Daughter not happy with LC results - anyone else?

Upthewalls1 · 08-09-2020 12:09pm #1

Is my daughter the only one that isnt happy with her results? I feel for her, she worked so so hard from after Halloween last year, she really was set to do quite well in the exams (alot better than her predicted grades anyway). She had a bad 5th year, health and personal problems and her class tests wouldnt have been great. Shes so sad that her hard work was never seen or taken into account. And to add to it, the whole country seems to have done better than expected! She has more points than would be needed for her course going on last years points requirments but how much will they rise I wonder? What do people think? Are they likely to go up by 10, 20 points? 50 points? The wait til Friday is torture.

zetor 4911 · 08-09-2020 1:09pm

Upthewalls1 wrote: »

Is my daughter the only one that isnt happy with her results? I feel for her, she worked so so hard from after Halloween last year, she really was set to do quite well in the exams (alot better than her predicted grades anyway). She had a bad 5th year, health and personal problems and her class tests wouldnt have been great. Shes so sad that her hard work was never seen or taken into account. And to add to it, the whole country seems to have done better than expected! She has more points than would be needed for her course going on last years points requirments but how much will they rise I wonder? What do people think? Are they likely to go up by 10, 20 points? 50 points? The wait til Friday is torture.

Your daughter is not the only one my son in same boat got about 40 points less than a conservative estimate - no grade inflation here. It would appears that he and maybe your daughter are 2 of the students in the 4.4% who got lower grades than the teachers predicted the Department probable pull the grades down - very unfair.

Gerry T · 08-09-2020 1:34pm

Upthewalls1 wrote: »

Is my daughter the only one that isnt happy with her results? I feel for her, she worked so so hard from after Halloween last year, she really was set to do quite well in the exams (alot better than her predicted grades anyway). She had a bad 5th year, health and personal problems and her class tests wouldnt have been great. Shes so sad that her hard work was never seen or taken into account. And to add to it, the whole country seems to have done better than expected! She has more points than would be needed for her course going on last years points requirments but how much will they rise I wonder? What do people think? Are they likely to go up by 10, 20 points? 50 points? The wait til Friday is torture.

I've twins that just finished the leaving (boy and girl). I would say their both about 40pts below what was expected. some strange results in say 2 or 3 subjects, where grades are 1 or 2 levels below what was normally got.
Happy enough as both have exceed last yrs points for the courses they want by over 20pts.
talking with friends it seems to be a common enough story, most people below what they wanted, a good few are well below their mocks which seems very unfair. I feel for a couple that got around 500 and are missing their course by 10 or 20 points.
We'll see on monday when the eachers grades are made available.

zetor 4911 · 08-09-2020 1:43pm

Gerry T wrote: »

I've twins that just finished the leaving (boy and girl). I would say their both about 40pts below what was expected. some strange results in say 2 or 3 subjects, where grades are 1 or 2 levels below what was normally got.
Happy enough as both have exceed last yrs points for the courses they want by over 20pts.
talking with friends it seems to be a common enough story, most people below what they wanted, a good few are well below their mocks which seems very unfair. I feel for a couple that got around 500 and are missing their course by 10 or 20 points.
We'll see on monday when the eachers grades are made available.

When you say they received 40 points below what was expected is that 40 points below what was expected if they sat the exam or 40 point below the inflated grading?

StackSteevens · 08-09-2020 1:45pm

Was the option to sit the LC in November not specially designed to facilitate such disappointed students?

zetor 4911 · 08-09-2020 1:48pm

StackSteevens wrote: »

Was the option to sit the LC in November not specially designed to facilitate such disappointed students?

That will be too late to count towards college this year.

Gerry T · 08-09-2020 1:54pm

zetor 4911 wrote: »

When you say they received 40 points below what was expected is that 40 points below what was expected if they sat the exam or 40 point below the inflated grading?

From what they thought they would get. In one subject his results were consistently around the mid 60's and ends up with a h6, don't understand that. In two other subjects getting a grade lower than expected from this process. Who knows if he did the exams how it would have gone.
In his case it's not an issue as he's going to get his first choice, but I do feel for those that feel they may not get theirs.
I wonder what impact not standardising schools v schools had on the outcome, I'm sure there will be reports with time.

