What percent is needed to pass Leaving Cert Maths??

Luize

So I'm doing higher level and I'm thinking of dropping down on the day of the exam cause if I fail maths, I can't get into college. But then I heard that you only need at least 30% to pass? Apparently they changed it cause so many people failed the mocks. Is this true or??

Prodigious

No.
/thread.

Colm!

The 30% mark is something that happened last year and hopefully won't ever have to be repeated, as far as I know.

spurious

Luize wrote: »

So I'm doing higher level and I'm thinking of dropping down on the day of the exam cause if I fail maths, I can't get into college. But then I heard that you only need at least 30% to pass? Apparently they changed it cause so many people failed the mocks. Is this true or??

The mocks are nothing to do with the SEC.
The pass mark is 40%.

Luize

Colm! wrote: »

The 30% mark is something that happened last year and hopefully won't ever have to be repeated, as far as I know.

But could that happen? Like if too many people were failing would they be likely to drop it down to 30? :P

spurious

Luize wrote: »

But could that happen? Like if too many people were failing would they be likely to drop it down to 30? :P

They would not drop the pass mark that far.
Sometimes, if a lot of difficulty has been experienced with a question, they will adjust the marking scheme for the question to allow more marks for the method, so that even if people got the answer wrong, they will not lose too many marks.

They also sometimes (like in the JC) go back and check for people on 38% or thereabouts to see is there anywhere they can garner extra marks.

wow exuberant

it's 38 percent.

"Some candidates awarded a D3 may discover that their total mark is actually below the 40% boundary between D3 and E. This is because of a longstanding practice in place since the introduction of the grading system in 1969 to award a grade D with a tolerance of up to 2%."


Taken from the letter that the Board of Education sent out this week

Student007

I was told that the ordinary maths has a slightly different course by my teacher, so be aware of that...

SuperSayian

Yeah it's 38%

chlareol

It depends on the year. I heard that people who should have gotten 27% last year passed. It depends on the bell curve, all the results have to fit on a normal distribution curve. They always deny it, but one of my teachers is a corrector and she said they basically chop and change the marking scheme until it fits, so you have a low failure rate, low A1 rate and a load of low Bs and high Cs. So you really just have to hope that there are enough people as ****ed as you are to push you up. That's what I'm hoping for anyway...

Luize

Student007 wrote: »

I was told that the ordinary maths has a slightly different course by my teacher, so be aware of that...

Yeah I know I heard that too. But I had a look at the ordinary level papers and it seems fairly ok so I should be able to scrape a C at least.. hopefully

eoins23456

officially 40 but i think if you get 38 you get the d3

doolox

When doing a maths question, some people think you have to get the answer fully right for any marks but a certain percentage will be given for attempts so long as the examiner can see all your steps and where you may have gone wrong.

Practice writing out and answering as many past papers as you can. Maths is mostly about technique and method and should improve with practice. Practice will increase speed of execution and gain you time to do the hard bits more successfully.

Leave blank space at the end of each attempt and do not get bogged down too long in one question. Think of budgeting a certain no of minutes per mark for the exam and stick to that budget. Allow 10mins at start to read the entire paper and make choices. Allow another 10-15 mins at end to check and correct any obvious mistakes.

If there are sections of the maths papers that are causing you immense difficulty and you cannot get anything right in them and they are not compulsory a risky but effective strategy is to concentrate all your energies on the sections you get the best marks in. However if you fall down in marks in these "favourite" sections you may not have an alternative to fall back on.

matTNT

spurious wrote: »

The mocks are nothing to do with the SEC.
The pass mark is 40%.

38%

aimzLc2

matTNT wrote: »

38%

If everyone this year does very well in maths they may not be able to give all with 38% a pass, it is officially supposed to be 40% so be safe and stick with that , if you are lucky you may get through with 38%.

wow exuberant

aimzLc2 wrote: »

If everyone this year does very well in maths they may not be able to give all with 38% a pass, it is officially supposed to be 40% so be safe and stick with that , if you are lucky you may get through with 38%.

wrong

spurious

wow exuberant wrote: »

wrong

Not wrong.
Depending on the national performance levels it is possible (though not very likely) that those on 38 would not be given a pass. The marking scheme will more than likely be amended at least once.

wow exuberant

spurious wrote: »

Not wrong.
Depending on the national performance levels it is possible (though not very likely) that those on 38 would not be given a pass. The marking scheme will more than likely be amended at least once.

They might change the marking scheme and make it harsher so that if you originally got 38 percent you might get brought down to a fail

MathsManiac

Indeed. No matter what fiddling they do with the marking scheme, if the final mark you end up with is 38% or more but less thyan 45%, you will be issued with a D3 grade.

Lonepiper

That 38% thing is handy,I usually get low 40s in tests so it gives me little more of a safety net!