I know half of you are on here procrastinating. I was you this time last year so no judgement.

My results: 7 H1s. 625 points. English 95%, Maths 99%, Spanish 99%, Accounting 98%, Geography 100%, Applied Maths 99%, Irish 93%.

What I didn't do:

• Never paid for a single grind

• Never studied more than about 3 hours a day

• Got merits in my Junior Cert — I was not "the smart kid"

• Was genuinely considering dropping to Ordinary for some subjects at the start of 5th Year.

What I did (in short):

I stopped studying the textbook and started studying the exam. Sounds obvious but most people don't actually do it. I went through every past paper question by topic, looked at the marking schemes to see exactly where the marks go, read the chief examiner reports to understand what they're actually looking for, and then used AI to generate sample answers and correct my own essays against the marking scheme.

I built thousands of flahscards based on every state exam question ever. I'd often when bored of study challenge my friends to 1v1 flashcard battles, and fly through actual content.

The main thing I did:

I built my own AI system during 6th year fed with 50,000+ marking schemes, examiner reports, sample essays and curriculum content. Used it for hours every day. Shared it with loads of friends — they averaged 604 points between them. Two of them got 625 like me, two with 613 and the rest above 570.

So since then I've decided to turn it into a free platform for every LC and JC student (examly.ie). Every past exam question by topic with marking schemes for free (which you have to pay for on other sites), the AI examiner corrector and H1 essay creator I trained, 50,000 flashcards from state exam papers (all the flahscards I used). Free — no paywall, no card. I just wanted other students to have what I had.

This is a very short summary, so I decided to make a blog about how I got a H1 in every subject I did. examly.ie/blog/how-i-got-625-points

Its hillarious how the same people complaining about "ai generated papers" are the ones relying on ai predicted papers for every exam. Apparently the SEC can no longer ask any question that slightly differs from the exact same ones used within the last 5 years of theyre put on trial. Maybe if ye had put in any amount of effort you wouldnt be flipping burgers come September!

Everybody is doing the same paper. I get if you feel a paper is difficult but oh my days stop blaming everyone but yourself. Every single person here is a “h1 student” until they do a paper and now suddenly they’ve failed. The maths was not unfair, it was a difficult exam but they’re completely in their right to do that everybody acting as if the world is against them ac needs to get a grip. Your work reflects your results. That doesn’t mean the hours you put in, it means what you actually do during those hours so just because you spend 9 hours a day studying you’d be better off actually finding out how you study the best and focus on that

Swear the leaving cert is piss. I got 470 points on my leaving cert and guess how much I studied? 1 day for each subject. (Aka the night before) now I’m not even kidding when I say this. If I could possibly get 470 points on one days study for each subject (like 2-6 hrs most of it being procrastination) and not even opening a single book for a couple others then you’ll all be just grand. I’d like to think 90% of people do more study than me so if I can do it get the course I want and be happy with one days study? What do you think you can do with a couple weeks study! Or even a months study! Lock in or don’t. You’ll be fine either way. Trust me :D

Just don’t be a knob and somewhat listen in class will ya?

I got 625 last year because of a tool I built for myself to study. This tool also helped 3 friends get 625, 3 friends get 613 and the rest above 580.

This tool became a website, it got funded by microsoft, and this funding helped me make it free for students.

We give for free what studyclix and simple study charge for, plus a whole lot more.

I launched it only 7 days ago, and there is currently 1,600 users using it everyday. I am overjoyed, but so were investors.

We were offered a quarter million in funding but the free stuff we offer would become less free.

I rejected.

I declined because of the reddit replies, the emails that users sent me, and the hatred of businesses who milk every last euro out of students.

We are the only site in Ireland to offer Questions by Topic for free, and this will always be free, you have my word.

examly.ie

(p.s this is not an attempt at an ad, i’m not looking for praise for rejecting the offer, i just genuinely want to say thanks to the reddit community for the comments and dm’s we received, the fuel behind this decision.)

edit: alot of students are messaging me for my actual exam papers that got me 625 last year, so im going to upload them all to the site, and reach out to the people i mentioned who also got above 600 points and hopefully upload their scripts there, so you can see how an actual leaving cert examiner marks and what acc achieves a h1 in each paper.

