Dramatic fall in number failing maths

I seem to remember complaints last year about how difficult the maths paper was which some believed was an effort to make this year's project maths results appear successful in comparison.

I downloaded the project maths paper and found it pretty simple for higher-level. Lots of statistics and propability. Maybe the other paper was more difficult.

On paper it's a good sign that more students are doing maths just as it is a good sign on paper that we have so many third level graduates. In reality, it's entirely self-defeating if the standard of work isn't high.

Permabear wrote: »

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My own belief is that while it is likely there is some grade inflation in third level (and second level) it is actually at the pass rate not the first class honours rate.
In third level, colleges are paid by the department for every student they have registered in the semester there is a economic need to pass people who were on the border line or not. They are increasing the grades of those who should fail to make sure they get enough cash for the next year.

On people getting better grades, you seem to be taking only one item into your consideration and drawing conclusions from it. There definitely is something wrong with the system and that is changes are being driven by people outside of education without an appreciation for how to and the difficulties of educating. What else has changed since 1992, well there has been a massive push to structured examinations at second level and especially at third level. There is immense pressure for each exam to be 4 questions, choose 3, a,b,c,d where d is always the hardest. The syllabus is also being structured so that question 1 always covers a certain part of the syllabus, question 2 another and so on. This allows for students to be much more strategic in what they study and with past exam papers makes getting a high grade much easier. This is my view on why in some cases there has increased grades, particularly in third level. This is being driven by a metrics based education system where we can "evaluate" the educators. It is seriously damaging our education system.

On grade inflation and maths though it is worth pointing out the actual figures since 2009 which don't seem to show grade inflation in A's to me

2009
A1: 6.9%
A2: 8.1%
Total: 15%

2010
A1: 7.5%
A2: 7.0%
Total: 14.5%

2011
A1: 5.7%
A2: 7.5%
Total: 12.5%

2012
A1: 4.1%
A2: 6.2%
Total: 10.3%
(sources: here and here)