Gerry T · 08-09-2020 1:55pm

StackSteevens wrote: »

Was the option to sit the LC in November not specially designed to facilitate such disappointed students?

No

zetor 4911 · 08-09-2020 2:01pm

What I have been told is that the Department took a sample of students from schools and went through their marks and adjusted them so maybe some students were unlucky to be selected.

StackSteevens · 08-09-2020 2:23pm

StackSteevens wrote: »

Was the option to sit the LC in November not specially designed to facilitate such disappointed students?

Gerry T wrote: »

No

So for what cohort of 2020 LC students was it designed?

Surely not the ones who aren't disappointed by their results?

Upthewalls1 · 08-09-2020 2:26pm

StackSteevens wrote: »

Was the option to sit the LC in November not specially designed to facilitate such disappointed students?

I'm not here to debate the issue but was just wondering was my daughter the only one, as all the media coverage is taking about record high results and I havent heard one other person of my friends kids and my daughters friends that are disappointed with what they got. Like others have said here my dd got a few "strange" results like a H2 in a subject that she has never ever gotten below H1 results and another subject where she got a grade below the mocks and they hadnt finished the course at the time of the mocks. The problem with the November exams is that its so close. My daughter stopped studying when the plan to go with calculated grades was announced. If they were going ahead maybe in February that would be better but November is quite close. I was just interested to see how many points people thought this years requirements would be over last year. My daughter has about 50 points more than last years cut off for the course she wants.

StackSteevens · 08-09-2020 2:29pm

zetor 4911 wrote: »

That will be too late to count towards college this year.

Correct.

Furthermore, it's unlikely that Norma Foley/the SEC will be gifting students higher grades than they deserve, as, according to herself, is what happened this time round.

Although who can say for certain? Perhaps she'll repeat the insanity if it is seen to have improved her approval ratings.

Peterd66 · 08-09-2020 2:44pm

zetor 4911 wrote: »

What I have been told is that the Department took a sample of students from schools and went through their marks and adjusted them so maybe some students were unlucky to be selected.

Can anyone verify this? I thought it was a statistical application to all results?

It seems in an effort to be "equitable" they abandoned school/teacher track record, which is a key statistical indicator, and have been very unfair to schools/teachers with a good track record. This is court case waiting to happen.

zetor 4911 · 08-09-2020 2:54pm

If all students had inflated grades then the cao could sort it out by increasing the points but it appears that some students had their predicted grades reduced by the Department which puts them at a serious disadvantage
How did the Department select the students which they reduced the grades on? Seems to me to be very unfair.

Yurt2 · 08-09-2020 3:19pm

I know a 17 year old me would have been completely screwed over by this year's system. Didn't do a tap until about a month out, when I put in the mother of all cramming sessions. Many of my teachers had me written off as a lazy so and so. Added 200 points to my mocks results just by sheer force of cramming.

Peterd66 · 08-09-2020 3:29pm

https://www.kilians.com/news/2020/leaving-certificate-german-results-letter-to-the-does/

Shows how this years ignoring school history is deeply flawed.

Gerry T · 08-09-2020 3:37pm

StackSteevens wrote: »

So for what cohort of 2020 LC students was it designed?

Surely not the ones who aren't disappointed by their results?

It was first muted to be held in January, that would in my book have been "specifically designed". That would give students, after they look at first and second CAO rounds to make a decision by the end of Sept to get back into the groove of study, ram load the information and get prepared for an exam in January. Holding an exam in Nov doesn't give students enough time to prepare.

There would be no teacher support during Oct and trying to organise grinds would be near impossible with the current Covid restrictions.

Meathdub · 08-09-2020 4:18pm

I’m aware of a huge no of very disappointed pupils. From schools with very strong track records (admittedly a privileged cohort). Based on what is in public domain so far I think methodology was something like this...

We now know they methodology finally adopted involved disregarding the prior record of the school and generally taking teacher’s predictions at face value. We also know they would look at class ranking and junior cert results in the standardization process.

So for illustration let’s say the average historically nationally for a H1 in maths is 3 per 100. The results of the teachers grade predictions have in fact been much higher, lets say 5 per hundred. So, under standardization nationally a reduction by 17% was decided upon (let’s say 20% to keep numbers simple) which results in a maximum available 4 H1s per hundred pupils.

