Questions Answers &

My son will be taking the Leaving Cert next year, but he is concerned that his choice of college and course is limited because he does not have a third language. He expects Irish to be his dropped score, as it is the only subject he is not taking at higher level. He is hoping for around 450 points, and would like to do Science or Business in Dublin (although he is not fixed on Dublin). Do you know what courses are available in Science, Business or Mathematics that do not require a language subject at Leaving Cert level?

The answer to your question would have required a fair degree of research up to the past few weeks, but thanks to a new module in the qualifax web site, www.qualifax.ie, you can now get a list of courses that perfectly match your question. Once into the site, click on the Leaving Certificate and Junior Certificate choices module, on the top right hand side of the home page. Click on Leaving Certificate and you will see a screen which will allow you to tick the box identifying a third language requirement. You may also select the county of Dublin.

This query generated a list of 223 courses, available through the CAO in Dublin, which do not have a third language requirement. You may proceed to tag the science, business and mathematical courses listed, and save them for further research.

This new facility will now allow any parent or student to see the full implications, from a CAO choice perspective, of the subject choices being offered by their school at the end of first year, or just prior to entering fifth year. At Junior Certificate level, the facility will give you four scenarios. They are courses that will not be available if the applicant does not have a Leaving Certificate (a) science subject, (b) third language, (c) higher level Irish or (d) higher level mathematics.

At Leaving Certificate level, the facility indicates the courses that are affected by every subject offered to incoming fifth years by their respective schools. It gives a student the option of knowing the courses for which the subject is (a) essential, (b) may be required, or (c) not required. The "may be required" list would, for example, be courses that require a third language, when the subject in question is French. In this case, the list is of those courses which require at least one third language for entry purposes.

If the student is considering whether to take French, the list generated presumes that the student is not going to have another third language. Therefore, in deciding whether to take French, he/she is effectively deciding whether to exclude courses which require at least one third language.

Apart from allowing you to understand the CAO entry implications of choosing, or not choosing, individual Leaving Certificate subjects, the facility allows you to identify courses according to county or college. This enables parents and students to see the implications of their potential subject choices on all the courses offered in their county or another specific county, or by a specific college.

Given the perennial issue of high failure rates at ordinary level maths, the facility will also be very useful for students considering the level at which they wish to take maths. There was in the past a reluctance to advise students to study foundation level maths, because there was a perception that it was not acceptable for entry into any CAO course.

By clicking on the foundation level maths option, you will get a list of 220 courses which accept maths at foundation level. The final two options available from this new module are the full lists of CAO courses requiring higher level maths and higher level Irish.

www.qualifax.ie

E-mail questions to bmooney@irish-times.ie