Leaving Certificate student who got seven A grades selling notes on eBay

A LEAVING Certificate student from Co Clare who was the recipient of seven A grades has decided to share the wealth of his knowledge — by selling it to the highest bidder.

Cillian Fahy, 18, from New Quay, has placed his notes, compiled meticulously over the space of a year, on internet shopping site eBay, in a bid to raise money for his college fund.

Mr Fahy, who attended Gort Community School, and got As in Maths, English, Irish, French, Music, History and Physics, said he hoped his notes would help someone else achieve the grades he had.

But, he stressed the sale did not come with a money-back guarantee.

The seven-day auction, which has been up for two days with no bidders as yet, can be found by searching for Irish Leaving Certificate on ebay.ie.

Notes for the six subjects Maths, English, Irish, Music, French and History are being auctioned separately. Each subject has a wide variety of notes, and some subjects have revision books and workbooks with them. Mr Fahy has set the starting price at €40 for each student and said he would be happy just to get that amount.

“It has been a learning experience, talking to people, learning how to market things, so I am happy enough.

“The notes are fairly extensive so if someone found them successful then I would be happy.”

Mr Fahy said the thought of just discarding his notes was what had driven the idea. “I was thinking in September I am doing all this work, hand-writing notes neatly and typing them, for nothing because I am just going to dump them all in June. But then I thought, if I can help someone, and they can help me out a bit by buying them it would be perfect.”

The recession was also a factor, he said.

“With the economy as it is, I think students in particular need to be resourceful and clever in making money. Thousands of euro are spent in this country on grind classes when the main advantage of these classes is simply the notes. These notes were the only notes I used and they got me an A grade in my subjects, so naturally they should do the same for any student. I would also hope to encourage other students around the country to be more resourceful and perhaps take the same steps as I have in selling their notes.”

The student, set to study English Literature and Mathematics at Trinity College Dublin, maintains young people need to be more innovative than ever before to try and make some money to get them through college.

“I think trying to find a part time job would be very difficult, but if you look for different things and try and make something out of nothing then you might succeed.”