Why has the LC become easier?

K4t

Over the last 10 years or so anyway, it has obviously become substantially easier. If you look back over the English, Maths etc. papaers from the 90's, they are far tougher than most of the papers from the last three or four years.

I might be out of the loop but does anyone know why the above is true?

Piste

They want more people to go to college?
Want to make the Irish Education System look fabulous?

.DarDarBinks

Yeah and also they changed the order of the papers last year to suit us :P

rainbowtrout

a number of the courses changed in the last 7 or 8 years, physics, chemistry and biology come to mind straight away... whether they are easier or not is subjective, some new materials is in the new courses and has replaced material on the old course -- is the new material easier than the old??

one example that comes to mind is the biology course, in the new course there is a huge section on genetics, dna etc which wasn't on the old course. looking at an old biology book, there was a chapter on the earthworm, the liverfluke, the cockroach, the amoeba?

so are the topics harder or easier? or is it just that their relevance has changed?

personally i would feel many (not all) students are not capable of retaining as much information now and there is more of an emphasis in application rather than understanding, particularly in the area of physics, chemistry and maths. i know my classes are shocked to learn that i did JC HL maths ... without a calculator. i don't think it was any harm having to exercise my brain to figure out answers rather than letting a calculator do all the work and just needing to know how to put in numbers into a formula or use a calculator in a particular way.

I don't think students are any less intelligent but will only in the main live up to the expectations that have been set for them. If there is no need to learn how to calculate something on paper when the calculator will do it for you, why bother?

Conor108

And nowadays we have resources like boards:D

phasers

well compared to a lot of other countries, our exams are still extremely difficult.
Maybe they want to level the playing field a bit.

JSK 252

rainbowtrout wrote: »

a number of the courses changed in the last 7 or 8 years, physics, chemistry and biology come to mind straight away... whether they are easier or not is subjective, some new materials is in the new courses and has replaced material on the old course -- is the new material easier than the old??

one example that comes to mind is the biology course, in the new course there is a huge section on genetics, dna etc which wasn't on the old course. looking at an old biology book, there was a chapter on the earthworm, the liverfluke, the cockroach, the amoeba?

so are the topics harder or easier? or is it just that their relevance has changed?

personally i would feel many (not all) students are not capable of retaining as much information now and there is more of an emphasis in application rather than understanding, particularly in the area of physics, chemistry and maths. i know my classes are shocked to learn that i did JC HL maths ... without a calculator. i don't think it was any harm having to exercise my brain to figure out answers rather than letting a calculator do all the work and just needing to know how to put in numbers into a formula or use a calculator in a particular way.

I don't think students are any less intelligent but will only in the main live up to the expectations that have been set for them. If there is no need to learn how to calculate something on paper when the calculator will do it for you, why bother?

Good Point!

Smartly Dressed

Like it isn't hard enough the way it is!

So people like me who have finished their Leaving can say 'in my day...'

Jayeire

Why complain about it being easier, and not just revel in it?
Maybe students are just becoming less intelligent than their predecessors (just joking) :pac:

Gavin "shels"

People in the majority have got dumber and lazier?

cautioner

It's funny, I always thought the Maths papers from the 90's were strangely easier, but then I realised it was just because I'd gotten better at them from starting at '08 and working back :rolleyes:

Blue_Rose

Maths is defenitely harder now! Like say the 2002 or 2001 questions are way easier than the 2008 or 2007 questions!

pathway33

because leaving cert students have access to the marking schemes now on www.examinations.ie

Craigsy

As time went on and more resources became available students started relying on these resources more and it would appear that grades were dropping, so they had two choices. Admit that grades were "worse", or make the test easier

spurious

Gavin shels wrote: »

People in the majority have got dumber and lazier?

I wouldn't put it quite like that, but certainly in the dark days of the 70s and early 80s, there was much more of an emphasis on 'being educated' than getting particular grades in the exam. So, a student would pick a broad range of subjects covering sciences, languages and humanities areas. The percentages getting A or B grades in a subject was not a factor in choosing it.

We went into every subject with information, not learned off answers and certainly not prepared essays. Sure, we had a couple of phrases or quotes that would be useful in an essay, but for better or worse, we went in and made it all up on the day.

It would be interesting to root out a couple of papers from back then to compare them with today's ones. I shall have a root in some drawers.

Candidates nowadays are definitely much better prepared to answer exam questions, probably as a result of grind school influence.

Gavin "shels"

My 9 words got to the point like it is, you just tried to make it look good and sophisticated.:P