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	IT IS exam results time again. And once again the focus is on those who did extremely well and on the failure rates in certain subjects.</p>
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	Between the two extremes of failure and high success, lies a large cohort of average students who successfully sat and passed this exam &ndash; the silent majority who rarely get mentioned.</p>
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	To sit the Leaving Cert is in itself an achievement. It is the culmination of attending at second-level school for a minimum of five or, in most cases, six years. Taking the exam means writing &ndash; sometimes for over three hours, twice a day &ndash; over a two-week period at the beginning of June.</p>
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	During the six years and especially during those weeks in early June, life goes on around these students. Many will have dealt with illness, bereavement, family break-up, moving house, unemployed parents, and the vicissitudes of normal everyday life. Others will have struggled with disabilities &ndash; physical, sensory, mental, and intellectual.</p>
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	All of them, irrespective of any difficulties they may have surmounted, receive results this month. Each of them deserves to be lauded. Their results will not in any way reflect the challenges they may have overcome in getting this far. Exam results are a measurement of one aspect of life &ndash; they do not mirror the other struggles candidates face. Some fought all the way through school to get the help they needed, others sat their papers in special centres or with the use of assistive technology. Irrespective of the individual path in sitting the exams, all were assessed equally.</p>
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	<strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; outline: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit;">Celebrated</strong></p>
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	The high achievers are rightly celebrated &ndash; to play down the gifts of the exceptionally bright does no one any favours, least of all those talented people themselves. The majority should also be celebrated and praised.</p>
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	Three D1s may well be the same lifetime achievement that nine A1s are for another student. But the three D1s don&rsquo;t get on the six o&rsquo;clock news or the front page of the local paper.</p>
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	All the students, of whatever level of attainment or ability, will now deal with first-, perhaps second-, or even third-round CAO offers. Their life journey, with all its twists and turns and challenges, is just beginning. There will be some extremes along the way but most of life will fall on the middle ground.</p>
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	This needs to be a talking point as much as the highest successes and lowest failures. After all, life is lived mostly between the extremes.</p>
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