Viewing scripts thread

Daysha

Use this topic to say what you thought about how your scripts were marked. Fair or unfair? Any miscalculations? Any marks for particular questions you couldn't understand? Let us know here :pac:

I viewed all mine last night and I was really annoyed by it all tbh, for a variety of reasons.

Firstly I was stupidly inconsistent for most of my exams. In Geography I managed 95% for my optional essay and 92/100 for my field study, yet only 42/80 and 45/80 for two of the long questions. I also wrote about culture in Ireland instead of India for one of the questions and got 0/30 :mad:

Same with French. Now this was always my weakest subject (got a d1 overall) but I couldn't understand some of my marks. They were just bizarre. I mean, have you ever heard of anyone that got around 79% for their oral.....and then failed the tape test?! Also did pretty bad overall in the written, so if it weren't for that oral it would've been touch and go for passing it altogether :eek:

The two I'm most annoyed about though are English and Music. In English it was corrected twice, firstly by the usual examiner and then it was rechecked by the supervising examiner. Now get this, the first time it was marked I got a B1 (including 70/70 for poetry ), but then the 2nd time it was marked the examiner took 5 of my poetry, 9 off my Othello and ended up bumping me down to a B2! :mad: I dunno whether its worth appealing, since it's already been corrected twice already.....

For Music, it seemed that my entire class were really unfairly marked. We all got fair results for our practicals, but for the two written papers (the composing in particular) it felt like the examiner just hadn't a clue. I got 29/40 for my melody writing when it should have been 35+ and 44/60 for the harmony when it should have been somewhere in the 50's.

Same with the irish essay. I filled the entire page with everything I knew about sean nos singing and came out with a freaking 6!

Also, if the SEC want one piece of advice, it would be to tell students exactly how much each short question is worth in the listening tape! Say if the question was "illustrate the main features in this excerpt". Now it doesn't say how features they want you to name so I just listed and described 2 or 3 at most.

But according to the marking scheme, there was 4 marks going for those questions (which they never told us of) and you needed 4 fully descriptive features to get all 4 marks (again, which they never told us about) That meant that I was 1 or 2 marks short for about 3 or 4 of those type of questions. That's just completely unfair and really needs sorting out for the incoming 6th years. So that's music im definitely rechecking (along with half my class) and after what I saw last night I'll be pretty hopefully of being bumped up to that A1 I really wanted.

Rant over

delighted.

In both French & Spanish I scraped an A on my papers.. But my orals must have been bad as I got B1s in the both of them. I hate how they don't reveal your oral results. :mad:

Daysha

You can work it out though can't you? Just take away your combined listening and written scores from your overall total mark and there you go

delighted.

Overall total mark doesn't include your oral marks. French teacher told me they just won't reveal them, have to judge how you did yourself.

Timans

I got 69.3% in Maths and was given a C1. My main objective in the LC was to get a B in Maths.

I know a guy who got 89.75% in Biology and was given an A2.

Economics was marked ridiculous rigidly, oh well.

Ancee

I agree with Delighted, the oral mark should be given otherwise it's not possible to judge how far off a grade you are.
The marking seems to be all over the place in general, undeserved marks given in some places and no marks given where they were deserved. Just 4 marks off next grade in English might get that rechecked (B2 to B1) what are the chances of being downgraded?

Mark200

I am extremely annoyed with my Irish oral.....because I got a B2 overall in OL, but I got a high A in my written, and a lower A with my listening included. I got full marks on my poetry, and lost only 3 marks in the pros
Very annoyed, but not really just because I did badly in my oral...but the questions I was asked were so stupid.

"What food does your dog eat"?!?

"Does your dog do any tricks"?!?

"Describe what's in your school crest"?!?

**** off like. I was actually soooo prepared for the oral. Ugh. And then she asked me what I did on St Patricks day....like over a month after it. And I suppose it didn't help that I didn't know what she was saying when she said st patricks day, and I had to ask her like 5 times until she eventually said it in English.

Ugh. I'd definitely appeal just in the hope that the examiner noticed how unfair the questions were and give me more marks, but it was my lowest result so therefore wouldn't affect my points...so too much hassle.

spurious

deise59 wrote: »

Firstly I was stupidly inconsistent for most of my exams. In Geography I managed 95/100 for my optional essay and 92/100 for my field study, yet only 42/80 and 45/80 for two of the long questions.

Where did you lose the marks though? Did you answer the question asked?

