Q: My daughter, who is in fifth year, hopes to apply for art-and-design courses, but keeps talking about how complicated it is. When we looked at the points for 1998 there seemed to be a huge range. What are the entry requirements and how "real" is the interview? Should she do a PLC course or would she be better going straight from Leaving Cert?

- Laois mother

A: There is no question about the enormous time and effort spent on preparation for entry to art colleges. Most art and design courses are in the restricted application category, which means there could be drawing tests, portfolio assessments, interviews and projects involved. Scores are allocated in varying amounts to these. Generally applications have to be in by February 1st for most of the CAO-listed courses; the last Friday in January is the closing date for the directentry NCAD first-year core course.

Some colleges only require basic matriculation requirements; others score the Leaving Cert grades in the normal CAO way and these are then added to the score given for portfolios/ interviews etc. The portfolio may be scored, with the points added to Leaving Cert points, or it may be used as a screening procedure on a pass/fail basis. Students often apply for more than one course in a college and the portfolios are assessed separately for each course.

Other colleges take part in the CAO project assessment system, an attempt by some colleges to centralise the process. Only if an applicant passes the project are they then asked to attend a portfolio assessment and an information session at the college to discuss their suitability with college staff. Then points are awarded for the portfolio and added to the Leaving Cert score. Other colleges have no assessment procedures other than the Leaving Cert.

Yet again, other colleges have an option of an early submission of portfolio before Christmas and the possibility of re-submitting a revised portfolio later. Some colleges require specific grades in art in the Leaving Cert and do not have a portfolio requirement at all - but if you don't get that grade, you will have to satisfy the college as to suitability. So it certainly is complicated.

All of this means you can get heart-stopping scores of well over 900 listed for art-and-design courses and yet they can also go to AQA - all qualified applicants - which could literally mean someone with five passes at ordinary-level Leaving Cert, 25 points. How real is the interview? Colleges try very hard to sort out the applicants for these courses, because it is in nobody's interest to have a student on an art-and-design course who has not got an aptitude for it. So, unlike perhaps other general courses or even - dare I say it - the much-coveted professional courses such as medicine, pharmacy etc, where there is great resistance to interviews, I think people would agree that art-and-design interviews are held with the best of intentions.

As regards the PLC course, I think it is a very good idea: it takes enormous pressure off the student to get a good portfolio together and attend interviews/ assessments all over the country between February to April while preparing for Leaving Cert.

There are no overall published figures for the success rate of students who apply in Leaving Cert year versus those who apply with a PLC qualification. DIT figures for 1998 indicate that about half of those (more than 1,000) who submitted a portfolio were called for interview. NCAD says that approximately two-thirds go directly from school on to the first-year core course.

Q: What exactly does an audiology technician do and what kind of training is required? I have seen a technician at work in a Dublin hospital and I became quite interested.

- Meath student

A: If a child or adult is suspected of having a hearing problem, the audiology technician measures and evaluates the hearing capacity. Then medical staff diagnose and prescribe treatment.

The technician also: tests balance and auditory evoked potentials, which are the electrical responses in the brain; tests and fits hearing aids and advises the patient on how best to benefit from them; helps towards rehabilitation and counselling of the patient; makes minor adjustments and takes impressions of the ear so that they can prepare specially moulded ear inserts.

To work in this field of physiological measurement, trainee audiologists sit the exams set by the British Association of Audiology Technicians. A few British hospitals run full-time courses for audiology technicians. The training in the hospital normally takes two years. At the beginning there is a three-month theory course followed by a written exam (part 1). This is followed by in-house training; you must normally have at least one year's experience in total and sometimes more before sitting the practical exam (part 2). It is possible to do this training at the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast. Some people train through colleges of further education such as NESCOT, Reigate Road, Ewell, Epsom, Surrey KT17 3DS (tel: (0044) (181) 394 1731). This college offers technical audiology at postgraduate certificate and diploma level as well as MSc level. You can get further information from the British Society of Audiology, Audiology Technicians Group, 80 Brighton Road, Reading, Berkshire RG6 1PS (tel: (0044) (1734) 660622).

National Vocational Qualifications (NVQs) in health care (physiological measurement) are also available at level 3. Generally these technicians work in hospitals and community clinics.

These technicians/ technologists need to be meticulous to ensure that the most accurate results are given; they need to have good manual dexterity; and, especially, they must be able to communicate with patients and other staff.

Because you will be dealing directly with patients for much of your time, entry age is usually 18 years or over.

It's possible also to become an audiological scientist by taking a degree at Southampton University for the treatment of adults or at Manchester University for the treatment of children, followed on by a master's degree. There's further information available from Theresa Pitt of the Irish Society of Audiology (tel: (053) 33571).

Queries can be answered only through this column and not by phone or post. Write to Sile Sheehy, Education & Living, The Irish Times, D'Olier Street, Dublin 2 - or by email to education@irish-times.ie