From the texts, emails, irate calls and scandalous newspaper headlines I've witnessed today, the above picture describes how most students in Ireland have viewed the first round of CAO offers, released today.

I stayed up last night on the infamous (and highly addictive) Boards.ie Leaving Certificate forum, reading the worries, celebrations and pre-analysis of the results, which were slowly released on-line, on websites of The Irish Times and others.

Certain courses in certain areas, such as Science, jumped up by 85 points, for example. Pretty shocking, really.

Personally, I think this proves that the CAO system does not work, and is simply disgusting. I've heard so much about people who are just hitting the 'big' courses, such as Medicine, Law, etc., just because they can get the points. Not because they are interested, but because they can. This sort of behaviour has not been reduced or stopped, leaving those only a few points shy, with a strong aspiration, vacant from the choice they wanted. And, that's only the tip of the iceberg, on the news that so many people are left without places to go.

To be honest, it's a shocking year for Leaving Certificate students.

Let's recall some of it:

1. Fees were nearly re-introduced. Batt O'Keeffe talks loans. (He's no relation, I might add).

2. English Paper 2 gets leaked, which screws up a lot of students, wrecking their study plan.

3. CAO points sky-rocket, in some respects.

Pretty shite, really.

And, no doubt, this is only the beginning.

photo credit: Vagabond Shutterbug