If you didn't do as well as you had hoped in your Leaving Certificate, you may already be considering resitting the exam next June.
As more and more options open up for school-leavers, repeating is becoming less popular. This year 3,889 people sat the Leaving Cert for the second, third or subsequent time. This compares with 5,013 last year. The number of repeat exam candidates in the last decade peaked in 1996 at 8,157.
If you are thinking of repeating, you should first spend some time looking over your results. Try and work out why you got fewer marks than you had hoped for. Did you put in sufficient study time? Were you ill around the time of the Leaving Cert or during your final year? Were there any personal reasons why you mightn't have been able to concentrate during the senior cycle?
If, on reflection, you think that you studied as hard as you could, and your marks are a fair reflection of that study, it might be time to explore other options, such as doing a Post-Leaving Certificate course.
If you think you can improve your marks, there are certain advantages to repeating. For instance, you may have your sights set on a particular course which has a specific subject requirement, and you have gained those already, so you don't need to take that subject again. This leaves you free to concentrate on acquiring the points you need in the subjects you are best at.
On the other hand, you may have the points you need and just have to repeat one or two essential subjects. Remember, the rule is that essential subject requirements can be accumulated over a number of sittings of the Leaving Cert. However, points can not be accumulated.
Guidance counsellor Mr Vivian Cassells cautions that repeating is for focused and highly motivated people. "You have been stung by your results and feel they doesn't represent your potential. A repeat year is very concentrated. You should be driven by your belief that you can do better."
He suggests students concentrate their efforts on six subjects. Points are calculated on the basis of your best six subjects taken in one sitting of the Leaving Certificate.
Taking up a new subject can add interest to a year where you will spend a lot of time going over familiar material. Mr Cassells says: "I would suggest that you choose a new subject that has some commonality with one of your other subjects. For instance, if you're already doing biology, you might take up home economics (social and scientific)."
Each year, a number of students with very high points repeat to get into subjects such as medicine or veterinary medicine, where the cut-off levels are astronomical. Often they are looking for just five or 10 additional points.
The Commission on the Points System, which was set up to look at the third-level admissions system, notes that in the case of entrants to healthcare courses in 1998, there appears to be a strong relationship between subject choice, high grades and repetition of the Leaving Certificate. Some 32 per cent of candidates for these courses had repeated the Leaving Cert, compared to 16 per cent for all courses. The 32 per cent comprised 157 students, of whom 80 per cent would not have been eligible for entry based on their repeat Leaving Certificate alone. In other words, they did not meet some basic entry requirements in their repeat sitting. Many of the students took up new subjects for the first time in their repeat sitting.
The commission has recommended that the points and the basic entry requirements, with the exception of Irish in the NUI colleges, be attained in the same sitting of the Leaving Certificate. Citing a candidate who had applied through the CAO eight times for medicine, it also recommended some disincentive, such as a reduction of 10 per cent of the points score, for a candidate's third sitting and for each subsequent sitting. The Minister for Education has yet to implement the commission's recommendations. Some repeat colleges: Plunket College, Whitehall, Dublin, is currently enrolling for its repeat Leaving Cert programme tel (01) 8371680/ 8371689. The college also offers a two-year day Leaving Certificate programme for adults.
Four other City of Dublin VEC colleges also offer repeat Leaving Cert courses: Pearse College, Clogher Road; Rathmines Senior College; St Peter's College, Killester; and Ringsend Technical Institute. Freephone 1 800 20 40 80 for information on the repeat Leaving Cert courses in any of the five colleges.
You can also use this freephone number to get information on Post Leaving Certificate courses in CDVEC colleges.
Ringsend Technical Institute is running an advice centre for prospective repeat Leaving Cert students from 8.00 a.m. to 3.30 p.m. each day until Wednesday, August 30th. Telephone (01) 668 4498.
CAO offers
If you're holding a first-round offer and wish to accept it, you must get that offer notice back to the CAO by 5.15 p.m. on Wednesday. A spokesman for the CAO reminds applicants that the offer notice itself is required - not a fax, e-mail or even a telegram. If you're posting it, remember to get the certificate of posting stamped.
There is still some confusion about the £30 "acceptance fee" that the universities and the Dublin Institute of Technology had instructed the CAO to collect earlier this month. You no longer need to worry about this. The CAO has since issued a statement saying it proved too difficult, logistically, to deal with all those postal orders and bank drafts in round zero so people accepting a first-round offer don't need to send any money. Any monies due can be paid directly to the college at registration.
There are now vacant places on more than 20 degrees and more than 50 certificate/diploma porgrammes. These were listed in last Thursday's College 2000 column.
Dundalk IT has since advertised vacancies on 12 certificate/ diploma courses: DK001 electronics/product development; DK002 electronics; DK005 business studies; DK006 business studies (marketing/languages); DK008 civil engineering; DK009 construction studies; DK010 manufacturing engineering; DK011 mechanical engineering; DK012 biology; DK050 food science; DK051 chemistry; DK053 environmental science.
An updated list of vacancies is posted on the CAO website each day (www.cao.ie).
These places are open to you whether you have applied to the CAO or not. If you have applied, simply inform the CAO of the desired course(s), quoting your application number.
If you have not applied previously, you must contact the CAO at Tower House, Eglinton Street, Galway, for an application form. In this case a fee of £18.90 applies. Remember, to be eligible for a place, you must fulfil the minimum educational requirements, including any specific subjects.