About the Founder

If you’re spending your time considering trusting this concept with part of the outcome of your Leaving Cert it makes sense to have an idea of the person that’s offering it. I think another fair assumption to make is that you’d like to know why I’m doing this and how you can trust that it will work. I’ll answer those three questions in the following paragraphs and hopefully it will give you an insight into the creator of this concept.Firstly I’m Connell Kennelly, nice to meet you! I’m 22 years old in my final year of Commerce in UCD. I’m originally from Longford but actually play football and hurling in Roscommon. I went to Clongowes Wood College for my secondary school education and subsequently sat my own Leaving Cert there in 2018.

I’ve been lucky enough to have a relatively sheltered upbringing and I now feel like it’s time to start giving back. My family instilled strong values in me through their everyday actions and through the Jesuit ethos phrases in Clongowes I learned how to articulate them. Now it would be amiss for me to say that I was a devout Catholic in my time there. I would routinely skip going to mass to instead lie on my bed and watch YouTube. However the key principles explained to us such as being a “man for others” really did hit home for me. I’m quite a flawed person, just ask any of my mates but I’m trying to become more aware of my blind spots, which is similar to what I did for my own Leaving Cert study.

Secondly there are a few combining reasons as to why I’m doing this ( like every other action too I’d wager). The chief reason why I want to do this is that I remember when it was my turn to study for the Leaving Cert being in a state of fear of not knowing if I was already screwed in terms of getting the points for my course. I knew the maximum points for my course ever had been 520 so I was aiming for 532 points. However if I looked up online how exactly to do this there was no resource. The best was how to get a H1 which was helpful but a bit too vague for what I wanted. I would have loved it if there was a resource for me to know if I was on track for my precise grade which is why I’m making it now. In addition to this, I’ve also been thinking about what I actually want to do in general. In the end, the idea that has resonated with me the most so far is to try and end unnecessary suffering. The easy answer would have been to say that I would like to make a lot of money. However I feel like it isn’t a very fulfilling goal and I’d prefer if that was a by-product of success in a given domain rather than the primary objective. The goal for this is to change the way the Leaving Cert is approached by taking into account both the points you get and the time invested into it. The last big reason why I aimed for this particular objective is that my sister is going into 5th year next year and I wanted to have it ready for her. I’ve been mucking around now for a few years feeling like I haven’t been up to much and that has given me a goal. I don’t want her (or anyone else) to have to deal with all the overwhelming stress I and most other students had so that’s the reason why I’m designing it.

Lastly the third part you probably want to know is why specifically I myself can deliver on this goal. Truth be told I want to know that answer too ! The main reason why I know it can work is that my roadmap is based on irrefutable statistical data such as the breakdown of marks on the paper, the percentage of students who achieve certain grades due to the bell curve and the way the marking schemes are laid out. They are the base of the breakdowns, my “logos” if you will. However the key reason why this doesn’t read as just a plain fact sheet is that I myself used the methods I outline in the breakdowns in my own Leaving Cert. I understand the pain spots and the areas that deliver the most points per amount of difficulty and time expenditure. In addition to this I was by no means a model student. My other sister who was sitting her Leaving Cert the following year that I did was actually studying more than me the Friday before my own Leaving Cert. As you can imagine, this caused a fair amount of angst for both myself and my mum. I rewatched a TV show ,”Blue Mountain State“ through my mocks and just in general rarely put more than 2 to 2 and a half hours of good homework and study together. I was by no means the sharpest tool in the shed. This was reminded time and again in classes like Applied Maths where I had to grapple with the concepts constantly. However what I did know was what exactly I needed to do to get a certain grade. I had also figured out how best to minimise my study time to get those results. I was a lazy student who enjoyed wasting my time too much to want to study for hours on end. I know that there are plenty of students out there who find it hard to study also. The reason why you can trust that I personally can make it work is that I understand how you feel with regards to the Leaving Cert and have tailored the experience to that. This isn’t to say you can’t get a H1 with these breakdowns, far from it. Many of the students who signed up last year achieved H1’s in their various subjects. It will trim away all the fat from your study, leaving you with more time to dial in on what exactly the examiner wants. There is no resource out there detailing how to get a H2, H3 , H4 etc which is actually what the majority of students only need. Why not aim precisely at your exact then vaguely study and hope for the best. This isn’t a pipe dream, it’s very much achievable.

That’s a brief introduction into my motivations essentially. I do feel like I’ve been quite transparent in this short article. You’re not interested in hearing me blab on about myself ad nauseum which is why I kept it relatively short. Hopefully that provided some insight into the key areas that you would like to know about. If not, please let me know and I can elaborate on any particular area or something completely different.