As there is no regard to schools historical results, which in many cases (but not all) are very consistent, the computer algorithm, broadly speaking, plucks out and accepts all H1s in schools for those students who teachers ranked as 1, 2, 3 or 4 (per 100) in class. Anyone awarded a H1 with a class ranking greater than 4 may have lost out.

So, for some schools who historically consistently achieve, say 10 H1s each year those pupils who were ranked by teachers as 5 to 10 may have been reduced to a H2.

For schools who rarely get a H1 in maths, if they allocated 4 this year they would probably have been accepted (unless say, they had a poor junior cert). And in fairness, who can say they didn’t have a strong cohort this year.

For completeness the other data point that was looked at was junior cert. So if someone did a poor junior cert this could also be factored in to the above along the way.

Anyway. OP, I’d be pretty hopeful with a 50 point buffer your daughter should be fine. Best of luck to all (notwithstanding that’s not possible!). Many pupils who should be safe will need to do the Nov exams which is tantamount to losing a year. Life sometimes sucks. Really feel for the class of 2020. They’ve had a tough year. And Friday yet to come....

Upthewalls1 · 08-09-2020 4:34pm

Peterd66 wrote: »

Can anyone verify this? I thought it was a statistical application to all results?

It seems in an effort to be "equitable" they abandoned school/teacher track record, which is a key statistical indicator, and have been very unfair to schools/teachers with a good track record. This is court case waiting to happen.

Although most people wanted the schools track record taken out of the system, it was more fair to keep it in.

Gerry T · 08-09-2020 5:04pm

Upthewalls1 wrote: »

Although most people wanted the schools track record taken out of the system, it was more fair to keep it in.

No they didn't, I for one wanted the school's track record kept in. If reading the post above yours from Meathdub it suggests that if you took 2 schools, one with a track record of very high results and another at the other end of the scale. IF they both had 100 LC students, then both schools would be allocated the same number of H1, H2 etc....How is that fair ???
The students that are most likely to get adjusted downward by the algorithm would be from historically high achieving schools.

_Brian · 08-09-2020 5:08pm

It’s really hard to tell how much points will raise but it’s definitely expected that they will.
One person I spoke to said some courses could see 50 point increases easily.

So many issues both this year and indeed being pushed into next year.

Peterd66 · 08-09-2020 5:11pm

Anyone with a very basic understand of statistics would understand you have a severely flawed data standardisation by ignoring school historic data as illustrated very well in the above example.

However it may not have been as simple as that - according to the IT article today in a slightly unclear manner, they seemed to use the "the aggregate Junior Cert results.... of the class of 2020". If this article is correct, then a high performing school would have higher aggregate JC scores, than a lower performing school and thus should get a greater "allocation" of H1's which probably shouldn't be far off the same effect as using historic school LC grades, you would think?

https://www.irishtimes.com/news/education/grade-calculation-the-precise-method-of-marking-1.4349038?mode=amp&utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter&__twitter_impression=true&s=08

What pisses me off is the imprecise and dangerous use of language in this debate by politicians and journalists, here and the UK, which has lead to this mess. The school standardisation proposed was not socioeconomic based and should not have been refereed to as such, it was actually performance based and should have been clearly explained as such.

I am not naive and understand that socioeconomic factors are one of the elements that play into the difference in school performance and this is something that should be addressed, but the standardisation was not socioeconomic.

dixiefly · 08-09-2020 5:12pm

Peterd66 wrote: »

https://www.kilians.com/news/2020/leaving-certificate-german-results-letter-to-the-does/

Shows how this years ignoring school history is deeply flawed.

That's awful.

I agree with that principal that the outcry in the UK influenced the adjustments when prior performance should have been a major indicator irrespective of the backgound of the schools / students.

The objective should have been to replicate as closely as possible what the students WOULD have achieved - not some general averaging overall.

Zookey123 · 08-09-2020 5:56pm

zetor 4911 wrote: »

If all students had inflated grades then the cao could sort it out by increasing the points but it appears that some students had their predicted grades reduced by the Department which puts them at a serious disadvantage
How did the Department select the students which they reduced the grades on? Seems to me to be very unfair.