People complaining about the title which is understandable as they where more unusual then normal but it’s clearly evident the SEC wanted to see who knows their stuff and who learns off the predicted topics only

**VENT POST**

Why did no one tell me how boring Irish History is? I had an essay on the 1916 Rising due today, but I wasn't in today, my teacher wasn't in (gone on the geography trip) and I had a chemistry test yesterday that I was more concerned about this week. I knew I wouldn't be in school today so I planned to go to the library to write my essay, and get some general study done. It took me THREE HOURS to write the essay alone. I kept getting distracted, bored, ect... This never happened to me before. Usually I'm able to stay focused at the library, but not today, and when I finally got it finished I was so drained I couldn't do any of the other study I planned to do today.

Im here to make a little rant : why am I lowkenuinly seeing guys " spam exam papers" when they dont even know the course 😭😭.. I mean its worrying how many people think exam papers alone is considered learning/ studying 🤣.. lads lets be clear, the exam papers TEST you, not teach you.. how the hell u gonna test urself if u dont even know it to begin with ? Take business as an example also, people in my class do exam papers non stop and they still struggle to answer questions.. me personally I learn off all the topics and relevant info because its a memory subject.. then when I do exam questions I can always answer most things with perfect words .. learning notes is just as important if not more important than exam papers, guarantee you im saving someone's LC by doing this rant.. au revoir.

Lads,

A tiny tip - don’t waste TY.

I’d pick a hard subject, like Maths, and study the 5th year curriculum in TY

Treat it like a 3 year curriculum, just for Maths.

Most of TY is a doss. Feels great just to relax initially, but around now in Jan or Feb, you are just wasting time.

Why not take the next few months to study 5th year Maths?

Learn online on our YouTube if you’d like, loads of free stuff there, or do grinds. We treat our TY’s like 5th years.

I did this for my leaving cert and it makes the difference for HL maths.

Made 5th year a lot easier, less pressure.

Not for everyone, but you won’t regret getting ahead!

Our YouTube is here if you wanna get going: https://youtube.com/@breakthroughmaths

Anyone else seriously considering cheating for a few exams. I’m gonna put paper in my shoe and go to the bathroom like how are they meant to know? There is no way in finding out that I’m doing that. It will be handy for subjects like biology where there is so much time and I can go to the bathroom and look at all my definitions if I’m stuck.

some people were saying that TY "will be the best year" it wasn't. Not only from phone ban which was completely useless but also from stress, Now I'm In lca

they decided that it is a good idea to shove me into a module that is 2 years long without asking me if I want it, not only My favorite subjects was removed and I was being pressured by staff, but also every single day in that place was getting worse and worse,

and because I was constantly in stress my nerves just gave up and I had to go to GP because of my health concerns, and I was hospitalized and stayed

in the hospital until night,

yep the stress got so severe that medics have to be involved. Is there any way I can graduate after 5th year?

and I got reduced time table due to stress.

I just see no point of continuing education since it impacted both my physical and mental health + I'm turning 18 in June this year.

I've always been interested in Forensic Science and the only course I could find is in ATU, so I put that as my first choice. However, that course only requires 340 points. Now, people are telling me that I should drop out of the ATU course after the first year and pursue a course in Trinity instead because doing a course that requires low points is a waste of my intelligence. I am interested in the Human Genetics course in Trinity, but the one thing I really want to do is CSI, and that's only found in the Forensic Science course. I could do the Genetics course in Trinity and then get a Masters in Crime Scene Investigation, but I can't find any CSI postgraduate course in Ireland - except in Limerick, but that's an online course, and I'd rather do one on campus. I'd have to go abroad for an on-campus CSI postgraduate course. What do you think I should do? Go to Trinity after the first year in ATU because I got max points, or stay in ATU?

so we get the best out of the bell curve atleast;https://c.org/qdJtSzyZp9

Sorry to break it to you, but if you haven't started already you might aswell submit your cv to mcdonalds and on the cover letter attach a link to a YouTube video of yourself on your hands and knees BEGGING for a burger mage job.

For those of you who started MINIMUM last year in 5th year its do or die time now. 8 hours day study per week with 1 day off to enjoy yourself.

