After weeks of gnashing teeth, slamming doors and endless family "discussions", you and your parents are approaching the end of the first phase of the CAO process.
It is to be hoped you can now put it aside and concentrate on your exams. Most guidance counsellors say you should revisit the CAO form only if you need to make significant changes to your previous options.
The deadline for forms is tomorrow at 5.15 p.m. at Tower House, Eglington Street, Galway. There is no leeway on the deadline, the CAO says.
Breathless parents or students who reach the CAO headquarters at 5.16 p.m. will be submitting a late application for which they have to pay £50, not the normal £20. Late applications will be accepted up to 5.15 p.m. on May 1st.
If you are submitting a late application you may not be eligible for any of the restricted courses listed on page three of the handbook. So you may miss out on 28 degrees and about 27 diplomas/certificates.
Although many students will be anxious about the CAO process in coming months, others handle it in a more blase fashion.
While this is not evident at this time of the year, it does occur in August when the exam results come out and offers are made. This is when the so-called contagious "Santa Ponsa" syndrome strikes.
Its student victims are gripped by an uncontrollable urge to flee these shores and relax on sunny beaches in Majorca while their parents try to cope with the complexities of the CAO offer season.
There isn't a cure for the syndrome (first coined by the CAO general manager, Mr John McAvoy) but an offer by a parent to put funds towards a holiday in this sensitive period is understood to alleviate the symptoms.
When the offers are made - normally in mid-August - it is no use blaming your parents if the right paperwork is not sent back to the CAO. The buck stops with you.
If you are not in the country during the offer season and in subsequent weeks you may also miss an opportunity to view your Leaving Cert scripts and decide whether you want to have them re-checked. The recheck could see you upgraded and the extra points you get could mean getting a place on a different course.
Deferrals
The Irish Times helpline, which finishes today, has been inundated with questions about deferring.
All colleges allow you to defer a place for a year, with some exceptions. You cannot defer a place on many courses at the National College of Art and Design and the Dun Laoghaire Institute of Art, Design and Technology. UCD does not allow students taking its Arts modular course (DN 022) to defer.
The Royal College of Surgeons Ireland (RCSI) will only allow you to defer in exceptional circumstances such as a death or illness.
UCC is the same for two degree courses: medicine (CK 701) and dentistry (CK 702). You cannot defer a nursing place, the CAO says.
If you receive an offer this August - and want to defer it - do not accept it and do not make any payment. Instead, write to the college which is offering the place and mark the envelope "deferred entry". Your CAO offer notice should be inside, attached to a letter requesting a deferral. Crucially, your letter should arrive two days before CAO reply date.
The colleges have discretion over deferrals, but if they turn you down you are still allowed to take your place for the current year.
Another interesting query has come to our attention about the DIT course, preliminary engineering (DT 120).
This course prepares students for entry into the first year of their engineering degree (FT 125), but is considered a second-level course and consequently students have to pay almost £1,000 in fees.
One caller wanted to know if somebody could defer another engineering degree and spend a year doing preliminary engineering, as it was classified as a second-level course. DIT seemed to have no problem, but UCD said the applicant had to accept one or the other.
As pointed out above, this is because each college has its own deferral policy, so check with the college if you have a specific query.
Failing subjects
Understandably, students are concerned about failing Leaving Cert subjects. If it is one of their six top subjects, they will get no points for it. But they are more worried they will not get a college offer if they fail certain subjects, particularly Irish or maths.
On many courses if you fail maths you will not get a place in an institute of technology or university. A fail is an E or lower and it applies to honours or pass level.
One male student contacted me and wondered if he failed honours maths would it be regarded as a pass by colleges. No. A fail is fail and if he is particularly worried he may consider (after talking to his teachers) dropping down to pass level.
The NUI colleges (such as UCC, UCG, UCD, Maynooth) require you to pass maths, Irish, English, a third language and in some faculties a science subject to get a place.
But there is an exemption. You are allowed an E in one of these if you have three C3s or more in higher level papers or at least one B3 and one C3 on higher level papers.
But be warned, a fail in a prominent subject such as maths or English tends to be viewed with some suspicion by employers and you might want to spend a year repeating those subjects in the Leaving Cert if you fail them.
Failing Irish does not mean the end at Trinity College and most of the institutes of technology either. The other point worth remembering about Irish is if you are exempt from Leaving Certificate Irish you are exempt from the NUI Irish requirement too.
Final column
This is the final column of this series, but The Irish Times will keep you updated on any future developments on the home news pages, through Education and Living and on Ireland.com.
There are several issues to be settled before the exams begin and we will be covering these in detail. To those sitting the exam this year, and their parents, best wishes in the months ahead.