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Haunting_Echoes
October 31st '05, 03:49 PM
I don't know if anyone else knows about the Irish schooling system, other than me, and I mean the South Irish school system. Personally I find it to be totally useless. I mean it's not like most other systems that I know of which have coursework or assesments throughout the year. For secondary schools in the south of Ireland, your entire grade is based on exams at the end of the year. Some subjects for the Leaving cert, which is the important exam, have projects (the leaving certificate is the equivilant of the English A-Levels) which count to some part of the grade, but a lot don't. I had the misfortune to take all subjects where only final exams count. Because those were the subjects I like, and as such I was somewhat penalised for liking certain subjects.

I think it would probably be a lot easier for students here to have assesments throughout the year, as it would take some of the pressure off for the final exams. As I had 7 subjects to complete exams for. The breakdown of which was something like this:
English; two papers, roughly three hours each.
Irish; two papers, rougly 2 and a half to three hours each, a listening exam, and an oral exam.
Maths; two papers, about 2 and a half hours each.
French; One paper roughly three hours long, a listening exam and an oral exam.
Physics; One paper roughly three hours long.
Biology; One paper roughly three hours long.
Geography; One paper, roughly three and a half hours long.

Does anyone else see the stress that puts students under? And that's ignoring the fact that pretty much all of those exams take place within two weeks.

Mamfy
October 31st '05, 03:52 PM
Oh my goodness! That sounds like hell!

It would be terrible for someone like me who is shit at exams! I can't take the pressure and I just forget everything! I like it better when they take the strain off me by having coursework to do which counts for about 60% of the final grade. Thank god I live where I live!

Haunting_Echoes
October 31st '05, 04:00 PM
Yeah. My friend got under a lot of pressure for her exams because of her parents and she used to get chronic headaches because of it. It's just not fair on students. So much pressure, I mean, I was 17 when I took those exams, the A-Level equvilant.. And it was crazy. Even a project doesn't count for much if you're lucky enough to get one. About 20%. And I'm always being told that this coursework stuff is annoying, if I tell them I'd love that they always whinge at me, because they don't know this kind of pressure. It's a little easier for people who are 18 and 19 when they do the exams, but I wasn't lucky enough to have that.

melty_malty
November 26th '05, 05:54 PM
I'm 14 and doing my junior cert.I think itll be grand.My C.S.P.E project is 60% of my marks and my religion one is 40% my actual art exam is only worth like 20% because most of it is coursework.Oh and if you do all your exams in Irish you get an extra couple of marks

jackster
November 27th '05, 01:51 AM
holi fuck...

melty_malty
November 27th '05, 02:44 PM
I didn't know that there was a different system in other countries.Do people think that the Irish system is hard?