So it’s been all hotting up these last few days with the run up to the leaving cert results. So far we have received an email from the School Principal wishing us luck in the upcoming results and detailing information as to how results may be obtained from the school, we have also received an email from Trinity College Dublin about the orientation week which starts on the 2nd September and again wishing us luck (I presume this is because TCD is sitting pretty with a pie in the sky course that we will never get at the top of our CAO form), and we have received information confirming the email log in to obtain results on line.
Media Hype about the Leaving Cert
In addition the number of on line articles the media lens focus on the Leaving Cert has started to increase exponentially over the last few days and I am getting daily texts and What’s App messages and FB messages asking how the nerves are and wishing my son good luck for the results.
Thankfully we are not in Ireland to be exposed to this! I can only imagine what the Sunday papers are up to this weekend.
I wonder how the local and national media identify the top students that they will be going into the schools to film for the 6.01 News and also to interview for the morning radio shows. Do the schools tip off the press? Do they identify their “top” students? Or is it a matter of chance? I remember last year there was a very bright student in my son’s school who not only achieved the top marks of 625 in the Leaving Cert, but had another two H1s in his back pocket to boot as well and he certainly got a huge amount of publicity on the day. Anyway, the viewing of Leaving Cert Results in a very Public setting of your former school is a pretty stressful experience. As someone who did A levels in London, this is an unfamiliar ritual. It strikes me that it has the capacity to be pretty emotionally intense. There you are with all your friends; they all do well and you don’t; you have to brush it off or leave, or bawl crying. Alternatively, there are all your friends and you do extraordinarily well whilst they don’t; you have to brush it off or leave to celebrate with others.
Exam Results in the Post
My experience was similar to the “Bend it Like Beckham A level reveal”. That is to say you didn’t go into school, rather your results were sent to you in the post. You then had the privacy and comfort of your own home to decide what to do next. Go to bed and bawl listening to hard rock full blast or gleefully come to believe in the adage “hard work pays off” and start celebrating with your friends and your family.
Receiving the results on-line
So we have elected not to go into the school but to find out the results via the on line portal. This will probably be chocka when the results go live on line at 10am, so we may not get to it until 2pm in the afternoon. Since we are in an area of appalling network coverage at the moment all of this is reliant on finding a good WIFI spot. As to the exact mechanics of getting the results, since my son got his mobile robbed with the saved passwords etc for the Irish Examinations site, it may be me that has to press the fateful button and see them appear on MY mobile screen either with my eyes open or closed as I hand over the phone. Oh the horror!
Realising mistakes on the CAO form.
My son doesn’t seem particularly bothered about the results as he is pretty confident that he has done well enough to get offered his place for Architecture. The offers for that course are based on a combination of Leaving Cert Results and pre University test, Interview and portfolio assessment, all of which he did extremely well in in the moths of Aprila May.
The downer for us is that he isn’t sure he wants to do Architecture now and is lamenting the order he put the courses in on his CAO form. So we know that we are probably looking at taking a gap year to fully decide what happens next and also no doubt to fill in another CAO form!
The Appeals Process.
As far as the Leaving Cert results goes the main issue for us will be to decide on whether to enter the Appeals Process or not. The teacher’s predictions for my son’s results put him on the borderline between grades for Maths, English, Geography, Art, Spanish and RE, if he has scored the lower grade we will need to decide whether we are going to lodge an Appeal for that subject.
The first part of the Appeal Process is that the papers need to be viewed at the school in person by the student. Herein lies a minor problem for us. Will my son make it back to Ireland for the viewing of the scripts? What with the Ryan strike an all, we are trying to fly back to Dublin from our holidays with Aer Lingus and the flight gets in just after the allocated time for viewing the scripts! This means we will need to find a different airport and a different carrier to fly our son home with. The cost I am sure will be astronomical. Does the stress ever end?
Answer: No!
Next instalment: The results!
Meanwhile the very very best of luck to all Leaving Cert Students in the Class of 2019, and the very best to all the Leaving Cert Mamma’s. You did your students proud, hopefully tomorrow beings good news☘️ ♥️
#leavingcert #leavingcertificate2019 #leavingcertmamma #leavincert2019 #krysialynch