The CAO is not in charge of the college point system and neither are the colleges themselves. From what I recall the only prerequisites for a college course are specific grades in certain subjects other then that its just a battle royal of highest points gets the first available space in the course and so on until all the spaces are filled and the points of the last student admitted is the minimum points listed on the CAO and college website. So you can see that it is impossible to really tell what a minimum points for a certain course will be this year until the last student is admitted into the course but with the inflated scores I would expect to see a substantial rise in most courses.

rainbowtrout · 09-09-2020 6:06pm

zetor 4911 wrote: »

If all students had inflated grades then the cao could sort it out by increasing the points but it appears that some students had their predicted grades reduced by the Department which puts them at a serious disadvantage
How did the Department select the students which they reduced the grades on? Seems to me to be very unfair.

CAO don't set the points for any course. It's supply and demand. If there are 20 places on a course and 25 people apply the person who is in 20th place on the list has the points that are published as the entry requirement for that year.

And that applies as follows: If the first 19 on the list had 590 and the person in 20th position had 305 then the points needed to enter the course are 305.

This is why medicine and dentistry etc have high points. There are not many places and there is huge demand so those with the highest points get the places.

I was speaking to my dentist about this a couple of years ago and he reckoned that a person who could achieve a LC of around 380 would manage the course. He also said that those who did a practical subject like woodwork or metalwork had an easier time of it in second year as it was all practical work and they had the skills of using tools well developed compared to the person who did all theoretical subjects. They all catch up in the end of course.

Many courses have a fairly consistent demand from year to year so the points don't fluctuate too much, however external factors like the recession 10 years ago saw a collapse in demand for construction courses so similarly points crashed for them too.

Quantum Erasure · 09-09-2020 9:16pm

Upthewalls1 wrote: »

I'm not here to debate the issue but was just wondering was my daughter the only one, as all the media coverage is taking about record high results and I havent heard one other person of my friends kids and my daughters friends that are disappointed with what they got. Like others have said here my dd got a few "strange" results like a H2 in a subject that she has never ever gotten below H1 results and another subject where she got a grade below the mocks and they hadnt finished the course at the time of the mocks. The problem with the November exams is that its so close. My daughter stopped studying when the plan to go with calculated grades was announced. If they were going ahead maybe in February that would be better but November is quite close. I was just interested to see how many points people thought this years requirements would be over last year. My daughter has about 50 points more than last years cut off for the course she wants.

I'd say courses will go up by around 30 points across the board, maybe higher increases in the 350 - 450 range

Gerry T · 09-09-2020 11:26pm

Quantum Erasure wrote: »

I'd say courses will go up by around 30 points across the board, maybe higher increases in the 350 - 450 range

I'd take that bet. I think course at 500 + will drop by 10 or 20pts and course at 350 to 450 will stay the same.

My opinion is that the schools that typically do better than others in the LC have had their grades lowered, they would typically hit the 500+ courses in higher percentages. With these students seeing grades lowering, the entry level will also lower.
Again the better schools ar being hit in the mid range 350 to 450, but with students falling from above the entry points will stay the same.
Possibly the lower end below 350 will see point entry rise.

All an assumption on what I think is happening. Not standardising due to a schools past performance is very poor judgement in my opinion. The extreme example is what happened in St Kilian's, but it is an indicator of what has happened. If true its a disgrace.
We'll find out on Monday !

11-09-2020 1:40pm

Yurt! wrote: »

I know a 17 year old me would have been completely screwed over by this year's system. Didn't do a tap until about a month out, when I put in the mother of all cramming sessions. Many of my teachers had me written off as a lazy so and so. Added 200 points to my mocks results just by sheer force of cramming.

That's all I've been thinking about throughout this whole fiasco. Loads of fellas and wans in my year would have been thoroughly ****ed, including me.

Iscreamkone · 11-09-2020 1:47pm

I'm also not happy with my LC results - maybe I should have studied harder in 1985

MrMusician18 · 11-09-2020 1:57pm

I may be forgetting something, but I'm pretty sure there was a concerted campaign by parents and students to have this years exams abandoned. Weren't the students polled and the vast majority wanted them called off?

I guess for some students it's a case of be careful of what you wish for.

IMO the exams should've been conducted in July/August as they had originally intended to.

Chiparus · 11-09-2020 2:25pm

MrMusician18 wrote: »

I may be forgetting something, but I'm pretty sure there was a concerted campaign by parents and students to have this years exams abandoned. Weren't the students polled and the vast majority wanted them called off?

