School/Uni Help Thread

Got 3 A's in my AS Levels today, can't be bad to that.

 

Congrats lad. Got the same myself when I sat my AS levels. Should end up with good grades because very rarely does anyone do really well in AS then * at A2 so good man

 

What's AS Levels over here? Standard Grades or Highers?

 

AS Levels from what my mate (living in England) said, are Intermediates? Probably above that just a tad.

 

Cheers man, think I should be grand at A2 but * knows how I pulled that out, had already accepted I was repeating one, if not two of the subjects.

Halfway point of highers I think. One more year of A Levels to go so I think that's about right.

 

See after GCSE, we have two more years left at school. Lower 6th and Upper sixth. In lower 6th you do AS levels and at upper you do A2 levels which overall give you an A-level result. I don't really know how your education system works though but I'd guess A2 equates to the highers?

It's graded then from A, B, C, D, E, U. Well they recently brought in A*'s too a's an overall A level result which I actually missed out on by one mark and 4 marks in two subjects the feckers:smiley-laughing002:.

Apparently the N.Irish education systems one of the best in the world too for some reason or another.

 

Scottish system is more simple. After standard grades (4th year) you do highers or intermediate, which are a level below higher in 5th and 6th year. Advanced highers are also available for those who do well in highers

 

If you can get in to Economics - and by 'in to' I mean right interested in and very good at - then you will be sorted for a graduate scheme as long as you get a really good grade.

 

For oil and gas, as a non-engineer, a great starting point is even doc control.....build up to controls side.....then cost / planning.......world is your oyster mate. Nothing wrong with starting lower down and learning the business from the "bottom" up. In fact, it gives a great grounding when progression occurs.

It's the route I took, with no uni accreditation as a direct result of beer, women and golf. And i'm in to Project Management now, largely because of learning the business. That bit of paper isn't the be all and end all.

 

Economics is great! i know i have a * degree in it! Anyway it definitely will help in regards to the energy sector especially in aberdeen, oil and gas is booming right now.

Would also help if you do a masters afterwards more specific to the energy sector. For example i am doing Petroleum, Energy Economics and Finance. As you can tell gearing me up for a career in you guessed it tax and oil and gas.

 

Did you get in the masters you mentioned a while back then mate? Good stuff

 

I did yes, tried to get a job before hand, had an interview too for ernst and young for audit but before i had applied previously for tax, which wasn't on offer, i had a lot of trouble trying to convince them i wanted to do audit now and not tax.

Hence the partner saying she wasn't offering me the job because my 'motivation wasn't clear'. I was disappointed because i felt i was going into the interview with her already having half made the decision already.

The masters it is though, gives me another year to build up some more work experience which i have right now working for CNR International, oil and gas company. So hopefully next summer i can get into a graduate program.

 

Aye I can see why you'd have got that impression. Probably weren't totally wrong either. It would have been hard for you to convince them right enough.

What kind of stuff you doing for CNR? You hoping to get taken on with them after the masters?

 

I got my leaving cert results yesterday. The way ours works is you do 7 subjects and your best 6 are added together in a points system.
I got

Higher levels:
English B1- 85 points
History B2- 80 points
Spanish C1- 70 points
Geography C2- 65 points
Economics C3- 60 points

Ordinary levels:
Irish C1- 30 points
Maths C1 30 points

So I got a total of 390 out of 600. I was happy with everything really except geography, I was expecting a B in that. Dont know how anyone can like economics to be honest:smiley-laughing002:

 

Business Management was a shambles of a Higher imo. Then again our teacher was shocking so that no doubt contributed to it.

 

For those considering economics as a degree I say do it, especially if it is something you are naturally good at. It is probably one of the few transferable skill degrees that still holds any value. If you can nail it and go to a decent uni then it will serve you very well (and I don't have a degree in economics)