OPS Certificate of Merit applicants must be under the age of 18 years on the day of the relevant assessment. Confirmation of age must be submitted to the Society by a parent, guardian or responsible adult via the Certificate of Merit Consent Form. Applications not supported by a completed consent form cannot be assessed by the Society.

The applicant must complete the on-line Distinction Application Form and submit it to the Society by the relevant closing date shown on the Distinctions Calendar. No statement of objectives is required.

A Certificate of Merit application must consist of eight images in electronic format, and a ninth image showing the panel layout if required. Where no panel layout is provided, the images will be viewed as a sequence in ascending numerical filename order. The files may be transferred to the Society in one of the following ways:

• Files uploaded using our dedicated file upload facility (accessible only when logged in to the website); or
• Files sent as email attachments to our Distinctions Office. To limit the size of email messages, each image may have to be attached to a separate message.

The images submitted may be of any subject.