Getting pointed in the right direction

The Irish Times helpline service has been busy dealing with queries over the past two days. The following are some of the issues of most concern to students and their parents.

What will the CAO points be for a particular course?

The answer to this question is simple; today nobody knows, not the colleges, not even the CAO itself. Later this morning every college admissions officer in the Republic meets in Galway, to indicate the number of places that the CAO should offer on behalf of every course in the system.

Given that colleges endeavour to fill all places on round one if possible, they operate like airlines, offering more places than they have, on the expectation that a percentage of students will always turn down the courses offered.

How does the process work?

The CAO enters the number of places per course into their computer system, alongside the exam results of all applicants. The computer then fills the places on each course, starting with each student's first choice and points total, based on their Leaving results.

When the process is complete, there is a list of student names, starting with the student who got 600 points and finishing with the name of the last person to be offered a place. It is the last student's points total that is published by the CAO, as the minimum requirement to get a place on that course.

The course each student is offered is the highest one, on either or both of their lists, for which they have the points required. It does not matter if the course is your first choice or your 10th choice. If it is the highest one on your list, for which you score highly enough to be within the number of places offered, you get the offer of the place.

Every course lower down your CAO choices disappears completely from the computer system.

If following round one offers, a course higher up either of your lists becomes available (because not enough students accepted the places offered to them in round one), you will be offered that place. You may then accept it or stay with the one you originally accepted.

What do I do if I am five points short when the CAO offers places on Monday morning?

You can wait to see if the points needed drop, because some students do not accept places on the course, or you can apply to view a number of your exam papers, to see if any of them warrant applying for a recheck. You must return the form requesting a review by Tuesday next and you must be available on September 2nd and 3rd for the viewing.

Some students in this situation will request a recheck of a subject, if a mark on any paper is within 1 per cent of the next grade upwards.

Will the points for medical and paramedical courses go up again this year?

Nobody knows - but . . .

The number of Leaving Certificate students achieving five A1s is down 13 per cent on last year, and with four A1s is down 10 per cent. This should lead to stabilisation if not a drop of points requirements for courses requiring more than 550 points.

The only factor which could throw this scenario out is the number of students from Britain and Northern Ireland applying for these courses through the CAO. Those holding three A levels, a target achieved by almost 20 per cent of candidates in the British system, secure 570 CAO points in our CAO system. The number of these applicants will play a role in determining the number of successful Leaving Cert students seeking medical and paramedical places in 2005. The same scenario applies to a number of other highly sought after courses, such as law.

Given the scarcity of quality accommodation, should I gamble on securing my place on Monday and book it over the weekend based on my Leaving Certificate results?

It would depend on the amount of money required to secure the accommodation. Anything greater than a month's charge would be a big gamble, unless of course your points amount to well in excess of last year's requirement.

Is it possible to apply to the British system (UCAS) if I did not get a good enough result to receive an offer of a place through the CAO?

Both UCAS and the CAO will operate a vacant places system over the coming weeks, where places not taken up by initial applicants are offered to suitably qualified applicants.

It is up to students still seeking a place, to explore these courses on offer and contact the relevant clearing systems, to find out if their Leaving Cert result will be accepted for entry to the course of interest to them.

Other issues

We also had many callers seeking help in calculating points, particularly where a student had a Leaving Cert vocational result.

Please consult The Irish Times supplement of last Wednesday.

Finally, we dealt with many disappointed students and their parents where failure in maths or biology has created insurmountable barriers to their entry to their desired courses. In the case of biology, this was mainly nursing.

Students failing biology in this situation can apply to take one of the PLC pre- nursing programmes, offered throughout the country. All the colleges offering nursing degree programmes allocate a small number of places each year to graduates of the PLC programmes.

The Irish Times helpline service resumes on Monday at 8am to deal with inquiries regarding the CAO offers, which will be available online from 6am that morning.

Brian Mooney, the president of the Institute of Guidance Counsellors, will be writing extensive on the CAO offers in next Monday's special supplement. This daily column resumes on Tuesday. You can email Brian Mooney on bmooney@irish-times.ie

• Are you confident you will secure your CAO option? Join the discussion forum on Skoool.ie, the award-winning education website developed by The Irish Times, AIB and Intel.