While the Leaving Cert is the only measure that the CAO uses for most subjects, the School of Architecture in DIT Bolton Street has a specially designed suitability test and an interview to find the type of students suited to the course.

"In the case of architecture," explains James Horan, head of the school of architecture, "we are looking for a particular type of student that isn't necessarily identified by the Leaving Cert alone. The Leaving Cert result will tell us about someone's academic ability, that is their ability to deal with academic subjects. It rarely tells us anything about whether they are creative."

Neither does it tell anything about their level of motivation - and motivation, according to Horan, is particularly important due to the length of the training. "You have to be pretty dedicated to stick the pace." Students are expected to work on their own quite a lot and develop their own work methodology. Apart from the Leaving Cert, three additional qualities are required - creativity, motivation and maturity. "In order to assist us making those decisions, in conjunction with psychologists, over a 20-year period, the school of architecture has developed a suitability test," says Horan.

The nature of the suitability test, which is usually conducted around the Easter holiday period, is kept under wraps. It can't be studied for, insists Horan. "It's not to assess what they know, it's to assess their state of mind at the time of application. It helps us to pick people that have the characteristics that we are looking for over and above what academic results tell us." It has settled a number of things, he says, including creativity, spatial reasoning, verbal reasoning, maturity and motivation. Of the 1,000 students or so that take the test, the top 250 to 300 performers are invited to come to interview.

"They are invited to bring along any evidence that they feel will enhance their case for a place in architecture." This could consist of portfolio, models, photography or anything that proves their creativity. Both the interview and suitability test are given scores, which are sent on to the CAO. The CAO compute them in with the Leaving Cert results, and the combined scores determine a student's points.

There is an increase in mature students on the course and although it was traditionally a male profession, it is reaching a point where it is almost evenly split between male and female students. The attrition rate of the students is low, Horan has noticed. "We think we generally get the right people. The difficulty is that it's hard to show this statistically. Most architectural students, up to 90 per cent of them, do not go through the process of qualifying in five years."

Students leave for a year or two to gain experience, to travel, to join architectural practices abroad etc. The average time for someone to qualify as an architect is in the order of six-and-a-half years. "The number of people who actually drop out forever and don't come back to architecture are few," says Horan. "We think that the suitability test and the interview means that the attrition rate is lower." The course subjects include studio work, physics, chemistry, mathematics and statistics, civilisation studies, theory of architecture, mechanics, design technology, and computer applications. Theory and practice go hand in hand so architectural students spend at least 50 per cent of their time, if not more, designing buildings in the studio.

Students have to understand the principles of science and know how materials behave, for example how roofing materials will react with rain. "It's necessary for students to understand both the physics and the chemistry of the materials from which buildings are made." To have done physics or chemistry to Leaving Cert can be of great help to students and it is desirable that they have some science background. "If they have studied art in school, that can be a distinct advantage," says Horan, "both from the history of art point of view and the practical side of painting, drawing, sculpting, or anything to do with creative expression. That all stands to them seriously later on."

Technical drawing is not needed at second level as it is taught as part of the third-level course. "If the student was going to have to make a decision between technical drawing and art, art would win out every time."