Pre-Junior Cycle

Maths support for younger students, at the level they are actually at.

One live lesson a week in a small class, for 6th class, 1st year and 2nd year students who want maths to make sense before it gets harder. Topics follow what your child is covering now rather than a syllabus aimed at an exam three years away.

Seven days free. No card required.

When the lessons run

Same times every week. The session happens whether or not it has been a good week, which is most of what makes it work.

Pre-Junior Cycle

Mondays

at 7:00PM

1 live lesson a week, each recorded and added to the library by topic.

All times are Irish time. Missed a week? The recording is in the library the same evening.

Platinum adds one more live session a month, on the questions students suggest and vote to have covered.

What we cover

Topics follow what your child is covering in school rather than a fixed order, and every lesson is recorded and indexed so any method can be found again the night before a test.

Number & OperationsFractions & DecimalsAlgebra BasicsGeometry FoundationsMeasurementData & Probability

Is this the right fit?

Still not sure? That is what the free week is for.

Sit in on the live lesson, Mondays, with the full recorded library and the discussion board open for the week. Seven days, no card, nothing to cancel. One real lesson will tell you more about whether Pre-Junior Cycle suits your child than any page can.

Start My Free TrialTakes about two minutes. Cancel any time afterwards.

Numbers decide everything that comes after them

Almost every difficulty we meet later traces back to the same few places, and they are earlier than people expect. Fractions. Percentages and ratio. Negative numbers. Rearranging a simple equation. None of it is advanced, and all of it turns up inside every topic that comes afterwards.

A student who is slightly unsure about fractions does not have a fractions problem for long. They have an algebra problem in second year, a trigonometry problem in fifth, and by then nobody is looking at fractions any more, because the topic on the board is something else entirely. The gap gets buried rather than closed.

That is what this class is for: securing the ordinary material properly while it is still the ordinary material, and while there is time to do it without pressure.

What actually changes when maths gets harder

In primary school, maths is mostly about getting the right answer. From first year onwards it becomes about method: showing how you got there, working with letters instead of numbers, and following an argument over several steps. Plenty of students who were comfortable with the first thing find the second one genuinely strange.

It is not a difficulty problem so much as a change of task, and it catches confident students as often as it catches struggling ones. A child who was always good at maths can arrive into second year quietly convinced they have stopped being good at it, when what actually happened is that the subject changed shape and nobody said so.

Lessons here go slowly at exactly that point. Working with letters, why the method matters more than the answer, and how to start a question you do not immediately recognise.

Support, not acceleration

This is the part worth being clear about, because the two courses are easy to mix up. Pre-Junior Cycle is for a student who wants the maths they are doing right now to make sense. Junior Cycle is for a student who is ahead and wants to work through what is coming in the next two or three years.

A second year could sit in either, and for most of them the signup wizard recommends this one. If your child is bored rather than lost, take the other. First years belong here rather than on the Junior Cycle course, which teaches the full three years of material at pace.

Questions parents ask

What ages is this for?

6th class, 1st year and 2nd year. Sixth class students join before secondary school starts; 1st and 2nd years join when they want support at the level they are currently studying rather than material from further ahead.

How many lessons a week?

One, on Monday evenings, and it is recorded and in the library the same evening. This is the only course with one lesson a week rather than two, which is why it is also the least expensive.

Is my child too young for grinds?

It is a fair question and the honest answer is that it depends on why you are asking. If maths has become something they dread, or they are already telling you they are bad at it, earlier is much easier than later. If they are getting on fine and you simply want them ahead, this is not the course for that and we would rather say so.

Is there an exam at the end?

No. There is no State examination at this stage, so nothing here is exam preparation and there are no past papers. The point is that the foundations are secure before any of that starts to matter.

Should we do this or go straight into Junior Cycle?

If your child is looking for support with what they are covering now, this one. If they are ahead of their class and want to work through the next two or three years of material, Junior Cycle. The signup wizard offers both to 1st years and to 2nd year Ordinary Level students and recommends this one for most.

What if we start and it turns out to be the wrong class?

Tell us and we will move them. The seven-day free trial exists precisely so this is not a decision you have to get right from a web page.

Proven Results. Happy Students.

Here's what our students and parents have to say about their experience with Summit Maths Academy.

"Not sure how you have done it so quickly but I have a boy here eager to catch up on the missed sessions before next class!! Can't thank you enough"

L
Louise
Parent

"Harry was a great tutor for my nephew, he explained everything easily and made things easy to understand. We would highly recommend for anyone needing help with Maths."

E
Emma
Aunt

"The lessons were excellent, I was comfortable asking questions and they went into full detail until you fully understand. Overall I have noticed a massive improvement in my Maths. Would highly recommend."

L
Lorna
Student

"I got a H3 in maths. I genuinely would not have scored this high if not for your help. In the beginning of 6th year and in my mocks I barely scraped a pass. However, all the online resources these grinds offered got me through it."

W
Weronika
Student

"Radek's teaching style is phenomenal. He breaks down the hardest Junior Cert topics into bite-sized, logical pieces."

D
David
Student

"The library of recorded lessons is a lifesaver. If we ever miss a class due to sports, we just watch the recording the next day. The flexibility is exactly what we needed."

M
Michael
Parent

What Pre-Junior Cycle costs

Seven days free first, with no card. Cancel any time, no joining fee.

Pre-JC Library

Recordings and notes, no live lessons.

25/month

or €150 for the academic year

Pre-JC AcademyMost popular

One live lesson a week, plus everything above.

49/month

or €390 for the academic year

Pre-JC Platinum

Everything in Academy, three mock papers marked a year, and an extra live session each month on whatever students vote to cover.

79/month

or €590 for the academic year

Free guides for this course