I guess for some students it's a case of be careful of what you wish for.

IMO the exams should've been conducted in July/August as they had originally intended to.

I dont think they were polled , certainly my child was not polled and was studying contineously during the lockdown. Would have been happy to do the exams.

Got less than predicted by teachers following mocks in January, terribly upset today, despite getting medicine- wanted to go to UCD -God knows why.

hamburgham · 11-09-2020 3:17pm

MrMusician18 wrote: »

I may be forgetting something, but I'm pretty sure there was a concerted campaign by parents and students to have this years exams abandoned. Weren't the students polled and the vast majority wanted them called off?

I guess for some students it's a case of be careful of what you wish for.

IMO the exams should've been conducted in July/August as they had originally intended to.

Yes, quite funny how the chickens have come home to roost.

Wasn't Ciara Kelly of Newstalk one of the most vociferous media campaigners for the cancellation of the exams. Heard her on the radio today saying she was very worried now about how this standardisation was going to affect her child's CAO choice.

IgoPAP · 11-09-2020 4:21pm

Students: Cancel the exams because of our health (not because we're not bothered to revise for the exam and find this as an easy way out)!

Students: there's nothing wrong with having our grades inflated by our teacher because it's been a tough year and introducing historical school data is prejudicial!

Students: What do you mean the points have risen for my course and now I can't get in?! This is all your fault gubermint!

Pardon me for not feeling pity.

shesty · 11-09-2020 5:46pm

Well I admit I hope it is also remembered in years to come when the argument for abolishing the LC starts to come up again.

It has its critics, and there are things that could be done better, but equally it is an anomymous exam, corrected by a stranger and there is a whole lot to be said in favour of that.

Mrsmum · 11-09-2020 6:14pm

My teacher friend could not have been more against predicted grades or any variation therein. There would be no standard, there would be favouritism from teachers, mocks and other exams were not corrected towards predicted grades, no one knows what a student can or cannot pull off on the day etc etc she would say all summer long. Anyway her son got really fabulous results last Monday and with her delighted mammy hat on, without a hint of irony, she told me his results and said "clearly the process worked after all". So that's the way this LC will be remembered, the winners will say it worked perfectly well and those who were disappointed that it was a failure.

screamer · 11-09-2020 6:19pm

Mrsmum wrote: »

My teacher friend could not have been more against predicted grades or any variation therein. There would be no standard, there would be favouritism from teachers, mocks and other exams were not corrected towards predicted grades, no one knows what a student can or cannot pull off on the day etc etc she would say all summer long. Anyway her son got really fabulous results last Monday and with her delighted mammy hat on, without a hint of irony, she told me his results and said "clearly the process worked after all". So that's the way this LC will be remembered, the winners will say it worked perfectly well and those who were disappointed that it was a failure.

I’d agree with all those points raised. No one knows how the test goes on the day and for sure teachers can inflate grades, so I’m not surprised there were downgraded. Still, Id say that if people are really unhappy and didn’t get what they feel entitled to, repeat the year. It’s one year out of their whole lives, which is nothing if it means happiness.

jimd2 · 12-09-2020 10:56am

screamer wrote: »

I’d agree with all those points raised. No one knows how the test goes on the day and for sure teachers can inflate grades, so I’m not surprised there were downgraded. Still, Id say that if people are really unhappy and didn’t get what they feel entitled to, repeat the year. It’s one year out of their whole lives, which is nothing if it means happiness.

That’s is a good point regarding repeating as a viable option. Unfortunately there will be a few students affected that have already repeated and effected.

Some very good points made on this thread. I agree that the leaving cert should have gone ahead that time in July but it was a political decision to abandon - not based on a scientific survey of the students or teachers.

Just as opening up the schools was a political decision at a time when bringing back many more students was much more risky.

And the decision to drop the method to standardise the grades close to what the students would be excepted to get was a political decision. For all we know the department could have had the system well figured out and the rug pulled from them.

I think this government is totally spineless and just making off the cuff decisions like this but we seem to have no opposition and I have started a thread about this as I think its a disgrace.

jimd2 · 12-09-2020 11:09am

Upthewalls1 wrote: »

Although most people wanted the schools track record taken out of the system, it was more fair to keep it in.

How did your daughter fare out in the offers?

