 4th year with their faces stuck in their textbooks! I’m actually a big supporter of TY for non-academic reasons like the personal growth, developing skills, and getting work experience.
However, I’m also fully aware that the pressure students face in 5th and 6th year is monumental and they have the ability to reduce some of this pressure in advance during TY (even if it’s just for 1 subject). The Leaving Cert Maths curriculum is simply too difficult and too long to complete in just 2 years.
What do I advise?
I encourage my students in TY to begin grinds for the Leaving Cert and be prepared for your 5th year classes before they even start. Nothing crazy – maybe try to learn the fundamentals of Trigonometry or Co-Ordinate Geometry as students struggle the most with these. Once you have a good grasp on them, write out your notes on those topics and you’ll save yourself time in the future.
I explain how to do a 3-year Leaving Cert much better below:
Benefits of a 3-year Leaving Cert?
Apart from reducing the pressure you will face in 5th and 6th year, beginning your study in Transition Year will give you a better chance at doing higher level. Some students have a habit of panicking just before the mocks or the June exam and dropping down to ordinary level especially for maths. But, if you’re already familiar with a few topics since TY, you will feel more confident and able to take on a higher level paper.
Passing your higher level maths exam means 25 extra points for your CAO… it just requires 25% extra effort too. So, don’t leave that till the last second – begin in TY.
Is it necessary?
At the end of the day, you don’t need to do this, you could be an absolute whizz and ace your exams with minimal study. But, I’ve seen this work in so many schools already just in Cork alone! You’d be surprised how many students I have seen struggling with their Junior Cert maths and they ask how to avoid that same stress reoccurring for their LC. So, I tell them to study in TY and their stress levels aren’t as high.
I didn’t do this for my own Leaving Cert back in 2012 and I regret it so much. I did terrible in the mocks and spent the following months cramming hours upon hours of study into my daily routine…it was torture. As important as studying is, it’s essential to take a break – but I felt like I didn’t have time for a social life, a break, extracurricular hobbies, anything! Which is what happens to students time and time again.
So, if you’re going into Transition Year, please take my advice and get going with studying 5th Year Maths in TY. I promise you will not regret it.
My 5th Year Guide
At Breakthrough Maths, we put our Transition Years on our 5th year Maths grinds program. We teach the topics from scratch, so you don’t need to have any prior knowledge.
Our students get 4 weekly live grinds, so we get through a huge amount of topics. If you miss any class, it’s all recorded too and sent to students every Sunday. Class is at 7:30pm, Monday to Thursday. Eoin teaches our Transition Year students.
My 5th Year Guide
If you want to read more about 5th Year Maths, check out my Ultimate 5th Year Guide or watch this video I made about how to study in Transition Year.
