Q: My son's exam results for fifth year were very disappointing. We had expected more from him because he seemed to have got down to work very well last year. We are now facing into his Leaving Cert year and are unsure how to handle it. Should we push him?

Cork Parent

A: The first thing you should ask is why are you disappointed? If he worked very well, maybe he is content and doing his best and that surely is good enough.

Maybe he made mistakes and can learn how to handle things better next year. If, as you say, he worked hard, you should say well done and appreciate his efforts and ask him how he sees it. Your expectations must be realistically in line with his ability and effort.

If he did well in some subjects, ask him what he did right so he can repeat this and build on it. There's no point saying "Half the class got an A, so what's so good about your results?" Don't compare his results with everyone else's or his sibling's results.

After all this wasn't his Leaving Cert. It's his fifth year exam and is probably his first full exam at senior level. If the results are worse than what the year's work might have indicated, it can be used as a diagnostic tool by the subject teachers.

The fifth year exam is not the be-all-and-end-all - it should be used as a measure of his revision and consolidation of his year's work. It's an effective learning tool to bed in the knowledge of his fifth year's work and fill in any gaps and thus form an effective springboard for the Leaving Cert.

Having learnt from this experience he will have enough self-belief and self-reliance to embark on sixth year with confidence and enthusiasm - as long as you don't take it away from him.

Q: I got eight As in my Junior Cert in 1997 and I want to get seven As in my Leaving Cert in 1999. My teachers at school tell me that I can expect seven Bs or at best three As and four Bs. They say this is the norm and my expectations are way out of line. Are they right?

Co Laois student.

A: Very often students do drop a grade from Junior Cert to Leaving Cert exams and so your teachers are saying it as they see it. There is certainly a discrepancy between grades at these exams, even in the same subjects.

In addition, there is also some discrepancy in grading between subjects in Leaving Cert as was borne out in the reports made by the National Council for Certification and Assessment (NCCA) in the early 1990s. Some subjects in Leaving Cert had an unusually high percentage of As such as Spanish and applied maths, while others such as English, engineering, business organisation and art had unusually low percentages of As.

This, it seems, is still broadly the situation and I can understand why teachers warn you about this the drop in grades from the Junior Cert level.

However, in late August this year the Leaving Cert marking scheme for all subjects was made available to teachers and this should help in clarifying the criteria used in awarding grades in this exam.

Provisional results were made available for Leaving Cert students this year on August 19th and any students who wanted to saw their corrected scripts in 19 subjects which did not have oral/aural/practical components in early September. From 1999 on these subjects also will be on view.

This will certainly help to make the whole system more transparent. In addition, independent examination commissioners were appointed last year. They will act as ombudsman to verify that all sections of the exam was marked and totalled correctly. All final appeals will still go to them.

So, if you are unhappy with your grades in 1999, you will be able to check all your corrected exams and then proceed to have a recheck if you think it necessary.

Q: I`ve just finished an arts degree in an English university and would like to work in public relations. Should I do a post graduate course, preferably in Britain, or go straight into the work situation?

Dublin graduate.

A: You could probably get into PR by contacting agencies or corporate communications departments in businesses with or without a primary degree. However, as in all other areas of business, qualifications play anincreasingly important role and those with post grad degrees get on the fast track.

Generally post-grad courses have a better employment record, specialise in particularly relevant areas, are much more practical and have better links with the particular industry. If you wish to follow up the UK post-grad option, you should contact the Institute of Public Relations (IPR), The Old Trading House, 15 Northburgh Street, London EC1V OPR.

The IPR is launching its own diploma in September and this will run at Hackney Community College, London; Queen Margaret College, Edinburgh and Leeds Metropolitan University. This 24-week course is aimed at those already working in PR but who do not have a relevant qualification. Post-graduate courses (MA, MSc etc) are offered in colleges such as the University of Stirling, Manchester Metropolitan University and West Herts College, Cardiff University, Bournemouth University. Some courses are run as one-year full-time or it can be distance learning. So you have a choice of learning mode. For instance, Stirling has both.

Another possibility would be to join a PR agency directly. Some of the large ones such as Hill & Knowlton and Burson-Marsteller operate their own training programmes and graduate recruitment.

If you don't succeed there, join a smaller company and do the IPR diploma. Entry is extremely competitive and vacancies are advertised in Campaign, PR Week, Public Relations Consultancy and the national press.

If you wish to train here, you should contact the Public Relations Institute of Ireland which offers its own diploma. It will also provide you with details of other post-graduate options such as the one-year full-time diploma in DIT Aungier Street, the two-year part-time diploma in Tallaght IT or the one-year full-time courses in Dun Laoghaire Senior College, Co Dublin, or in Colaiste Dhulaigh, Dublin.

Queries can be answered only through this column and not by phone or post. Write to Sile Sheehy, Education & Living, The Irish Times, D'Olier Street, Dublin 2 - or by email to education@irish-times.ie