I hope she got what she wanted.

Hopefully this debacle will be a life lesson for those affected and give them a hardness and an edge and show them that everything is not fair in this world. And demonstrate that sometimes you get a knock back but that it is possible to come back more experienced and better for it

If it is an option hopefully some can repeat and get what they want next year. One year really is not much in the bigger picture even if they are slightly older than others in the class.

It wasnt me123 · 12-09-2020 11:51am

shesty wrote: »

Well I admit I hope it is also remembered in years to come when the argument for abolishing the LC starts to come up again.

It has its critics, and there are things that could be done better, but equally it is an anomymous exam, corrected by a stranger and there is a whole lot to be said in favour of that.

I for one hope they abolish the LC in its current form - I agree there should be an exam at the end of the year but it should never be what 12 years of schooling relies on. It should be based on exams, projects, class participation etc. Students should know from 5th Year / 6th Year that their whole schooling will be taken into consideration - not cramming 6 weeks before 1 exam.

And are our teachers so incompetent and crooked that they can’t be impartial in their marking?

My daughter is one of the students who received an assessed grade last Monday - luckily her course doesn’t need points - but realistically, as a chronic asthmatic, she would never be sitting in a hall with 300 others during a pandemic sitting an exam. We couldn’t have taken the chance.

MrMusician18 · 12-09-2020 1:07pm

It wasnt me123 wrote: »

I for one hope they abolish the LC in its current form - I agree there should be an exam at the end of the year but it should never be what 12 years of schooling relies on. It should be based on exams, projects, class participation etc. Students should know from 5th Year / 6th Year that their whole schooling will be taken into consideration - not cramming 6 weeks before 1 exam.

And are our teachers so incompetent and crooked that they can’t be impartial in their marking?

My daughter is one of the students who received an assessed grade last Monday - luckily her course doesn’t need points - but realistically, as a chronic asthmatic, she would never be sitting in a hall with 300 others during a pandemic sitting an exam. We couldn’t have taken the chance.

This was never going to be the case. The intention was to run the exams in classrooms with 14 other students all spaced out and controlled. The only reason the exams didn't go ahead was because there was political pressure (from students and parents to abandon them - we have schools open now and the incidence/100000 is much higher.

Funny all those students who feared getting covid in exam halls have no fear mixing with those same students in social settings. It was a bs cop out, but it's what the students wanted so they can live with it.

IgoPAP · 12-09-2020 1:09pm

If there's one thing that's clear though all this: the Leaving Cert should have gone ahead this year. There was no excuse not. The government literally bowed down to student pressure because they didn't fancy sitting the exam this year. Cowardly.

chewed · 12-09-2020 1:35pm

My nephew, who has ADHD, was awarded a Fail in OL Maths and he's devastated. He admitted he was bad at the subject but had been getting grinds and willing to cram study to just get a pass result.

I doubt he'll be able to do anything about this result. My sister is still going to appeal it. Personally I think it really unfair by the teacher to do this to him, especially as having maths is so important!

Chiparus · 12-09-2020 1:38pm

IgoPAP wrote: »

If there's one thing that's clear though all this: the Leaving Cert should have gone ahead this year. There was no excuse not. The government literally bowed down to student pressure because they didn't fancy sitting the exam this year. Cowardly.

And what if there was an case in an exam hall and 100 students were then considered "close contacts" and had to isolate?

Millionaire only not · 12-09-2020 2:02pm

IgoPAP wrote: »

If there's one thing that's clear though all this: the Leaving Cert should have gone ahead this year. There was no excuse not. The government literally bowed down to student pressure because they didn't fancy sitting the exam this year. Cowardly.

It only took one to cough to mess with students that were serious about there leaving cert !
Could u really do it to the students serious about there leaving cert ?
Answer it honestly and u know fine well messers in every school ,the supervisor would have had to follow protocol.
All there study messed up and start another exam following day just wasn’t going to work in my opinion there was too many if’s !

Iscreamkone · 12-09-2020 3:34pm

This shows how fantastic our Leaving Cert was. Impartial and beyond question. If anything I’d be for less teacher input into grades or projects.
The people who say that the LC should be changed should be careful what they wish for

Icsics · 12-09-2020 3:39pm

chewed wrote: »

My nephew, who has ADHD, was awarded a Fail in OL Maths and he's devastated. He admitted he was bad at the subject but had been getting grinds and willing to cram study to just get a pass result.

