Whether they are derided as swots or revered as brainiacs by their peers, the high achievers who got top marks in the Leaving Cert may be those most in need of support in any future academic career.

Students who have been there and done that, like Jane Feehan (22), from Birr, Co Offaly, a former winner of the Young Scientist competition and proud recipient of 565 points in the Leaving Cert in 1994, say the pressures can be intense.

"When you do so well you really want to live up to those standards," she said. "If you don't do well you give yourself a really hard time. Getting good results leaves you more prone to being disillusioned later. You may have been top of the pile in school but it doesn't necessarily follow that you will be in college."

For Feehan these pressures were felt even more keenly because she chose to study biology at Oxford, a university widely viewed as the epitome of academic achievement.

"Being a success in school means that it is more painful when something goes wrong," she said, remembering when she failed an inconsequential exam at the end of her first year.

"It really freaked me out," said Feehan, who has since done a master's degree and is currently completing a PhD at Trinity College Dublin.

She hopes to become involved in European Environment policy in the future.

Only since 1970 has admission to third-level institutions been dependent on specific exam results or any kind of points system. Before that all a potential student needed were the basic entry requirements of the college and the ability to pay course fees and expenses.

In those days the student's choice of course was often determined by the length of queues at registration.

Despite the fact that he got straight As when he completed his Leaving in 1991, Aengus Mulcahy (26), who is devilling at the Bar, believes the old system is fairer.

"I don't think it should be based on points," he said. "People should be able to study whatever they want to study. Much of what you do in school has nothing to do with what you end up studying in college . . . If they do the right subjects in college, people whose Leaving results weren't too good can still do very well."

He puts his success in the Leaving, and subsequent first in law from Trinity, down to hard work rather than intelligence.

"I'm no Albert Einstein. Work was the key for me," he said. His advice to those like Michael O'Connor (17) from Cork and James Flahavan (18) from Waterford, who find themselves in the same position he did eight years ago, is not to get carried away by their success.

"Be modest about it. Don't blare it around. Aim to emulate those results in the future but remember you are only as good as your last exam."

James Gleeson (26), from Ballyphillip in Nenagh, Co Tipperary, is now a visiting maths professor at Arizona State University. He got seven As from his Leaving Cert eight years ago, providing him with the maximum 32 points. The only exam he has ever failed is his driving test.

With maximum points Gleeson could have done any course, and for a while he toyed with the idea of pharmacy or medicine. In the end he chose science at UCD, a course that required only 20 points, because "that was the area I was most talented in".

The pressure to keep up a perfect academic record came from himself, he said, and it was this that spurred him on to completing a master's at home and a PhD in applied maths in the US on a scholarship.

"People who get top marks shouldn't feel compelled to go into something that requires top marks just for the sake of it," he said. "They should do what they feel they are good at and what they enjoy".

Jane Feehan, who has one of the most impressive CVs a 22-year-old could hope for, expands on this point. "The Leaving Cert is obviously a very important spring board because you learn how to apply yourself and assimilate knowledge.

"But doing well at school or college does not mean you are a well-rounded person, and it is important to concentrate on other things in life.

"My advice to those with top marks is to keep your head well screwed on, take time out occasionally and keep things in perspective."