Leaving Cert
490 points.
The median point last year for a gaining a place at Trinity College, Dublin to read engineering.
Being right at the centre of the field is a good place to be – it’s four years to the finish.
The truth will be revealed at 6am on Monday when the first round of offers go online, but the prospects look good.
Of course, I didn’t comment on my own experiences on a similar day twenty-nine years ago. With predicted grades of A, A and B, fourteen points out of fifteen, as the A levels were scored in those days, I finished up with A, C and E; just nine points. It was three points short of what I needed to go to Bristol, I got my second choice, the London School of Economics.
On the day, it seemed a disaster; a generation on and a little bit of revisionism has crept in.
Sat at the kitchen table last night with the accountant who was trying to make senses of my tax affairs, I commented on investments.
“How did you know that?” he asked.
“I went to the LSE”.
“Smart kid, eh?”
“I got my B.Sc. (Econ.)”
I didn’t mention a bad day in August 1979.
Everything looks different from a distance.
Congratulations to the boy. I had one who got a brilliant score and decided to be a Graphic Designer, (one of the toughest industries to get into)another who just snuck through and did three years of horticulture which in hindsight was a waste of time . . an apprenticeship would have done just as well. ‘P’s are degrees as they say! Five years down the track and frankly, nobody will care. Seems a lot of pressure for kids to deal with these days.