I also wrote about culture in Ireland instead of India for one of the questions and got 0/30 :mad:

That's unfortunate, but entirely fair marking.

Same with French. Now this was always my weakest subject (got a d1 overall) but I couldn't understand some of my marks. They were just bizarre. I mean, have you ever heard of anyone that got 79% for their oral.....and then failed the tape test?! Also did pretty bad overall in the written, so if it weren't for that oral it would've been touch and go for passing it altogether :eek:

Viewing the script should have shown you where you lost the marks.

The two I'm most annoyed about though are English and Music. In English it was corrected twice, firstly by the usual examiner and then it was rechecked by the supervising examiner. Now get this, the first time it was marked I got a B1 (including 70/70 for poetry ), but then the 2nd time it was marked the examiner took 5 of my poetry, 9 off my Othello and ended up bumping me down to a B2! :mad: I dunno whether its worth appealing, since it's already been corrected twice already.....

It's always worth appealing, but it sounds like the first examiner may have been new and didn't apply the marking scheme properly - they were too lenient - and then this was caught on one of the checks. The other possibility is a change to the marking scheme during examining - this happens a lot and examiners have to go back and re-correct everything.

For Music, it seemed that my entire class were really unfairly marked. We all got fair results for our practicals, but for the two written papers (the composing in particular) it felt like the examiner just hadn't a clue. I got 29/40 for my melody writing when it should have been 35+ and 44/60 for the harmony when it should have been somewhere in the 50's.

Same with the irish essay. I filled the entire page with everything I knew about sean nos singing and came out with a freaking 6!

Your music paper marks would have shown where you lost.
The main reason people lose marks in all LC papers is they do not answer the question asked. Was a page about sean-nós relevant to the essay title?

Also, if the SEC want one piece of advice, it would be to tell students exactly how much each short question is worth in the listening tape! Say if the question was "illustrate the main features in this excerpt". Now it doesn't say how features they want you to name so I just listed and described 2 or 3 at most.

But according to the marking scheme, there was 4 marks going for those questions (which they never told us of) and you needed 4 fully descriptive features to get all 4 marks (again, which they never told us about) That meant that I was 1 or 2 marks short for about 3 or 4 of those type of questions. That's just completely unfair and really needs sorting out for the incoming 6th years. So that's music im definitely rechecking (along with half my class) and after what I saw last night I'll be pretty hopefully of being bumped up to that A1 I really wanted.

It's your teacher's job to prepare you for the exam. Sounds like yours has never corrected.

Rant over

If you're rechecking I hope you get what you wanted, but if you have got the course you wanted, I wouldn't bother.
This time five years you will hardly remember what you got.

Bajingo

deise59 wrote: »

Use this topic to say what you thought about how your scripts were marked. Fair or unfair? Any miscalculations? Any marks for particular questions you couldn't understand? Let us know here :pac:

I viewed all mine last night and I was really annoyed by it all tbh, for a variety of reasons.

Firstly I was stupidly inconsistent for most of my exams. In Geography I managed 95/100 for my optional essay and 92/100 for my field study, yet only 42/80 and 45/80 for two of the long questions. I also wrote about culture in Ireland instead of India for one of the questions and got 0/30 :mad:

Same with French. Now this was always my weakest subject (got a d1 overall) but I couldn't understand some of my marks. They were just bizarre. I mean, have you ever heard of anyone that got 79% for their oral.....and then failed the tape test?! Also did pretty bad overall in the written, so if it weren't for that oral it would've been touch and go for passing it altogether :eek:

The two I'm most annoyed about though are English and Music. In English it was corrected twice, firstly by the usual examiner and then it was rechecked by the supervising examiner. Now get this, the first time it was marked I got a B1 (including 70/70 for poetry ), but then the 2nd time it was marked the examiner took 5 of my poetry, 9 off my Othello and ended up bumping me down to a B2! :mad: I dunno whether its worth appealing, since it's already been corrected twice already.....

For Music, it seemed that my entire class were really unfairly marked. We all got fair results for our practicals, but for the two written papers (the composing in particular) it felt like the examiner just hadn't a clue. I got 29/40 for my melody writing when it should have been 35+ and 44/60 for the harmony when it should have been somewhere in the 50's.

Same with the irish essay. I filled the entire page with everything I knew about sean nos singing and came out with a freaking 6!

