The CAO change of mind option passed this evening, meaning thousands of Leaving Certificate students are unable to change their college course.
The option, seen as a final opportunity to review future options, passed this evening at 5.15pm.
In a normal year, around half of all Leaving Cert students tweak their CAO forms just before the change of mind option.
Eileen Keleghan of the CAO stressed before the option's passing that students must be careful before making decisions on changing their CAO.
"Over 50% of applicants used the change of mind facility last year and it's important for everybody to log in today and reassure themselves that they have all of their courses listed correctly."
With the Leaving Cert cancelled due to COVID-19, the pandemic's impact on all stakeholders in the education sector has been huge.
Travel restrictions, coupled with restrictions surrounding the classroom, has meant that universities in Ireland stand to lose around €400 million from international fees.
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The cancellation of the Leaving Cert has meant that the State Examinations Commission have introduced a 'calculated grades' system in order to categorise Leaving Cert students for the CAO.
For the calculated grades system, there are four steps which are undertaken for each student before their marks are submitted to the SEC.
Firstly, students are given estimated marks and ranking by their teacher. Secondly, there is an in-school alignment of students by all the teachers who teach a particular subject in one school. Subsequently, there is an oversight of marks and rankings by the principal of the school. Finally, there is a national standardisation of marks and rankings by the Department of Education and Skills.
Therefore, with this new system, it's hard for students to gauge just how many points they stand to get. However, they must be glad that they didn't have to experience the horror of the Leaving.
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