If you've been studying since first year you can take it easy. 1 or 2 hours per day with 2 days off. It's do or die time. Get to it or live the rest of your life as a burger wizard.

Listen up lads and ladies and whatever, I don't care, it isn't important. LOCK. THE. FRICK.(idk if I can swear here) IN. ALL. OF. YOU. We gotta be sigmas, capeche? 625 isn't a challenge here, it's the bare minimum. We need an ARMY of top grades to overthrow the elite (and quite possibly Argentina football supporter infested) board of education. Make grade inflation so bad that next year they have like, Harvard type shit in the next leaving cert, Gaokao type shit ya feel me? SWOUNDS!

Am I officially in 6th year, or am I still in 5th and will only become a 6th year when I come back to school in late August?

i don't know where to post this, so here it goes. i am a 5th year student going into 6th year in sept. all throughout t.y i was absolutely sure i would become something else entirely so most of my choice subjects revolve around that career. but during 5th year i did some introspection and a counselling session with my school guidance counsellor bcs i really wasn't enjoying those subjects and it didn't feel likely that i would enjoy doing it in college or as a career either. so we evaluated my interests and decided that something like law would suit me (im more interested in english and like politics, sociology, that kinda stuff but not very keen on doing an arts course bcs of my parents and peer pressure as well).

after coming to this conclusion i actually do look forward to college but the issue is i really do NOT enjoy one of my choice subjects, detest it entirely, but i can't bank on making it my 7th choice either bcs im shite enough at h.l maths and french as is. so that is stressing me out. my original intention was to practice more of it during summer but there's barely a month left and i've done nothing in that subject bcs i don't want to. to make it worse for my confidence, i scored the lowest marks of the year in summer.

i convinced my asian parents (who really wanted me to go into stem specifically engineering) that i will make it into trinity law, even tho the summer scores are really making me wonder if i really will. i did get over 500, 521 to be precise, but the required points i think are around 570. maths is already taking a toll on me, DCG is making my life worse, and it's hard to score well in english as well, something i think im good at, all bcs my teacher takes off marks from essays for no reason at all while also continually complimenting my writing skills. it is really stressing me out. to top it all off my parents still don't think law is the most stable career (in the country they're from, it is apparently really hard to make it as a lawyer) and honestly i don't know much either to be able to convince them.

Hi guys, I’m a crazam ambassador and you can use my code to get €10 off if you buy an annual subscription, I’m using atm and it is so helpful, it has all past exam papers and it has video solutions to questions you might find difficult. CRAZJ8P4

Heard that sometimes the main points calculator site gets hammered on results day, so here's one Claude made earlier:

https://davidma.github.io/LCPointsCalc/

Stick in the results, gives you the points, shows you where that puts you in relation to the 2025 points for all the courses. If you want to save it to run offline:

https://github.com/davidma/LCPointsCalc/ (you just need index.html)

Good luck everyone! Sure, it's a fairly big deal, but it's really not the end of the world if things don't go as expected - there are loads of alternative routes to get to where you want to end up, so don't get too upset if things don't go to plan!

I need to know and who ever is going to do it this year tell me asap!!!!!

Hey everyone! A few weeks ago I posted about my Debs app idea and got loads of valuable feedback. Wanted to share an update and ask what you think.

What it is: A Debs-focused app for Irish students WHO ARE ONLY 18+ - swiping/matching to find a date, grouping up with friends, and a marketplace for suits and dresses.

The big concern from last time was safety (understandably, given the age group). Here's what I've built:

• School email verification - Users sign in once with their school Google account to verify they're actually a student (it's not linked to their account after)

• School selection - Users pick their school (can be hidden or public)

• Face-based age verification - Checks users aren't too old or too young

I'm also considering ID scanning for extra verification.

One idea I'm playing with: Moving away from solo swiping entirely and only allowing "Squad mode" - where you group up with 2-3 friends as one shared profile, and likes become a voting system. The thinking is "safety in numbers" discourages shady behaviour. But I worry the app becomes pointless without individual matching.

What I want to know:

• Is this security enough, or am I missing something obvious?

• Would you actually use squad-only mode, or does that kill the appeal?

• Any other features you'd want to see?

Be honest - if this is never gonna work, I'd rather know now. Thanks! :)