An absolute Farce(Please comment)

estebancambias

Does anyone else feel it's a disgrace that the friends of that kid who was horrifically killed over the weekend have to sit their LC in a WEEKS time, actually it shows the stupidity of the goverment, education in Ireland that someone who suffers a personal loss is expected to do their exam. How can his freinds sit through an exam and even care about the implications of expansion on Ireland, the trials and tribulations of Macbeth(I made that up, im in pass) or how the Nazis established a totalitarian regime in Germany. So what can be done? I think it is rather obvious really. There should be an extra chance to sit the Leaving in August, for everyone, how would this work? Frankly im not sure, but they would have to make it work. Ok so if the prospect of everyone who has failed to reach their requirements for their chosen course is a bit far fetched, then at least specail dispensation should be given to any student who has suffered a loss in the weeks or days before the exams in June.
And that is my two cents. (Here just on a side note, I have this belief that I should have never been put in pass English, would you agree with me?)

spurious

Dispensation IS often given. I have corrected many papers that had an accompanying note about recent deaths of family members.

I agree that a repeat late Summer sitting would be useful, though it would double all the exam-related work - drafting, setting, printing, security arrangements, examining etc., thus doubling the cost. This means that ultimately it would be a decision for Finance who would probably knock it on the head, since all recent exam developments have been to save money.

PurpleFistMixer

I don't think it's the government's fault that something terrible happened the week before the LC. The people in question aren't going to be forced to sit the exams, they can do them next year etc., it's just.. extremely unlucky. And of course horrible.

Gone West

estebancambias wrote:

(Here just on a side note, I have this belief that I should have never been put in pass English, would you agree with me?)

Based on your post above, I would suggest that pass English is probably a good idea.

AdMMM

Here just on a side note, I have this belief that I should have never been put in pass English, would you agree with me?

Well you did manage to spell (most) of your words correctly....

I do think that a system of being able to repeat the exams late-Summer should be provisioned, but as already mentioned, it would increase the cost of the examinations to an unfeasible region and would be open to exploitation (students purposely failing half their exams, knowing they could repeat at the end of the year).

In all honesty, I don't think many students care much for the "trials and tribulations", as you put it, of Macbeth at any time of year and the students affected by this tragedy are in no way being forced to sit their exams.

leeroybrown

I sat one of my LC papers the morning of my mothers funeral and went straight to the church afterwards. While I do have some sympathy for them I didn't really have a problem with it being a single deadline exam. I would rather have gotten it out of the way than deferred it.

I don't see a situation with extra sittings, corrections, etc coming about any time soon for financial reasons. I also think if it did we'd quickly see people abusing it using fake certs, etc to split their LC exams over two sittings for points reasons.

Enemy Of Fate

Special treatment SHOULD definitely be given, but certainly not to the extent of having the LC put back to a later date.That is neither practical, nor fair to other students (and could also end up hurting the student's results as the real exam could be ****ing easy, and the exam they do could be a **** one).

I don't know how exactly it should be handled.Maybe something like what ever result they get, they get a set percentage added on to it?Or they get a certain percentage of their result added on (ie if they only got 40% they'd get 2.5% added on, but if they got 80% they'd get 5% added on....Something like that anyways).

Or they could just get a points break in their first choices or something.....but again that wouldn't really be fair to anyone else.So I guess the only thing that can really be done thats fair to everyone, would be allow them to sit their exam in a seperate room, and have a note attached to their exam or something......which is what they do get I think.

Also yeah, you shouldn't have been in Pass english......assuming you didn't use a dictionary or something similar.

stipey

It will undoubtedly be difficult for them alright but Life goes on - it has to. I don't mean to be insensitive but that's how the world works. It gets tough sometimes and you have to grit your teeth and get through it.

When I was doing my leaving a very close friend lost her mother about 2 days before the exams were due to start. The year before another friend of mine lost his mother about 10 days before the exams were due to begin. Both sat the exams and did very well.

Logistically speaking it would be impossible to accomodate them. Given that you can take your papers home they would need to answer different papers. What if the second one is deemed to be marginally easier? What if a question on one paper has an error so everybody who attempts it gets full points? What about the person who sits the first paper and just misses out on their first choice college place to somebody who had 2 or 3 extra weeks to prepare, or who might have sat an easier paper or who was awarded full marks for a question that had an error in it.

The only real option open to them if they think they will be adversely affected by this is to put them back a year. Alternatively they can take the exams and resit them next year if they don't do as well as they had hoped. It sure beats putting your life on hold for a year by not sitting them this year.

I'm not saying its not unfair but that's the way it is

JC 2K3

How does one get "put" in pass English?

cson

JC 2K3 wrote:

How does one get "put" in pass English?

Some teachers won't take you unless you get a certain grade in the Junior Cert. Its probably highly illegal but its practised in our school anyway.

