Repeat student shows the way

Rory Byrne from Blackrock, Co Dublin, is a model for repeating Leaving Certificate students. The 19-year-old student at St Laurence's College, Loughlinstown, got only 175 points in his 1996 exams, but this year has gained 490 points from six subjects. He now has enough points for his first choice university course - philosophy and political science at Trinity College, Dublin. His proud mother, Mrs Phyllis Byrne, said yesterday he had worked from "nine in the morning to eight at night every day since last September".