Life after the Leaving Cert: ‘Deciding to repeat also wasn’t easy’

Gabriel Ogundipe (19) repeated his Leaving Cert at Ringsend College in Dublin

I wasn’t really sure what I wanted to do the first time, if I’m being honest, I ended up changing my CAO 15 minutes before the deadline.

The first time I did my Leaving Cert, I got 420 points. My first choice last year was global business Spanish in DCU, which was 490 points. When I got my result, I wasn’t gutted. It wasn’t a bad result at all, but I also wasn’t too happy about it.

I didn’t get my first choice then, but now, when I look back I’m kind of glad that I didn’t because I probably wouldn’t have enjoyed it as much as what I want to do now.

Deciding to repeat also wasn’t easy, as I knew my friends were going on to university. But I knew that I would have hated to go into a university just for the sake of it and look back and think: “What if I had done it again, but this time put in the work?”

But the year goes by even quicker than actual sixth year. Also, you have people that are repeating for the same reasons, so the support will be there.

Sometimes it was difficult when I saw friends in uni going out and stuff, but I kept thinking about how I felt when I opened my results, and asked myself: do I want to be satisfied with what I get, or will I look back and think I could have done better?

As for advice to students thinking of repeating, if you know what you want to do, and think that you really didn’t work through the year, and believe that you could do better, and there isn’t an alternative route into the course you want to do, then go for it. The year flies.

The first time I did my leaving I did biology, chemistry, higher level maths, English, Irish, Spanish and geography. I found chemistry really hard and maths a bit difficult, but I realised I just wasn’t keen on learning. But during my repeat year, when I put myself in the position of actually wanting to learn, it was much easier. Strangely enough, chemistry was one of the smoothest exams for me this year.

My advice is to use exam papers when revising. Exam papers should basically be your best friend for the year. Because when you pretend you’re in exam conditions at home, nothing can really throw you off in the exam hall. I also used the website Studyclix.ie and found it very useful.

I’m really happy I repeated my Leaving Cert because it gave me more time to figure out what I’d actually enjoy in college, I’m hoping to study management science and information systems in Trinity. The points are quite high, but whatever points I actually do get I’ll be happy because I know I did all I could have possibly done.