Close to 60,000 students received their Leaving Cert results last Wednesday. There are many decisions to be made over the coming weeks as CAO offers are made and acceptances are fretted over.

While going through the exam system, students can feel like they are just another number. However, they may have a variety of queries and questions, such as those from people who aren't certain about converting grades into points to those who are shocked by getting lower points than expected.

To help alleviate worries and offer some solutions, The Irish Times operates a helpline to offer assistance to students and their parents. SilΘ Sheehy and Vivian Cassells are highly qualified guidance counsellors who co-ordinate the service and have been involved with it since it began. The Irish Times helpline has been going for over 15 years now, making it the longest-established CAO/Leaving Cert helpline in the State.

The phone lines opened at 10 a.m. last Wednesday morning and have been buzzing with queries since then. They will remain open daily from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., Monday to Friday, until early September.

The very first thing you should have done when you received your results was to carefully check the details and ensure you have been awarded a grade for all the subjects you sat. "It may sound a bit ridiculous but occasionally a mistake can occur, so you should make sure you are given credit for all of your subjects," advises Sheehy. Equally, if you have received a grade for a subject which you didn't sit, the onus is on you to report it.

Both Sheehy and Cassells agree it is important to stress what may seem obvious with regards to results as people can panic. "One mother phoned the helpline looking for options because her son had failed the Leaving Cert. In actual fact, he had not. He had failed maths but he had passed in five other subjects. Our advice to him was to go ahead and accept the offer he had received for a PLC in business studies at Rathmines Senior College and to apply to concurrently repeat his Leaving Cert maths at the college."

You have obtained your Leaving Cert if you have passed a grade D3 or above in five subjects at ordinary level or higher level. Subjects such as English, Irish or maths may be essential subjects for matriculation to certain courses but they are not essential to pass your Leaving Cert.

"You could fail maths but still be accepted to a PLC course or an arts degree, so you could be doing your first year of third level and be repeating a subject, which you may later require for a job at the same time," says Cassells.

What course of action should you take if you get less than you had expected in a subject?

"If you have been unpleasantly surprised at your result in a particular subject or subjects, you should consider making use of the form for viewing your paper which will have accompanied your Leaving Cert results," Sheehy says. Viewing your marked paper can be done, free of charge on August 31st or September 1st. You can take an adult along with you to do this and you would be strongly advised to ask your teacher to accompany you if they possibly can. Your teacher is best able to advise if you should have your paper re-checked. It will cost you £25 per subject for a re-checked, with the money being refunded should you be deemed deserving of an upgrade. However, like the small writing at the bottom of investment plan ads, you have to bear in mind that the mark you have been awarded may go up but it can also come down.

Cassells also warns: "Remember you can check your results on a laptop if you're lying on a beach somewhere, but the candidate - that's you - has to turn up in person to view their paper." You can have your paper re-checked without viewing it, but you may then be wasting your money.

Some frequently asked questions (FAOs) include: Do you have to accept the offer you got? The answer to this is "not necessarily", but Sheehy advises if you think you could bear to do the course you have been offered (be it your fourth choice) you should consider it, as in subsequent offers you may become eligible for a choice higher on your list. At that stage you can accept your new offer and release the old one. If you don't accept an offer from your first round at all, you're automatically out of the loop.

Another FAO is: Can I accept an offer from CAO and UCAS? The answer is yes, if you are unsure, you can accept a UK college (the UCAS system) offer at the same time as a CAO offer and make a final choice further down the line. If you decide to release your UCAS offer, inform both UCAS and the college concerned - in the case of opting out of a CAO offer, simply do not reply.

The helpline tends to receive the majority of calls from concerned parents. Students may be fairly savvy about the CAO system from going through the form or getting advice from guidance counsellors at school, but for parents this can be their first time dealing with it.

According to Sheehy, parents want reassurance about the choices their children are making as these are important decisions.

During the college-entry season, our education correspondent, Emmet Oliver, is giving advice and guidance in a series of daily columns. You can can contact him and the helpline team on e-mail at education@irish-times.ie or contact the helpline (Mon-Fri 10 a.m.-2 p.m) on 1850 292827 for the price of a local call.