There are plenty of successful people who have failed their leaving cert / dropped out of school at an early age. You could be another, but the odds are stacked against you 😉
Most people will admit laziness / lack of effort / lack of interest are the main reasons for failure. Very few ‘failure to success’ stories lack intelligence or lack the mental ability to pass exams, if they did they wouldn’t be successful today.
Natural flair will get you so far – it might get you passed the magic 40% mark in all subjects, but in general if you don’t put in the effort, you won’t get the rewards.
Luck, motivation levels, concentration levels, timing, clarity of thought etc… are things which cannot be banked on. And they’ll play a huge role in your exams. So you don’t want to be banking on all of them going your way on the day – it’s a gamble.
What you can bank on is that you’ll face a gruelling few weeks of exams in june, whether you know your stuff or not. Your brain is your body for this marathon event and if it hasn’t been properly prepared, you can’t expect to cross the finish line…