10 Leaving Cert pupils earn eight A1s

7sr2z3fely84g5

http://www.breakingnews.ie/ireland/10-leaving-cert-pupils-earn-eight-a1s-516843.html

The increased number of high performers in this year's Leaving Cert will give rise to further concerns over standards in the State exams.

A total of 10 pupils achieved eight A1s, another 39 secured seven A1s and 92 teenagers scored six A1s - 600 points.

However, principal of Hewitt College in Cork Patricia McGrath said exams are not being "dumbed down".

"To get A1s in (a number of subjects) is not easy…You have to be a very good student," she said.

Fair play to them,i look forward to the teacher standing behind them in a photo on the paper tomorrow :rolleyes:


*seriously though this mentality of teachers picking their fave students and not bothering with those who need most help still goes on.

Teyla Emmagan

That's rubbish - the kids who work and have the ability get the points, not the teacher's "favourites". You can be a favourite and be as thick as a post you know.

py2006

For subjective subjects like English and History it really depends on who is correcting them! One teacher will give you an A1 and another will give you a B.

Diageio_Man

But have no mates.

J. Marston

Showoffs.

CardBordWindow

If they are so clever, do they not realise they've the same amount of points as someone who got 6 A1s?

stovelid

Melvin Gray Orate wrote: »

Fair play to them,i look forward to the teacher standing behind them in a photo on the paper tomorrow :rolleyes:

Have to repeat, do you?

CreepingDeath

Ah sure, they probably won't be able to afford the university fees and will end up working in McDonalds.

floutingmaxims

However, principal of Hewitt College in Cork Patricia McGrath said exams are not being "dumbed down".

"To get A1s in (a number of subjects) is not easy…You have to be a very good student," she said.

Jaysus, well that woman is a fountain of knowledge.

Anyway those kids didnt have half the craic i had so im happy with my 355! IN YO FACEEEE

Davidius

Diageio_Man wrote: »

But have no mates.

You generally hear a lot of things like this, I don't think people like to admit that somebody can achieve more than they can with less effort.

DaveDaRave

So exams are not being dumbed down because students are achieving high grades in said exams ?

What the fukk am i reading

MitchKoobski

Fair play to them!

I got 405 and now I work in a call centre.

prinz

Melvin Gray Orate wrote: »

*seriously though this mentality of teachers picking their fave students and not bothering with those who need most help still goes on.

What also goes on is a couple of time wasters and eejits who take up time that the teacher could be using to teach with acting the bollix, are too fecking idle to open a book or pick up a pen, have parents who don't put the slightest bit of effort into chasing up on homework, or monitoring progess and then demand extra help from teachers, at the expense of the rest of the class actually trying to get ahead.

Mindkiller

There are such things as teacher's favourites, sadly. I experienced it with my old Irish teacher who strongly recommended I drop down to ordinary level after one bad exam. On top of that he seemed to have nothing but contempt for me the c*nt. I had a different guy in 6th year. Managed to get a B3 in the Leaving which I was pleased with.

I've never been a trouble maker either. I would have been one of the most unassuming students in the class

foxyboxer

It's the people who really apply themselves and get the 300/400 points for their course of choice that are the real stars.

Or the one who drops out of school, learns how to run a business and employs the 9 A1'ers who impress most.

Richard Hillman

NEEEEEEEEEEEERDS!

sock puppet

Davidius wrote: »

You generally hear a lot of things like this, I don't think people like to admit that somebody can achieve more than they can with less effort.

Nah. Lots of normal people get 600 points or close to it. But doing 8 or 9 subjects is just weird

davetherave

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IRsPheErBj8

Yeah....I'm just bitter
Fair play to them, and more so those that worked their little cotton socks off to get nowhere near 600 points but what they wanted/need

phasers

Nobody manage 9 A1s then?

Standards are really slipping.

StephenHendry

great achievement, some would say there is more help out there for students doing the LC, tuition, the internet etc. but its probably harder with more distractions for them than before

Caraville

Exams ARE being dumbed down. Look at exams papers from 10-15 years ago in comparison to today. Things are definitely easier nowadays, which is a slippery slope that I don't like.

As for the OP saying that the top students are the teachers' favourites- I'm betting the OP doesn't know that many teachers. My favourite students have always been the ones who let me do my job, makes a decent effort at their schoolwork and are polite. They might end up with 100 points or 600 points, that side of things are irrelevant.

Actually the ones who are all about schoolwork can be right wreck the heads. You'd love to just see them let loose a bit, sure there's more to life and they're way too young to be so serious.