I doubt he'll be able to do anything about this result. My sister is still going to appeal it. Personally I think it really unfair by the teacher to do this to him, especially as having maths is so important!

Have a look at the ‘second chance maths exam’ a lot of colleges now run, if he passed that exam it would count as meeting requirements

It wasnt me123 · 12-09-2020 3:55pm

MrMusician18 wrote: »

This was never going to be the case. The intention was to run the exams in classrooms with 14 other students all spaced out and controlled. The only reason the exams didn't go ahead was because there was political pressure (from students and parents to abandon them - we have schools open now and the incidence/100000 is much higher.

I never heard that they were going into a room with only 14 - where were they going to get all the room space and supervisors to perform this and what about the students who need SNA's beside them - how were they going to do social distancing.

The R number might be higher now, but not in schools and in June they didn't know enough about covid to make that call.

Funny all those students who feared getting covid in exam halls have no fear beside them mixing with those same students in social settings. It was a bs cop out, but it's what the students wanted so they can live with it.

You can tell you didn't have a child in LC with the term cop out. They had been told for 6 years that the LC was the most important exam of their school years - crazy in my opinion and the reason no other western civilised country judges their students and the end of their secondary school years on a 2 week exam and points. They had no teachers since March and were supposed to still sit an exam in July/August, 3 to 4 months later. How ridiculous.

Now is the time to change this system and the curriculum for good. Marks should be judged on the whole school year(s) not just two weeks and this would stop teachers and grinds specialists making money on students fears.

Chiparus · 12-09-2020 3:57pm

Iscreamkone wrote: »

This shows how fantastic our Leaving Cert was. Impartial and beyond question. If anything I’d be for less teacher input into grades or projects.
The people who say that the LC should be changed should be careful what they wish for

HPAT was introduced because the LC was too biased against boys.
3 compulsory langauges is one of the reasons.

Iscreamkone · 12-09-2020 3:59pm

It wasnt me123 wrote: »

You can tell you didn't have a child in LC with the term cop out. They had been told for 6 years that the LC was the most important exam of their school years - crazy in my opinion and the reason no other western civilised country judges their students and the end of their secondary school years on a 2 week exam and points. They had no teachers since March and were supposed to still sit an exam in July/August, 3 to 4 months later. How ridiculous.

Now is the time to change this system and the curriculum for good. Marks should be judged on the whole school year(s) not just two weeks and this would stop teachers and grinds specialists making money on students fears.

I would disagree with this opinion.
Judging on the whole school year is not as impartial as the present system.

It wasnt me123 · 12-09-2020 4:02pm

Iscreamkone wrote: »

This shows how fantastic our Leaving Cert was. Impartial and beyond question. If anything I’d be for less teacher input into grades or projects.
The people who say that the LC should be changed should be careful what they wish for

If its so fantastic why doesn't any other western civilised country do it? Because its not fantastic. All the curriculum in Ireland does is train our children to pass an exam, that's it. They learn by rota and spit out as much as they can retain in the LC exams.

What about all their work during the year(s)? Projects, class participation? worthless? Why send them to school at all then, why not just let them do previous exams adnauseum at home and get them to learn a poem, book and a period in history. This is not my idea of education and certainly not what I did.

There are too many people getting the necessary educational points to do medicine, teaching etc who are not actually suited to the professions- entrance interview would possibly wean out people not suitable for the caring professions.

It wasnt me123 · 12-09-2020 4:08pm

Iscreamkone wrote: »

I would disagree with this opinion.
Judging on the whole school year is not as impartial as the present system.

I never said my choice for school was impartial I said it judged children on all their skills, not just regergetating stuff in an exam.

And why wouldn't it be impartial? How bad are the teachers that we can't trust them to treat everyone relatively equally?

If one teacher didn't particularly like a child, could not all the other teachers' reviews equalise one teacher? If the child is getting B in most tests, they can't stand over a D in a year end mark.

If the teachers are so bad then change them - I know some of the ones my daughter were taught by were horrendous, mostly in National School - 1 teacher used to get solicitor's letters of complaint - but still he teached.

The system is shocking and needs a complete overhaul, including the curriculum.

Daughter not happy with LC results - anyone else?

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