No it dosent I left school when I was 5 1/2 old I worked in a coal mine then on a milk float when I was 8yrs old I started work in Dublin airport sweeping the floors, they obviously liked what they saw cause by the age of 11 I was flying trans Atlantic flights, I didn’t want to get stuck in a rut so I left to become a kitchen porter in great ormond street hospital, I was quickly moved up through the ranks to become "head of difficult and really complicated brain surgery" i was the inspiration for the hit tv show doogie howser (I directed three episodes) in my spare time while not doing difficult and really complicated brain surgery I invented the Internet. At the age of 15 I left the hospital and started up a small company called "apple" by the age of 16 I swam around the world twice, then I became a race car driver, an astronaut, a professional footballer and i built a hadron collider, I helped steven Hawkins out with a couple of his Theories, I wrestled a lion , beat a gorilla in an arm wrestling match, out swam a shark and beat a cheetah in a race. I’ve reinvented how we think about quantum physics and the space time continuum, to name but a few things I’ve done without my leaving cert

If it’s so unimportant, and the results don’t matter, and you can do whatever you want without it…

…why the hell did we make them do it in the first place?

Of course it matters. Until a college admissions office says that they’re abandoning the points system to determine if you can enter college, it’s always going to matter, unless your chosen profession doesn’t require a college degree (and we don’t have as many of those jobs as other countries do).

The fact that where you are at 40 is something that nobody in the world can predict at 18 is the thing to keep in mind here, not some patronising platitude that something you’ve spent two years of your life or more working towards suddenly doesn’t matter on the day you get your results from those years of work…

I left school at 13 I am 40 now and heading into my final year of a honours degree in psychology with aspirations to continue on to master an phd level. I wouldn’t say missing the leaving or junior cert held me back if any thing getting out into life has giving more life experience for the field I aiming for.

It counts now. How much it defines the direction of your life in the future is up to you. I do not know one person who knew in any great detail at the age of 17 what they would be doing at the age of 30. It’s a tool to help you determine how to get to where you want to go if you treat it with the right attitude.

Failure at LC level will not define who you are unless you allow it to. There are ways around a lot of obstacles in life and Leaving Cert results are not that different in the grand scheme of things. You control a lot of your destiny as far as the leaving cert is concerned (although you need to know this before today), not vice versa.

For those who do badly and join the dole que and spend their lives not trying the leaving cert was a bit of a pointless venture and they probably did badly. For those who will go on to perhaps go to college, or do an apprenticeship or try to work their way up a few ladders from the ground and who’ll make some effort and do a little work it may count, but those people will always succeed anyway to some degree or another. Those people are admirable. They’re the people who will have done at least reasonably today.

After just finishing a BSc I was just sitting around a few nights ago with friends from my year (school) thinking about where life was taking us all. It’s weird. People you always had pegged as triers, go getters, likely to do well. With very little plan to do anything. So few of them are following the path of their degrees. People who got first class honors, struggling to find work. Everyone who went through college emmigrating for a half decent job. It’s the ones who flunked out at some stage that are now not forced to go abroad. But they’re also the ones who don’t have the initiative and guts to pack up and go in search of their fortune.

No the leaving cert isn’t that important, after college the interest in what you got in it is pretty minimal. Employers seem more interested in your references, work experience, the impression they get of you in an interview and how you do in tests they give you. Jobs tend to be too specific to care about how you did in such a broad set of exams. And if you get through college on your first attempt (which is actually pretty important), you’ve got a lot of time to play around with to find out what it is you need to do to make yourself employable to the right people, or to get what you need to start your own business. You’ll be 17/18 after the LC. That’s very young indeed.

These articles are just for people who didn’t do so well so they don’t feel so bad today. I needed my leaving, i did ok, not brilliant, not terrible, I’m now doing a PhD in engineering. I never thought i’d get to that stage but life throws you up some weird opportunities. I also failed first year in college. Some people don’t need a leaving but to be fair they are the minority. i think the way the construction industry is now, not going to college is a poor choice if you have the ability and drive to succeed in life. I might finish my PhD and travel the world or work as a shop assistant, but at least i have a fall back. If i dropped out or did poorly in the leaving i wouldn’t have choices like that to make. I would have two choices, work in a minimum wage job or the dole. Maybe a low paying job will spur people on to great things in the future but the vast majority will be stuck in those jobs for a looong time.

It used to matter. For most it won’t, because there is no future.

What a ridiculous question. Of course it bloody does – it determines your future.

Of course there’s always an exception to every rule but it’s probably the most important exam in your life.