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Child Item

Is mock exams correction fee necessary?

jos_kel

Hi,

My son is going into Junior Cert year soon.

One of the fees (which is an optional fee of €90) is for “Mock Exam Correction”.

Is this where the school sends paper externally for correction?
How essential is it to go external as teacher might have a good sense of where he’s at as my Son is neurodivergent and while being very clever in his own way, teacher is probably best placed to measure how he’s doing.

Thanks

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28064212

His teacher won't be marking the real thing. The point of the mocks is to get an idea of how the student would fare in the real exam.

jos_kel

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122504600#Comment_122504600

Thanks for your reply but my question was about the optional “Mock exam correction” fee.

Is the a downside to not paying it?

Won’t his teacher be able to mark it in any case if it comes to it?

OscarMIlde

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122504887#Comment_122504887

Marking exams takes a huge amount of time and is extremely tedious (my mother does it now she is retired). You're asking a teacher to take on a huge amount of unpaid work because you don't want to pay 80 euro. In addition the marking follows a very set procedure and guidance which is provided to the marker and double checked by a supervisor. If a teacher has never marked exams before they won't be able to properly replicate this even if they did agree to mark it.

Big Bag of Chips

If it's optional then obviously you don't have to pay it. His class teachers will mark his exams and he will be given whatever result they come up with.

Him "being very clever in his own way" won't make much difference in the junior cert. The person correcting the paper will know nothing about your son and will mark based only on what is presented on the page. It might be better to give him that experience before his exams rather than hoping his teacher will mark it a bit soft because he "knows him".

28064212

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122504887#Comment_122504887

You asked two questions. In the latter, you asked whether his teacher is best placed to measure how he is doing. My response is that the teacher is not best placed, an anonymous experienced marker that replicates the real thing is best placed

jos_kel

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122504922#Comment_122504922

To be fair I’m not asking any teacher to do anything.

But the fact it was optional for parent to pay €90 seemed to imply that the school we’re leaving it open.

I’m not privy to how the school ask their teachers to mark mock exams.

Thanks anyway for taking time to reply.

Big Bag of Chips

€90 to mark 10 exams and get an independent assessment of where he's at before his exams is probably a good use of €90.

jos_kel

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122504933#Comment_122504933

”The person correcting the paper will know nothing about your son”

In relation to above statement I’ll check in with school how this works as my Son will rightfully get accommodations due to Dyspraxia and ADHD.

Accommodations to remove the unfair disadvantage he brings to the start of the exam.

I would have thought person correcting the paper needs to know that at some level but will check at school.

Thanks for bringing that to my awareness.

Big Bag of Chips

He might be given extra time, a scribe, a reader, a room on his own with no distractions etc but (as far as I'm aware) there will be no special accomodations applied to the marking of the paper. My husband has marked papers in the past and no paper he had ever came with a note or any identifying mark to say this paper was from a student with special accomodation.

foolhardy

The special accommodations your son receives is in the actual sitting of the exam, not in the marking. Why should he get extra marks or have to achieve less than other students in the actual State exams?

OscarMIlde

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122505092#Comment_122505092

Sorry, never clocked in original post that charge was optional.

jos_kel

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122505148#Comment_122505148

Thanks for taking time to reply.

Wasn’t suggesting any of that. Just wasn’t sure if market should still be aware.

But thanks because it highlights maybe the need for maybe a scribe for my Son so that the unaware marker isn’t thrown by hard to read writing due to dyspraxia.

The key thing with accommodations is not to give my Son an unfair advantage rather to remove an unfair disadvantage that my Son has at the start of the exam.

AnnieinDundrum

accommodation refers to the sitting of the exam, quiet room, scribe etc.., whatever is needed.

marking is separate and not impacted.

I think an external independent marking is useful feedback for students and their teachers. Worth the cost, if it’s a problem ask the school for assistance, they may have a fund for parents who need assistance.

tscul32

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122505341#Comment_122505341

For handwriting issues due to dyspraxia the typical accomodation would be use of a laptop to type the answers. The answers are then printed and submitted with the exam paper. There will usually be a separate exam centre for this.

thehairygrape

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058364456/is-mock-exams-correction-fee-necessary

The answer to the first question is probably, but best check with the school. I presume it’s made optional to avoid a parent being embarrassed by having to admit they can’t afford it. If it’s optional don’t pay it if you don’t want to. You’d have to check with the school to find out who then marks the papers.

The second question: as pointed out the accommodations are for the sitting of the exams and of course your child should be and is entitled to this. However, the marker won’t know this. Having someone other than their teacher(s) correct the exam is good practice for the real thing.
Wishing your child the best of luck in JC. It’ll be fine.

jos_kel

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122507081#Comment_122507081

Thank You 🙏

HazeDoll

The mock exam fees also go towards paying for the actual exam papers, stationary etc. If you want him to do the exams this will still need to be paid. In our place when mock fees aren't paid the student doesn't sit the exams.

HazeDoll

Another thing… It is possible that if you are in straitened circumstances the school might be able to help with the fees. Talk to the year head, explain that you can't afford the fees but you'd prefer if he did the exams. However if you're planning on not paying and cheerfully assuming the teachers will do the work for free you might be disappointed.

It's a policy in our school not to correct mocks for free because if you do it for one you have to do it for everybody and immediately the purpose of the mocks is defeated.

jos_kel

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122507957#Comment_122507957

I’m not assuming anything. I’m not privy to what the school demands of its staff and teachers.

Luckily the cost is not an issue for us so considering the great informed feedback I’ve received here I’m happy to pay it and actually have done so.

The initial question arose due to the fact that the fee is optional, which seemed to imply that the school teachers did mark them. Whether the school compensate the teachers for this or not was a total unknown for me and wasn’t really the thrust of my question.

Thanks for taking the time to reply.