Vicxas

My girlfriends sister got 430 and she was chuffed. and she worked her balls off

cosmicfart

fair play to them, they are the future bankers of this fair land

orourkeda

Getting 6 a's wont save them from emigration

orourkeda

Vicxas wrote: »

My girlfriends sister got 430 and she was chuffed. and she worked her balls knockers off

Now.

coco_lola

MitchKoobski wrote: »

Fair play to them!

I got 405 and now I work in a call centre.

I got 495... and I also work in a call centre!

Opelfruit

Vicxas wrote: »

My girlfriends sister got 430 and she was chuffed. and she worked her balls off

I'm guessing you didn't do biology for your Leaving Cert?

orourkeda

coco_lola wrote: »

I got 495... and I also work in a call centre!

I'm so glad I didnt put the effort into my leaving cert having read this post. I got 400 without lifting a finger.

MitchKoobski

Vicxas wrote: »

My girlfriends sister got 430 and she was chuffed. and she worked her balls off

Opelfruit wrote: »

I'm guessing you didn't do biology for your Leaving Cert?

If he did, he failed it.

LadyMayBelle

Why do people bother doing 9 subjects? We had to do 7; a fallback on in case we really screwed up..but 9?
415 and did Arts. Waste of time

Faolchu

Vicxas wrote: »

she worked her balls off

this being some achievement in addition to her good grades

coco_lola

orourkeda wrote: »

I'm so glad I didnt put the effort into my leaving cert having read this post. I got 400 without lifting a finger.

I didn't lift a finger either... Although I should probably develop on that and say I am working toward a Masters as you can't do jack s**t with just a Psychology Degree. Job is funding the masters!

Paddy Cow

MitchKoobski wrote: »

Fair play to them!

I got 405 and now I work in a call centre.

I got 430 and I'm on a Fas course :pac:

Davidius

sock puppet wrote: »

Nah. Lots of normal people get 600 points or close to it. But doing 8 or 9 subjects is just weird

I'm not saying they necessarily find getting 8 A1s easy, but that the extra effort they put in might not be as much as people would like to believe. It's feasible that somebody like that might enjoy a healthy social life.

8 or 9 because they're insane. I did 9 subjects for my Leaving, although one was a non-subject that the school was adamant I should keep for no good reason.

IrishEyes19

Ah screw that, fair play to those who got those high points. And the same to to everyone who got their results today regardless of the outcome. Enjoy the last few weeks of the hols!!!

prinz

LadyMayBelle wrote: »

Why do people bother doing 9 subjects? We had to do 7; a fallback on in case we really screwed up..but 9?

If I had a fair idea I'd be getting top marks in 6 or 7 subjects I'd take more subjects on offer for the craic. What's there to lose?

Is there something wrong with learning for the sake of learning? Or is doing the minimum that standard that everyone should be aiming for?

7sr2z3fely84g5

Caraville wrote: »

As for the OP saying that the top students are the teachers' favourites- I'm betting the OP doesn't know that many teachers. My favourite students have always been the ones who let me do my job, makes a decent effort at their schoolwork and are polite. They might end up with 100 points or 600 points, that side of things are irrelevant.

i do,and im glad the day some retired,some where not made out for teaching,yes sure there are some messers in every class,but the top teachers if they had any messers in their classes had students quickly moved into another class,the same teachers who would lose their rag if anyone queried their method of teaching,the same ones who got their croke park agreement and are up in arms that the state is putting an extra student in their class because are not willing to take a pay cut,the same teachers who are retiring now to save their pensions,the same ones who are now going to fuss that the state could be cutting the 30 million bonus payment spent on correcting exam papers.

Paddy Cow

Caraville wrote: »

Exams ARE being dumbed down. Look at exams papers from 10-15 years ago in comparison to today. Things are definitely easier nowadays, which is a slippery slope that I don't like.

I haven't looked at a leaving cert exam paper for 12 years so I don't know what they're like now but I do remember that back then the internet wasn't as accessible and we would be checking Aertel for the points Oh how times have changed

prinz

Davidius wrote: »

I'm not saying they necessarily find getting 8 A1s easy, but that the extra effort they put in might not be as much as people would like to believe. It's feasible that somebody like that might enjoy a healthy social life..

+1. The lad that got top marks in my year was not only quite good looking, he was extremely popular with both sexes and played on three different teams in different two sports.

Then again he didn't fit the stereotype of being the lonely, single nerd slaving over schoolwork 24/7.

partyatmygaff

The only people who put forward the nerd stereotype on people who get over 500 are those bitter about their own results.

