Research can help you choose the right course

For those of you applying to the CAO, the most important question is how to select the correct courses and in the correct order of preference.

During your final three years in school, most of you will have seen the guidance counsellor and perhaps completed aptitude tests.

There is one other key resource. Qualifax is the national database of every course available, including those at honours bachelor degree (level 8), ordinary bachelor degree (level 7), higher certificate (level 6) and post-Leaving Certificate (PLC).

It is available online at www.qualifax.ie.

How to Use Qualifax

Prior to exploring the courses offered, you should take the interest assessment available on the Qualifax home page.

Having completed the interest inventory you should explore in detail the course areas identified, to see which would be of possible interest to you.

Given that your final CAO course choices do not have to be made until July 1st, you can continue this process over the coming months if you cannot complete the process by the initial application deadline of February 1st.

Having identified a range of potentially suitable courses, students should explore these fully and discuss them with their guidance counsellor and parents before entering them on a CAO application form.

One other important tip - visit the website of the colleges you are considering and go see the college if you live nearby.

Otherwise, make sure you visit their information events. Details are on the Qualifax website. Online Applications

Most students now make an online application.

The CAO actually prefers you to apply online. This rules out mistakes such as entering a non-existent course code or mistaking today's date for your date of birth.

Making the Wrong Choices

The reality is that many students end up on the wrong course and fail through either loss of interest or drop out before the end of first year.

How can this happen and what can students or their parents do to avoid it?

First, do not select courses without using the facilities available through your guidance counsellor.

Second, read the course literature carefully. Every year thousands of students drop out because they do not like the subjects taught on the course, yet these subjects are fully outlined in the college prospectus.

Third, select your course based on what you genuinely want, and not based on where friends are going, or which college has the coolest image, the highest points, or the best social life.

Fourth, students can select their higher course preferences well but become careless with lower preferences. Following the Leaving Cert, they are offered a place on one of their lower preferences and they accept it, without checking it out properly. Make sure this does not happen to you.

The closing date for applications is February 1st at 5.15pm.

Most students can exercise a change-of-mind facility up to the final date for this option, which is July 1st, a full two weeks after the end of the Leaving Certificate examinations.

A student may even submit an application without listing any courses at all, and add them later. A handful of students do this each year.

The only exceptions to this rule are known as restricted application courses, which we will address tomorrow.

If a prospective applicant for some reason does not have a CAO application pack, they can get one by sending an e-mail to help@cao.ie, giving their name and address.

The CAO will post out a pack immediately. Prospective students can also contact the CAO on (091) 509800.

Tomorrow: Restricted application courses

Confused about the CAO process? In the run-up to the deadline for applications, Brian Mooney will be advising students on the available options.

The column will appear every weekday until the February 1st deadline.

You can e-mail Brian Mooney on bmooney@irish-times.ie