As more than 57,000 students received their Leaving Certificate results yesterday, schools across Galway city reported outstanding marks with a large number of students receiving 4, 5, and 6 A1s in various subjects including languages, business, and practical subjects.
Students from Yeats College are reported to have performed extremely well, especially in chemistry, biology, and physics, which goes against the national trend of high failure rates in the science subjects.
Commenting on the achievements of the Yeats College students, principal Terry Fahy said he was absolutely delighted with the success of the Leaving Certificate students of 2009.
“I want to personally congratulate and commend the students on all their hard work and commitment. The majority of students are now confident of a place on their first choice course, so their hard work all year has now been rewarded.’
Rita Duffy, prinicipal of Galway Community College said that this year her school has seen the best results in years.
“Maths and Irish in particular went extremely well, students were very confident today, and very pleased with their results. The numbers of students from the school going to university in September will definitely be up. We are very proud of the students.”
Following celebrations with family and friends all eyes will turn to the first round of CAO offers on Monday morning. New CAO figures show a decline of over 25 per cent in applications for courses in architecture, pharmacy, and subjects such as quantity surveying and property economics.
Demand is up however in other areas such as science; 28 per cent, agriculture; 40 per cent, nursing; 14 per cent, art and design; 12 per cent, and medicine-related courses up an average of 10 per cent. Marie Barrett, career guidance expert has the following advice for students; “Enjoy the celebrations over the weekend with your family, and remember that nobody can estimate the CAO points so don’t listen to rumours, you will have to wait until Monday to see where you stand.
“For those who do not get the place they want, before considering repeating, think about doing a post Leaving Cert course, quite often they can be an excellent stepping stone into university, and to get you the place you want the following year.”
