Students who wish to appeal any exam result should act promptly

STUDENTS who wish to appeal the result of one of their exams need to act promptly to ensure they follow the correct procedures to have their case considered.

Every year, thousands of grades are appealed and just more than one-in-five of 10,109 appeals in 2009 resulted in an upgrade. The exam script is marked from scratch by a different examiner but the choice of whether to appeal should be based on first viewing the paper itself.

These are available at the school where each student sat their exams, but they must inform the school of their wish to view a particular script by next Tuesday. This extension allows students to find out first if they have been offered a place on one of their preferred college courses by the Central Applications Office (CAO), which will notify Leaving Certificate students who sought entry this year about how they have fared next Monday.