AdMMM

cson wrote:

Some teachers won't take you unless you get a certain grade in the Junior Cert. Its probably highly illegal but its practised in our school anyway.

There's nothing stopping you from doing HL on your own...

JC 2K3

cson wrote:

Some teachers won't take you unless you get a certain grade in the Junior Cert. Its probably highly illegal but its practised in our school anyway.

Now that's an absolute farce....

europerson

It's not a farce that everyone takes their exams together. It's all part of the fairness of the exam system. I missed part of my grandmother's funeral to sit one of my Leaving Cert exams. She would have wanted me to get on with my exams, anyway.

Haven't a Clue

Of course it's not fair on the student if they've to sit the exam after a tragedy, but there's nothing that can be done. Like, there was that bus crash down in Meath a few weeks before the leaving two years ago as well, but they'd to do the exams too. I'm afraid it's just a case of tough sh1t unfortunately.

SamHamilton

What if the teachers suggested a mark based on the overall work of the student during the whole two years? Kind of like the 20ish% percent in Ag Science going for coursework? Obviously some monitoring would be needed (just like in Ag Science) but it'd be easier than accomodating 500 students sitting exams in August.

estebancambias

I got a C in the junior cert and I skipped 4th year. I think they used that against me and at the time I was happy enough staying in pass.
Thanks for the replys.

Naikon

Well I think you got screwed over as I got a B in pass English in the JC and I was put in the honours class near the end of fifth year because of my "potential".
I don't do much work in English but I got a C1(hons) in the mock which I would be happy with come june:)
Sorry to say that but you should have been studying for honours.

estebancambias

One possible reason could be my grammar is not very good.

Haven't a Clue

Nah, grammar and spelling aren't that much of an excuse. There's a bloke in my year with poor enough grammar and spelling and he's averaged high C's or low B's.

Mushy

there was that bus crash down in Meath a few weeks before the leaving two years ago as well, but they'd to do the exams too.

Thats when they had to actually change the Leaving Cert paper, cos there was something about a bus or a fictional bus crash in the paper. Imgine seeing that so soon after.

Yeah. life goes on, it'll be hard for them to concentrate in the exams without the pressure at the moment, but if worse comes to worse, they may have to repeat. Its tough, but hey, thats life!

Haven't a Clue

Mushy wrote:

Thats when they had to actually change the Leaving Cert paper, cos there was something about a bus or a fictional bus crash in the paper. Imgine seeing that so soon after.

Yeah. life goes on, it'll be hard for them to concentrate in the exams without the pressure at the moment, but if worse comes to worse, they may have to repeat. Its tough, but hey, thats life!

It wasn't changed in the junior cert though when there was some question in ordinary irish I think. **** happens and sometimes it ain't nice ****.

Naikon

It was on my English Exam in the 2005 JC.

cocoa

Naikon wrote:

Well I think you got screwed over as I got a B in pass English in the JC and I was put in the honours class near the end of fifth year because of my "potential".
I don't do much work in English but I got a C1(hons) in the mock which I would be happy with come june:)
Sorry to say that but you should have been studying for honours.

sorry for the off-topic -ness but - topped!
C in HL JC english - A2 in HL LC mock. It's all about application and making the effort with it.

Enemy Of Fate

cocoa wrote:

C in HL JC english - A2 in HL LC mock. It's all about application and making the effort with it.

Totally agree.I did **** all for the JC and got a D in Honours German.That D forced me into a pass class for 4th and 5th year, but at the start of this year (5th year) I started really working at it, and I took the honours mock there a few months ago and got a D3, and that was with several ATROCIOUS mistakes.

I swear after looking through it a while back i'm amazed I even passed.The only tense in my letter I managed to use correctly was the present, and I even skipped answering one of her paragraphs!I also skipped the Ausserung Zum Thema (i'd never even looked at an honours paper before, so I didn't know what the **** I was meant to do with it).And I still got half the marks going for the question (the letter).Still though am hoping for AT LEAST a C3 in the real thing, and probably even higher (I had quite a good oral).

Rozabeez

So these teens suffered a loss right? Well what about the people that suffer losses that aren't publicised? People lose family members and friends all the time, you can't put life on hold because of them. Like someone said already, the exam papers are accompanied with a note about the person's difficulty/loss, that's the best they can do at the moment. What do you expect them to do with a week left?

Oh, and I think OL English is best for you, OP.

OctavarIan

estebancambias wrote:

There should be an extra chance to sit the Leaving in August, for everyone, how would this work? Frankly im not sure, but they would have to make it work.

It would fail horribly, totally messing up the CAO system. Why would someone take the exam in June when they could have an extra few months to study for it? When do the results come out for the people who took it in August? Who corrects these August papers just as the school year is starting again? Many many more reasons why that idea would fail horribly.

What happened to those people was unfortunate, but I don't think it should result in them dodging the exams.

estebancambias wrote:

(Here just on a side note, I have this belief that I should have never been put in pass English, would you agree with me?)

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