Dear Internet,
Please allow me to introduce myself, I’m a girl of wealth and taste.
Well of taste anyway.
You’re probably all sick of reading about another South Dublin girl who wants to do medicine, so anyone who read Laura Brady’s column in the Irish Times last year do feel free to ignore me.
My name is Elizabeth. I like lie-ins, wooly socks and a warm bowl of soup. I dislike rudeness, swearing and any time before 11am in the morning. Someone tells me I have some sort of Summer Quiz to do in June. (Denial: It’s not just a river). I filled out my CAO form last week, and at the moment it looks something like this:
| 1. | TR051 | Medicine (Restricted) |
| 2. | DN002 | Medicine (Undergraduate Entry) (Restricted) |
| 3. | RC001 | Medicine – (Undergraduate Entry) (Restricted) |
| 4. | TR056 | Human Health and Disease |
| 5. | TR073 | Human Genetics |
| 6. | TR071 | Science |
| 7. | TR075 | Medicinal Chemistry |
| 8. | DN037 | Biomedical, Health and Life Sciences |
| 9. | DN008 | Science |
| 10. | DN036 | Neuroscience |
I’m hoping with this new entry system to medicine that it will be a little easier than getting 600 points, but really I don’t have my hopes up that it’ll go much below 540 or so. I got a sample booklet of the HPAT during midterm and went through the questions and it really doesn’t look that difficult. It does test different forms of intelligence and reasoning than the Leaving Cert though, which may level the playing field somewhat. The most annoying thing about this new system is that we, the class of 2009, are the guinea pigs and have no way of knowing what points to aim for to get medicine. I’ve decided to try to forget we have a new system and pretend like it’s an intense competition between me and the rest of the would-be doctors and try to get the highest points possible.
There’s only one slight problem with this though…
I’m so goshdarn lazy.
I live by the mantra “never do today what you can put off until tomorrow”, but I’ve a feeling the Leaving Cert is not something you can study for the night before and do well in.
When I’m not being lazy I’m busily cramming for a music lesson the next day. I play the piano and violin (for the violin I use “play” in the loosest sense of the word as I just took it up this year) and I also do singing. On top of this I have LC music on Monday evenings, so much of my weekday afternoons are spent at a music lesson, or travelling to/from the music lesson. Already this eats up a huge chunk of my time, and that’s without even doing any practice! (of which I naturally do the bare minimum).
When I finally get around to doing homework (not even any study, just homework) a fair amount of it is spent on maths, usually about an hour a night. Ironically, the subject I spend most time on is the subject I’m least likely to use for points.
Aside from maths i’m doing: English, Irish, French, German, Music, Biology, Chemistry.
For points I’m planning on using French, German, Music, Biology, Chemistry and possibly English. The English exam can be a bit hit and miss so banking on that for points might be a bit dodgy.
So that’s a bit about me and what I hope to get out of the LC, if I manage not to die of exhaustion before then. As I said before, if you’re sick of hearing about another girl going for medicine then close your eyes until you click on another blog, If you want to hear me whine about how fat the Leaving Cert is making me and rant about the ridiculous things they expect us to remember then do keep reading!
-Elizabeth
Discuss the leaving cert in the forum
Nice mentioning of you prospective choices. A little bit boring (just a little), but it’s kind of the point…
I myself may apply for Human Genetics/Genetics at TCD. Interesting fields and plenty of jobs.
Why, if you truly wish to do medicine, are Cork and Galway medicine not listed?
Ah, I liked this post!
I was actually about to mention something about Laura Brady too- I’m afraid many comparisons have been drawn between the two of us. Although I’m not doing my Leaving Cert for the 3rd time, in a grind school. Oh, and I don’t spend an awful lot of money on expensive footwear.
But yes, roll on the HPAT. Ahem. Or not… either way.
I didn’t put down Cork or Galways for a few reasons:
1) Most of my friends live here, I only know two people in Galway.
2)My boyfriend lives here.
3)I can’t afford to move out and will have to study so hard I wont be able to feed/cloth myself as I wont be able to get a part time job.
4) The points for Cork are around the same for RCSI, so basing it on recent points trends in the last few years if I could get into Cork I’d get into RCSI. Galway fell by 5 points last year but that trend may not continue and it may go up to the same points as RCSI/UCD.
Hey i want to do medicine aswell! the only difference is that ill be doing mine the year after you (2010!) I was just wondering could we keep in touch and maybe in august you could tell me if you got into medicine or not.. and if so how many points did you get just so that I know how much to roughly aim for..Thanks.. the email is [email protected]
Hey no problem! I’ll try to remember, but it is an awfully long time away so if you remember to maybe leave a comment round results time, I’m sure I’ll make a post about my results anyway when the time comes. I’m guessing you’re in 5th year now, you probably already know this but this is such an important year, if you learn the material you cover this year really well it’ll come back to you so quickly and easily when you start revising in 6th year.
Good luck!
Hey,
I want to go to Medicine aswell but I haven’t put Galway and Cork down in my CAO aswell because of the same reasons you have.
Also, have you considered going to an HPAT preparation course? Although, I have heard that the test is grind-proof.
Anyway this will be my first year sitting the LeavingCert and hopefully I will get the points I need for both exams.
Good Luck!
Hey, would this be Shamoono from Boars by any chance? Yeah I’ve decided to not to a HPAT prep course, they seem very expensive and I really don’t think it’d be worth it, you can’t really fake innate ability, all you can really do is become familiar with the types of questions asked.
yeah me 2…i applied 4 hpat but dont know if i’ll get the points….because there so much for medicene cause of new entry
lets just hope it goes wel for us all
gud luck
and i have same choices as u…..hmmm mayb we’ll meet someday in one of the colleges doing medicine 😉
Hey Elizabeth, leave TR051 alone. TR051 in my friend-my soulmate. He and I will be together forever! You’re ruining our happiness! Is that what you want? Is it?
TR051 will never be tied down to one person, each year TR051 takes on over 90 lovers and loses another 90, it may have told you you’re special but it says that to everyone :p
Hi! I am going to kdo Irish Leaving Certificate and I want to do medicine in UK universities. Can anyone share the chance of getting a place of medicine in UK universities with Irish Leaving Certificate? Thanks!