THIS WEEK almost 135,000 students will begin their State exams. Both Junior and Leaving Certificate examinations kick off with English on Wednesday. There are 68,900 students registered for the Junior Cert and 65,881 for the Leaving Cert.

This is the first year that the three Leaving Certs - the traditional version, the Leaving Cert Applied and the Leaving Cert Vocational - will all be examined. There are 1,056 students registered for the LCA, which will be examined for the first time this year, and 2,755 registered for the LCV, which is in its second exam year.

While most Leaving Cert candidates are school based and sitting the exam for the first time there are 4,674 repeat students and 4,597 external candidates (mostly mature students returning to education).

This year the Department of Education has taken the unprecedented step of publishing two information booklets on the Leaving Cert aimed at students and parents These booklets explain the workings of the exam and the appeals system.

A number of new safeguards have been put in place this year. Independent appeals commissioners are to be appointed as a final appeals mechanism. They will have the power to seek all documentation in relation to an appeal and to ensure that procedures have been carried out correctly. They will not remark the papers for a third time - all papers are fully remarked by a second examiner on appeal.

The format of the appeals results is being changed to provide students with additional information. Barcoding is also being introduced to track exam work as it travels between the Department and schools.

The Junior Cert ends on Wednesday, June 25th, and the Leaving Cert closes two days later. The results of the Leaving Cert will be in the schools on August 19th and students who wish to appeal their results must do so by August 27th. The results of the Junior Certificate will be in schools on September 16th.