Also, if the SEC want one piece of advice, it would be to tell students exactly how much each short question is worth in the listening tape! Say if the question was "illustrate the main features in this excerpt". Now it doesn't say how features they want you to name so I just listed and described 2 or 3 at most.

But according to the marking scheme, there was 4 marks going for those questions (which they never told us of) and you needed 4 fully descriptive features to get all 4 marks (again, which they never told us about) That meant that I was 1 or 2 marks short for about 3 or 4 of those type of questions. That's just completely unfair and really needs sorting out for the incoming 6th years. So that's music im definitely rechecking (along with half my class) and after what I saw last night I'll be pretty hopefully of being bumped up to that A1 I really wanted.

Rant over

Did you do ordinary geography because isnt the optional essay out of 80 marks...

What happened to you in english happened to me in maths...I got a B3 overall but it was rechecked by the supervisor and he dropped me 20 marks to a C1..I wouldnt check it out because another Supervisor would correcting so I dont see the point...

Finally the way the french compositions was corrected this was a joke in my opinion I had loads of phrases learned off but on my paperit just random words underlined and there was nothing wrong with them...

tasha1

Timans wrote: »

I know a guy who got 89.75% in Biology and was given an A2.

This happened my friend in business!

It's mad!

Daysha

Bajingo wrote: »

Did you do ordinary geography because isnt the optional essay out of 80 marks...

Sorry, meant to say 95%, not 95/100

M_G_M_T

Ancee wrote: »

what are the chances of being downgraded?

Extremely unlikely last year out of close to 10,000 appeals, 3 were downgraded.

Source: http://www.herald.ie/lifestyle/take-care-if-appealing-your-results-1453839.html

MathsManiac

Timans wrote: »

I got 69.3% in Maths and was given a C1. My main objective in the LC was to get a B in Maths.

I know a guy who got 89.75% in Biology and was given an A2.

Economics was marked ridiculous rigidly, oh well.

tasha1 wrote: »

This happened my friend in business!

It's mad!

I don't understand why you find this strange, when it is the correct grade for the mark.

The Walsho

I was annoyed with Geography. I got an easy A1 on the actual exam but only 63/100 on the field study project, which brought me down to an A2.
I thought I'd have only just scraped my A in English but I got 95% overall which I was delighted with. The amount of underlining and marking on my Literary Genre essay was unreal!
Scraped the A in History, 85.4% or something, score!

The Walsho

MathsManiac wrote: »

I don't understand why you find this strange, when it is the correct grade for the mark.

Should 89.75% not be rounded up to 90% which is an A1?

spurious

The Walsho wrote: »

Should 89.75% not be rounded up to 90% which is an A1?

Not in Leaving Cert.

muffinman

Timans wrote: »

I know a guy who got 89.75% in Biology and was given an A2.

Same happened to someone I know

The Walsho wrote: »

I thought I'd have only just scraped my A in English but I got 95% overall which I was delighted with. The amount of underlining and marking on my Literary Genre essay was unreal!

I thought the same.. I don't know my overall mark but I got 60/60 for Othello 47/50 for Donne and 65/70 for LG.. and 100% in my comprehensions!! I was delighted!

The Walsho wrote: »

Should 89.75% not be rounded up to 90% which is an A1?

No.. It's SO harsh.. But usually an examiner would look for a single mark for the candidate..

Overall, my papers were marked fairly.. Got 100/100 for my production écrite in French, and nearly all subjects were marked well

^^ the "Oxford comma" (Who gives a f*ck about an Oxford Comma? I've seen those English dramas too.. lol) in my English essays was circled in every instance!!

However, my geography paper was a joke.. Terrible marking. Got 96% in my report, but ended up with a B1.. Sent for a recheck without a doubt. Marking really was atrocious, it's as if the examiner was trying not to give me marks where they were deserved.. There were 3 or 4 SRPs grouped into one.. Meh, we'll see..

MathsManiac

The Walsho wrote: »

Should 89.75% not be rounded up to 90% which is an A1?

Is there any particular reason to round it?

muffinman

MathsManiac wrote: »

Is there any particular reason to round it?

Well, in most instances 89.75 is considered 90 rather than 89 for marking purposes

The Walsho

MathsManiac wrote: »

Is there any particular reason to round it?

I would have thought so, yes, as it's closer to 90% than 89%, no?

Fair enough if that's not how it works at Leaving Cert though, ignorance on my part.

