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13 of the best (and worst) outfits people have worn while collecting their LC results over the last 35 years

RTÉ Archives have been helping to document poor Irish fashion choices throughout the years.

Leaving Certificate results PA Archive / PA Images PA Archive / PA Images / PA Images

JUST LIKE EVERY other year, there’s thousands of teenagers going to sleep tonight (or finding themselves completely unable to sleep) with a knot in their stomach as they anticipate receiving their Leaving Cert results tomorrow morning.

And, as always, there’s thousands of adults who have been there and done that preaching to social media about how everything will be okay regardless of what result you get. So, we’re not going to do that.

Instead, we’re going to look back at some old videos of Leaving Cert students collecting their results and rate the outfits they wore on the big day.

Let’s begin with the Class of ’83.

1. We’ve got this unnamed fellow, who looks like he was born to be a dad.

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Score: 3 out of 10. 

He gets some marks for going to the effort to put on a visibly clean – and possibly brand new – shirt. 

2. Next up, we have this young lady who is so chill that she didn’t even bother getting out of her car to speak to RTÉ reporter David Pate.

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Score: 6 out of 10.

It’s hard to rate her entire outfit while she’s sitting in a car, but she made sure she got her manicure and accessories on the telly, so you’ve got to respect that. Both the nails and the jewelry are nice and could probably get a good few notes on Tumblr if she took an artsy pic of them. The best outfit this school had to offer on results day.

 3. Then we’ve got this guy, who unfortunately didn’t get the marks he hoped for. Not seeming too upset, he informed David Pate that he’ll just go on to repeat his exams next year.

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Score: 3.5 out of 10. 

Like the chap earlier, he’s dressed too much like a dad. However, he has a very good bone structure and there’s probably plenty of fellas with that haircut swanning around in Thrasher t-shirts in 2018. What he fails to do with his outfit, he makes up for in his swagger above the shoulders, earning him half a point on top of the other guy who looked like a dad. 

4. This woman couldn’t enjoy results day because she felt too sorry for her peers who were disappointed with their grades.

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Score: 4 out of 10. 

It’s just a white t-shirt. Nothing too special. Kind of looks like something your mam would buy in New Look. In fairness, you’d expect most people to rock up to their school in a tracksuit and save their good outfit for later, so we’re going to give her 4 out of 10 because she definitely could have been dressed a lot worse than this. 

The next Leaving Cert results clip on RTÉ Archives is from 1985. Here’s how they fared.

5. First up, we have this guy from Waterford.

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Score: 5 out of 10. 

The jumper, chain and white t-shirt combination might have been nice enough to withstand the test of time if it hadn’t been paired with that jacket and Daniel O’Donnell’s haircut. 

6. This girl was a ball of nerves. But not too nervous to plan her results day outfit.

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Score: 6 out of 10.

If she passed you on the street in this outfit half an hour ago, you probably wouldn’t have given her a second look. This look has managed to survive several decades and is suitable for plenty of different occasions. Going to college? Going to Workman’s? Nipping out to Aldi? Going to pick up your Leaving Cert results? Yeah, you look grand. 

7. This guy on the left didn’t speak, he was just in the background chatting to his friends.

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Score: 1 out of 10. 

What in the name of Jaysus? That top looks like it was taken from Shrek’s wardrobe. Maybe he wasn’t even a student at this school. Maybe he was a lute player that the students hired to celebrate results day. 

The next clip is from Our Lady’s Bower Girls Secondary School in Athlone back in 1993.

This one’s a group photo, so we’re just going to rate the two at the front because we can see their clothes more clearly.

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8. The girl on the left.

Score: 2 out of 10. 

Very itchy looking jumper, paired with those crazy bottoms and the black string necklace makes her look like she’s on day two of Knockanstockan. The plait in her hair also feeds into that vibe. This is all fine if you’re on day two at Knockanstockan, but it’s not an outfit any of us would be rushing for at 9.00am on a Wednesday morning in the middle of summer 2018. 

9. The girl on the right.

Score: 6.5 out of 10. 

This is a perfectly comfortable and neat outfit that plenty of today’s youngsters would be happy to wear. Her hair is also very nice. The blonde streak might not be everyone’s cup of tea but they’re becoming increasingly popular. 

10. Next we  have this girl calculating her results.

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Score: 5 out of 10.  

This jumper would probably sell for €45 in Urban Outfitters and the jeans would be a further €85. The rings and necklace were decent accessories too. A ponytail with a scrunchie and one of those weirdly sparse fringes isn’t really back in fashion yet, but it’s only a matter of time. 

11. The first student we have gotten the name of is Joanne Flynn, who got seven As.

PastedImage-99657 RTÉ RTÉ

Score: 10 out of 10. 

Joanne 100% knew she was going to be on the telly because of her results that Wednesday evening and planned accordingly. Look at her pal staring at her in awe. Look at that guy in the background also staring at her. She is serving Hilary Banks from The Fresh Prince of Bel Air realness. Fair play.

This is something she probably could have looked back on every single year since she finished secondary school and not felt embarrassed about. 

If you’re wondering what she did with the points she got from her 7 As, she told the cameras she was going to be studying law at Trinity. 

Finally, let’s look at the 1996 Leaving Cert students from Limerick’s Crescent College Comprehensive and Blackrock’s Rockford Manor Presentation Secondary School.

12. This guy planned on doing engineering.

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Score: 5 out of 10. 

That might seem like a strangely high score, considering we can only see four inches of this fella’s shoulders, but if you told me that he was a final year NCAD student who was signed to Soft Boy Records I’d fully believe you. 

13. Finally, we have this girl.

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Score: 7 out of 10. 

In second place, after Joanne Flynn, we have got this anonymous girl with a short bob in an oversized, plain white Reebok t-shirt. Yeah it’s really plain and she kind of looks like a model from the stock photos in Leaving Cert German textbooks but that’s trendy now. Imagine how many likes Dua Lipa would get on Instagram if she was wearing this. This teen had Dua Lipa’s haircut before Dua Lipa had Dua Lipa’s haircut.

Well, that’s it. Good luck to everyone awaiting examine results. Try not to wear a Shrek shirt to school tomorrow in case RTÉ are filming.

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