** Viewing scripts / Appeals process **

The full booklet describing procedures for viewing and appeals is here.

I have excerpted the main points below:


Will I be able to view my scripts this year?

Yes. When you receive your results your school will also have a personalised application form provided by the Commission which will show your examination details including your subjects. If you decide you would like to view a particular script(s) you mark the form accordingly. You must return the completed form to the school by Tuesday, 18th August, 2009.


What happens next?

The Organising Superintendent appointed by the Commission to your school will assign you to one of the viewing sessions. The viewing sessions will be held as follows:-

Friday 28th August from 6.00 p.m. to 9.00 p.m. (Session 1)
Saturday 29th August from 9.00 a.m. to 12.00 noon (Session 2)
Saturday 29th August from 2.00 p.m. to 5.00 p.m. (Session 3)

A more detailed information note for candidates, explaining the examiner’s markings, calculation of grades, etc., will be available from the Organising Superintendent.

May I be accompanied during the viewing of my scripts?

Yes. You may be accompanied by one other person at any one time.

NOTE:- Candidates, or those accompanying them, may not interfere with or copy examination material. Writing instruments, mobile phones or cameras are not permitted in the viewing centre. For security reasons, a number of scripts are photocopied prior to dispatching original scripts for viewing and the photocopies are retained by the Commission.

What can I do if I think there is an error in the marking of my script?

The appeals procedure is outlined in the following paragraphs. In making an appeal, you may wish to bring certain matters to the attention of the appeal examiner. If so, you should complete a Form AP1 which is available from the Organising Superintendent in your viewing centre, and ask the Organising Superintendent to attach it to your script as part of the appeal application.

The Appeal Application Procedure

If I wish to appeal what is the procedure?

The Commission will provide your school with a personalised appeal application form. In the case of external candidates the form will be enclosed with your results. This form is designed so that you can indicate the subject(s) you wish to appeal.

What is the appeal fee?
The appeal fee is €40.00 per subject in the case of the Leaving Certificate and €15.50 in the case of the Leaving Certificate Applied, and must be paid in advance. This will be refunded to you if your result is upgraded. The refund will be made through your school if you are entered by a school.

How do I pay my appeal fee?
For an appeal to be valid you must pay using either:-
(a) the bank giro facility on your personalised appeal application form; or,
(b) via the Internet, (i.e., credit card).

(a) Bank Giro facility: Your personalised appeal application form and associated bank giro form contains a unique reference number which enables the Commission to trace your payment and match it with your appeal application when it is received from your school. You should take the form to a bank and pay the fee through the bank giro facility. The form duly stamped by the bank should then be returned to the school so that your scripts can be associated with it and forwarded to the Commission.

Please ensure that you use the bank giro form provided by the Commission. If you use a bank giro slip provided by the bank (which does not have a unique identifier) it may delay or totally invalidate your appeal because it could prove exceedingly difficult to subsequently establish that you actually paid the appropriate fee.

(b) Internet facility: When you have completed your appeal application procedure on the Internet you will be provided with a Form (which you must print) showing the subject(s) which you have opted to appeal. This Form should then be returned to the school so that your scripts can be associated with it and forwarded to the Commission.

If you are an external candidate (E10) you should return your personalised appeal application form/Internet form c/o the Organising Superintendent at the centre where you viewed your scripts so that he/she can forward your appeal application to the Commission with the script(s) concerned.

What is the appeal closing date?

Appeal applications must be with the Commission by Wednesday 2nd September 2009. This means that the schools will have to post applications on Tuesday 1st September. If you choose to view your scripts before finally deciding whether or not to appeal you will need to arrange to pay the fee and return the form to the school on Monday 31st August or early on Tuesday 1st September. This is quite a confined time interval but is necessary if the Commission is to have the outcome of the appeal process available by mid October.

If you decide to appeal, your appeal is clearly important to you. You alone have control over, and responsibility for, the vital first steps in making a valid appeal:

- use the giro/internet form provided, ensuring it is correctly completed

- return it on time to the School/Organising Superintendent.


What happens during the appeal process?

Your script is sent to an appeal examiner for re-marking. This examiner is different from the examiner who originally marked your work. In some subjects involving practical/project work it may be necessary for an appeal examiner to visit the school to re-mark work stored by the school.

Is the same marking scheme used for re-marking?

Yes, it is essential in the interests of equity and fairness that the re-marking on appeal is carried out in accordance with the marking scheme for that subject. This ensures that appeal examiners apply the same standards in re-marking as were applied to all candidates in the original marking.

The Organising Superintendent at the viewing session will have copies of the marking schemes and they will be published on the Commission’s website as well.

If I am just a few marks short of the next grade am I likely to be awarded them on appeal?

Not necessarily. The appeal process exists to ensure that the marking scheme has been applied consistently and fairly to your work. Appeal examiners are not searching for additional marks to “bring a candidate up to the next grade”. In justice to all other candidates who took the examination, examiners can award only those marks due to you according to the marking scheme.

For example, it is quite possible for a candidate to be 1 mark short of the next grade point in a subject with maximum of 600 marks. The appeal examiner does not conduct the appeal on the basis of seeking that additional mark for the candidate. Indeed it is possible that the appeal examiner could either add or deduct marks as the marking scheme is applied afresh, question by question, to your work.

Can a result be downgraded on appeal?

Yes, the results published in August are provisional and accordingly a result can be downgraded in certain circumstances. This is because the appeal process exists to ensure that the marking scheme was fully and properly applied to the work produced at the examination. Consistent and fair application of the marking schemes ensures equitable treatment for all candidates.

Are there likely to be many downgrades?

The expectation is that the number of downgrades should be relatively small. This is because candidates have an opportunity to view their scripts and the expectation is that only those who clearly believe that there are reasonable grounds for an appeal will seek one. It is important, therefore, to carefully view your marked script before reaching the decision whether or not to appeal.

When will I receive my appeal results?

The Leaving Certificate appeal results are issued in mid-October each year. During the limited timeframe between the closing date for the receipt of appeal applications and the issue of the appeal results some four and a half weeks later, the actual re-marking of candidates’ work takes place.

Examination scripts must be retrieved from schools, distributed to examiners, fully re-marked by examiners, with appropriate monitoring and quality assurance processes applied, and returned to the State Examinations Commission for results processing.

The relationship between the examinations system and entry to third level education is largely beyond the control of the State Examinations Commission. Offers of third level places are made on the basis of the provisional results issued in August. There are good reasons for this because to delay offering places until the appeals process was completed would impact upon the start date for the academic year and thus disadvantage the overwhelming majority of students whose provisional results are their final results.

The State Examinations Commission makes every effort to process the results of appeals as quickly as possible in order to facilitate the college entry process, balanced with the need to allow the appeal examiners sufficient time to carry out a thorough re-marking of candidates’ work. The Commission automatically informs the CAO of all changes of results.