Mark200

Well the marking scheme is that 85% - 89.9% is an A2

MathsManiac

muffinman wrote: »

Well, in most instances 89.75 is considered 90 rather than 89 for marking purposes

When you say "is considered", I wonder who exactly considers it to be 90 and under what circumstances. Unless I have a particular reason to do otherwise, I consider 89.75 to be 89.75, not 89 and not 90. It happens to be closer to 90 than to 89. It also happens to be closer to 91 than to 88, so should I consider it to be 91?

Which whole number it happens to be closest to has no particular relevance for marking purposes anyway, since the person presumably did not get 89.75 marks out of 100. They presumably got 359 out of 400, or 718 out of 800 or something like that.

The SEC doesn't convert marks to percentages and therefore doesn't have any particular reason to round them (up or down).

muffinman

MathsManiac wrote: »

The SEC doesn't convert marks to percentages and therefore doesn't have any particular reason to round them (up or down).

Yes, but I'm human and so I'm entitled to feel that to miss out on a grade by 0.25% is harsh on the person

MathsManiac

muffinman wrote: »

Yes, but I'm human and so I'm entitled to feel that to miss out on a grade by 0.25% is harsh on the person

I agree!

muffinman

MathsManiac wrote: »

I agree!

Fantastic

Trance

I was three marks away from a higher grade in english. My english teacher looked at it and thought it was the biggest joke ever. Someone else was given a D1 when they were only 5 marks away from an honour.

gaybitch

I got 98 out of 100 on my History project, I was delighted. Because my actual written paper went so terribly, that really brought me up. Two pages of my Civil War essay were lumped together! So annoying to see, but I deserved it!

I was 1.8% off a higher grade, but I decided not to recheck it. I'm 50 odd points over my course requirement, and I'm happy with my points.

philologos

The Walsho wrote: »

I was annoyed with Geography. I got an easy A1 on the actual exam but only 63/100 on the field study project, which brought me down to an A2.
I thought I'd have only just scraped my A in English but I got 95% overall which I was delighted with. The amount of underlining and marking on my Literary Genre essay was unreal!
Scraped the A in History, 85.4% or something, score!

The Geography projects seem to be marked hard then, I got 69/100 in the field study.

The Walsho wrote: »

Should 89.75% not be rounded up to 90% which is an A1?

I'd say they do that to hit a quota.

Myself and another guy in the Business were 1 mark off the next grade.

Cokehead Mother

I'd say they do that because 89.75% isn't an A1.

Mark200

Trance wrote: »

I was three marks away from a higher grade in english. My english teacher looked at it and thought it was the biggest joke ever. Someone else was given a D1 when they were only 5 marks away from an honour.

If you didn't get it, you didn't get it. No point moaning about how you almost got it

Bajingo

Mark200 wrote: »

If you didn't get it, you didn't get it. No point moaning about how you almost got it

Its called human nature, of course they are going to moan they feel that they have been robbed and to be honest they kind of have 1 mark is not much...but at the same time im sure the corrector looked for that 1 mark in most cases.

Yuugib

haha i got 89.86... % in maths! 1 mark away from 90%.. argh!!
Also got 84% in accounting..

Probably will appeal it.. if i get the money

titan18

I was one mark off a B in Accounting.I dont care though as I thought I had failed it coming out of the exam.I also got 98 in the History special project.I lost 2 marks on the evaluation of resources.I wwas a bit annoyed I didnt get the 100

littlneutralone

Yuugib wrote: »

haha i got 89.86... % in maths! 1 mark away from 90%.. argh!!

I had 89.3%, 4 marks away...let down by my literacy rather than numerical skills.

The rigidness of the marking schemes - science ones at least - was irritating...lost 6 marks for saying something was made 'permeable' instead of 'more permeable'.

'Weight loss' was not accepted as a biological benefit of breastfeeding :b

muffinman

littlneutralone wrote: »

'Weight loss' was not accepted as a biological benefit of breastfeeding :b

Harsh :P

blue-army

I think I'm gonna appeal my english....
Got a C2 but I was hoping/expecting a B2 at least.

I got alltogether 64.35% - another .75% would have given me a C1! and 5 more points.
I'm repeating but I think I might as well appeal...I'd be surprised if I didn't go up.

Peleus

i got 50/100 for my english personal essay! the only thing wrong with it was that i was slightly not relevant to the topic. but he marked me down on my language and mechanics as well as the clarity of purpose. I just know he's somestuck up arsehole who didnt agree with anything i said. i'd like to get it rechecked but i like my 555. 560 just wouldnt be the same.

i got 98.9% in maths paper II. only about 5 marks away from 100%!

philologos

Cokehead Mother wrote: »

I'd say they do that because 89.75% isn't an A1.