Amirani

Leaving Cert exams are far too easy in general.

Skerries

does anyone know how to work out the points for the older leaving results, the ones prior to A1, A2 etc system?
I have been trying for years to figure out what my results would be now

Paddy Cow

Skerries wrote: »

does anyone know how to work out the points for the older leaving results, the ones prior to A1, A2 etc system?
I have been trying for years to figure out what my results would be now

Was that back when they had the Inter Cert and something else?

LadyMayBelle

prinz wrote: »

If I had a fair idea I'd be getting top marks in 6 or 7 subjects I'd take more subjects on offer for the craic. What's there to lose?

Well good for you, but I don't know if doing it for that reason applies to most students..surely when your 16/17 there are far better things you could be doing for the craic to develop your social and emotional sides, not just educational?

Anyways, good on them.

partyatmygaff

LadyMayBelle wrote: »

Well good for you, but I don't know if doing it for that reason applies to most students..surely when your 16/17 there are far better things you could be doing for the craic to develop your social and emotional sides, not just educational?

Anyways, good on them.

I did eight subjects personally. I certainly didn't do it for the craic and most people I know who did extra subjects didn't do it for the craic either. I did two extra subjects to compensate for my terrible Irish and another to act as a failsafe in case of a bad exam. Nearly everyone who's aiming for a course with high points requirements does the same.

prinz

LadyMayBelle wrote: »

Well good for you, but I don't know if doing it for that reason applies to most students..surely when your 16/17 there are far better things you could be doing for the craic to develop your social and emotional sides, not just educational?

Who says it's 'just educational' and who says that they are doing it at the expense of their social or emotional sides? It is possible to be a well rounded individual and excel academically...

If they were spending their time sitting on a wall or drinking cans of Dutch in a field somewhere that would be accepted as normal. Getting as rounded an education as possible and exposure in a lot of different areas, languages, music, art, sciences, maths, history etc etc - must be some sort of weirdo.

EuropeanSon

LadyMayBelle wrote: »

Well good for you, but I don't know if doing it for that reason applies to most students..surely when your 16/17 there are far better things you could be doing for the craic to develop your social and emotional sides, not just educational?

Anyways, good on them.

Take away the amount of time the lazy average people spend watching TV and doing other asocial activities and you've got loads of time you can spend on doing an extra subject or two.

RH149

Skerries wrote: »

does anyone know how to work out the points for the older leaving results, the ones prior to A1, A2 etc system?
I have been trying for years to figure out what my results would be now

You can't really work out the points from the old grades. Back when I did it (apart from Trinity which had 100s in their points system) it was very simple:

A= 5, B=4, C=3 D=2 for Higher Level and I think you got 2 for an Ord level A and 1 for an Ord. B. There was and extra 2 bonus points for Higher Maths so anyone getting 6 As incl. Higher Maths got the maximum points of 32. They were the points for all the NUI Colleges and I think DCU and UL(was actually NIHE Dublin/Limerick then! Showing my age!)

Now the new system has A1 and A2 etc so the only way to work out your points based on your old grades is to guess whether that B you got was really an 84% (B1) or a 71 % (B3)..........Quite a difference! The bonus points for Hons. Maths are gone too so that might lower points.

So your points will be based on guesswork. I like to think my Bs were all of the 84% category but reckon I'm being too generous!!;)

krudler

awesome, the yearly "its too hard/easy/was harder/easier in my day rabble rabble" Leaving Cert thread has arrived.

partyatmygaff

prinz wrote: »

Who says it's 'just educational' and who says that they are doing it at the expense of their social or emotional sides? It is possible to be a well rounded individual and excel academically...

If they were spending their time sitting on a wall or drinking cans of Dutch in a field somewhere that would be accepted as normal. Getting as rounded an education as possible and exposure in a lot of different areas, languages, music, art, sciences, maths, history etc etc - must be some sort of weirdo.

Get wasted every weekend for two years - Legend.
Get a well rounded education - Weirdo

Strange mentality to have really.

positron

Could someone please explain to me how the points system work?

I did my schooling outside Ireland, and I was 15 when I finished 10 years of schooling, and I had to 6 papers. Each will be scored out of 50 marks. And I scored 473 out of 600. Which is about 78%. It was a "First Class". 50-60% is second class, 40-50% is Third class or Pass. Below 40% is fail. And over 80% is a distinction. Top level rank holders usually scored around 580-590 out of 600.

Can someone help compare that to this, please?