LEAVING

OPINION

Sixth year has to be one of the most stressful years that any Irish teenager could ever experience. From endless sraithpictúirs to a few pointless poets and a bit of dodgy French in between, it seems almost like there should be something for everyone - but there’s not. With art comes art history, construction involves very little constructing and Home Ec has got more to do with anything and everything other than the home itself. 

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What an educational system we’ve got. Higher Level Maths is like a bad episode of The Cube, where everyone screams at the contestant to take more chances than they should, to risk losing it all. What are you willing to do for those bonus points? Is it worth putting your whole Leaving Cert on the line, just to scrape a bare D3, to meet the standards of a college course that will choose you based solely on one set of results? Ironically, yes it is. “Everything we do today will change where we are tomorrow.” Perhaps that is the sole principal that the Leaving Certificate is based on.

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It seems to me that it takes almost the same principals to beat The Cube as it does to prosper in Sixth year;

1. Keeping Calm.

The presenter tells a contestant they have three lives left, and they know that the won't beat The Cube unless they remain totally chill, calm and collected. Unfortunately with the pre's/mocks completely over, we've ran out of lives. We have one chance left, and if we mess this one up then we mess up our whole futures, so it is vital to keep cool during these final determining months

2. Accuracy.

It is possible to beat The Cube, even if you're completely stupid. It just takes accuracy - just like the Leaving Cert. It's nearly impossible to get good grades without covering 100% of each course, and regurgitating it in a way that makes you seem like you've totally got everything under control. A little bit of confidence here really does go a long way.

3. Tactics.

Like I've already mentioned, you do not have to be smart to get 625 points. It's all about how much useless information you can fit into your head before the day of an exam, and reproducing it in a tactful way making it seem irresistible to any examiner - or so we're told

4. Practice

Every episode of The Cube usually features a man in his mid-thirties that's spend about three months practicing silly little games with his wife and children. Unfortunately the Leaving Cert does not involve any fun or silly games, however it is an area that proves the old saying that "practice makes perfect." Or rather "Sure we'll chance the pres (mocks) and we'll see how it goes," followed by a moment of "why am I so stupid," with a side of "my life is so difficult, someone please help" and maybe even a little "I'm not ready to be an adult." 

And at this moment of time it seems as though I have almost no advice to offer, until I reach the end of this vicious cycle that we like to call our educational system. A game of The Cube, that just never seems to end

Will you beat The Cube?