They still have a maximum amount to give a certain amount of people a certain grade, and if you are in any way border line they can knock you down to a lower grade.

I've appealed my business anyway, we'll see if they give me the extra mark in October some stage

Sacamus

I went in to get my History checked (because they gave me an F and I was having none of it :P). Sure as soon as I took the script out of the envelope, what did I see? D1. Not ideal, but it brought me up to my course. However now (and I hope someone here has some experience of this), I can't get any information from the CAO, the folks in Athlone or whatnot. My friend said he heard on these boards that you must be awarded a place in cases like this (surely it must be true of administrative errors?), even if the course is full. At the moment though, no-one is taking responsibility for this mistake and I'm hearing word of being "guaranteed for next year..." which obviously, I'm a bit put-out about. Thanks y'all

TheJeanGenie

littlneutralone wrote: »

I had 89.3%, 4 marks away...let down by my literacy rather than numerical skills.

The rigidness of the marking schemes - science ones at least - was irritating...lost 6 marks for saying something was made 'permeable' instead of 'more permeable'.

'Weight loss' was not accepted as a biological benefit of breastfeeding :b

I said 'important nutrients pass from the mother to the infant' and i got nothing. Yet in the marking schemes it cited 'balanced diet' as an answer. I WAS ROBBED!! there was a few instances like that in my paper. might get rechecked

Bajingo

littlneutralone wrote: »

'Weight loss' was not accepted as a biological benefit of breastfeeding :b

Yeah that pi$$ed me off a bit because weight loss was in the book I thought chemistry was harshly marked aswell and maths to an extent also!

Sacamus

Bajingo wrote: »

I thought chemistry was harshly marked as well

I have three friends who got A1s so it sounds like you had a tough corrector...

blue-army

Sacamus wrote: »

I went in to get my History checked (because they gave me an F and I was having none of it :P). Sure as soon as I took the script out of the envelope, what did I see? D1.

Thats mad! :eek:
Never heard anything like that before....Makes you wonder how often it happens and the amount of people who don't bother to check...

Sacamus

blue-army wrote: »

Thats mad! :eek:
Never heard anything like that before....Makes you wonder how often it happens and the amount of people who don't bother to check...

Haha, tell me about it! It's scandalous really because they're meant to tally the marks again and recalculate the result from the scripts before they input the final figures so it is a double error! My oh my....

blue-army

Sacamus wrote: »

Haha, tell me about it! It's scandalous really because they're meant to tally the marks again and recalculate the result from the scripts before they input the final figures so it is a double error! My oh my....

So did you miss out on you course? will you have to start next year? or will you get in on the next round of offers?

Sacamus

That is my problem: I have no idea! I was told that it would be sorted out very quickly because of the nature of the mistake. However, no-one seems to be very helpful and no-one wants to give any information (as I mentioned a few posts back). Personally, I feel I should be entitled to a place this year because it was their foul-up. Hopefully they'll see it my way! :pac:

muffinman

Sacamus wrote: »

Personally, I feel I should be entitled to a place this year because it was their foul-up.

Every re-check that gets upgraded, no matter what circumstances, is due to their foul-up.. It's a joke really.. Good luck and I hope you get what you want.

Sacamus

You're dead right. Thanks and indeed fingers crossed for all others affected

WaldenByThoreua

Weird how it works out...went in with the intention of trying to get Chem upgraded to an A1...found out I was lucky to get 85.25%!

Same with Geog, wanted to find a few marks to try and get an A2 and found out I was lucky to get 80.25%!

Then the 2 A1's were 94.5% IN English AND 98% in AG Science and previously I had thought I must have just scraped them!

tabouli

I know what you mean, I got 86% in Biology and something similar in Maths, not even worth appealing.

However, I was certain I had only just scraped an A1 in English, turns out I got 395/400. :O

spurious

Sacamus wrote: »

Haha, tell me about it! It's scandalous really because they're meant to tally the marks again and recalculate the result from the scripts before they input the final figures so it is a double error! My oh my....

I don't think so.
The corrector does not input any marks. The corrector (examiner) corrects, tallies and checks the marks and the inputting of figures is done by seasonal text entry staff in Athlone.
So, it was one text entry error, by someone who possibly spends six hours a day inputting data.