Jean O'Neill is philosophical about her future. She repeated her Leaving Cert. at Plunket College in Whitehall, Dublin, this year - and whatever happens, she says, it was a year well spent.
"I'm not sorry," she says. "I do think it was worth it. In 10 years time I can say at least I tried (for medicine) rather than going on to college." She knows that she'll have no regrets when she looks back.
During the year she got a chance to stand back and take stock. "If I had started in college last year I think I would have been a bit thrown by everybody.
"I'm pleased enough with myself. I know my subjects better but I don't think I got the points again."
Last year, she says, "I had great hopes of getting to do medicine but I didn't get enough points. "I'm pretty happy about the way things have turned out. I know chemistry and biology better and hopefully I'll do analytical science in DCU or med-lab science in DIT. Also I got to know a whole lot of really, really nice people."
She didn't change any of her subjects but going from Scoil Caitriona, an all-Irish school, to Plunket College took a bit of getting used to. "It was a bit odd, especially in biology and chemistry: I was thinking of all the terms in Irish. It took a bit of time." Repeating the same subjects was not difficult - "there was an awful lot of new things to learn" but doing maths for the second time was "very, very tedious", she says.
