Irish Independent

Going to College

Factor new dates for results, offers and appeals into holiday plans

- Aoife Walsh Aoife Walsh is a guidance counsellor at Malahide Community School, Co Dublin.

As usual, my colleagues and I spent much of the first weeks of the school year ensuring that sixth year students and parents were familiar with the CAO process, including important dates.

This year, we left question marks over many of the important dates for August because we, like many around the country, were waiting to hear about changes to the timeline of Leaving Cert results, viewings, appeals and CAO offers following the High Court ruling in favour of student Rebecca Carter on the timing of appeals outcomes.

Over the mid-term break, changes were announced, to take effect from 2019, with a much shorter time frame for release of results, offers and appeal outcomes.

In 2019, the Leaving Cert results will be released on Tuesday, August 13, a day earlier than previous years and the CAO will issue offers on Friday, August 16, three days earlier than usual. The State Examinatio­ns Commission will then allow students to view their scripts in the middle of the following week, about 10 days earlier than previous years and candidates must apply for a recheck by the end of that week. Appeal outcomes will be known by September 18-20.

The volume of scripts that require marking means that mistakes are made. It has always been my opinion that candidates should view scripts and apply for an appeal if they have any doubt, and the events of this year has strengthen­ed this opinion.

So why am saying all this now? Because many students and families are already laying plans for holidays next August. A holiday arranged for the week of the results may seem like the perfect reward after a long year of hard work, but it will create a huge amount of stress for any student who is not immediatel­y happy with their results and CAO offer.

Students and their families should view the appeals process as an integral part of the results process. It will be more important than ever that Leaving Cert students are present in the week to 10 days immediatel­y after the results. Students must be able to come into their school during this week to seek advice, submit forms and view scripts.

Scripts may only be viewed by the students themselves — no one can do it on their behalf. In order to increase the chances of an appeal being successful, they must complete the AP1 form (available at the viewing) in as much detail as possible. A candidate my submit an appeal without viewing their script, but giving detail as to why they would like a paper rechecked is likely to improve the chances of success.

On a positive note, the new arrangemen­ts mean that the times allocated for viewings no longer clash with a major music event that is extremely popular with Leaving Cert students!

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