Many angry students and parents have voiced strong opinions over the last day or two in relation to the rescheduling of the Leaving Cert.

Cancelling the Leaving Cert and using mock results or predicted grades, have been the alternatives thrown around by some angry commentators.
It is difficult to know where to begin explaining how bad an idea both of these are.

Firstly any grading system has to be consistent. The Leaving Cert is, in part, a competition for points to get into the desired 3rd level course. A student is trying to do the best for themselves, but is also competing against other students from all over the country for a place in their desired 3rd level course. If the competition is skewed or open to abuse then it opens up the whole system to a large number of legal challenges, and unfair practices.

Mock Results

Let us look at some of the problems with using mock results as a predictor:

1. Students sit different papers in different schools.
2. Sometimes class teachers correct them, while in other schools a different system might be in place.
3. There is no consistency or oversight of marking scheme, some teachers may mark very harshly in comparison to others for a variety of reasons. In the actual Leaving Cert, checks and balances are in place to ensure consistency across the board, but it does not happen in the mocks.
4. Schools have different mock timetables. Some mock papers will have been leaked on-line, and thus some students know the questions in advance leading to skewed results.
5. Some teachers amend the mock paper to leave out areas of the course not covered yet, while other teachers may leave these elements in.
6. Students regularly significantly outperform their mock results in the real thing. Mock results which are below expectations often lead to students knuckling down and working harder. Using mock results doesn’t account for this.
7. Some students will study extra subjects outside school, either by working on their own or by getting tuition. They have no mock result to use.
8. Similar to the above point, many mature students enroll to sit either a full leaving cert or just one or two subjects. This may be because they didn’t study them at the time they were in school, or possibly failed them when they sat the leaving cert the first time. These students may be out of school for many years and working away on their own in preparation for the exam. Again, they have no mock result to use.
9. Not every 6th year student will have sat a mock paper for various reasons.

Get the teacher to make a prediction based on work from the 2 years:

Let us examine some of the issues with this idea –

1. Some teachers will want to see all of their class doing well and give grades which are far too high.
2. Other teachers may use it as an opportunity to settle a score with students who where difficult to deal with in school.
3. Some students will recognize areas of weakness in a particular subject and work hard at it at home, without the teacher being aware. And even if the teacher was aware, it is impossible to judge the level of improvement which would have been made.
4. A teacher may be aware that Student A and Student B both need a H5 in a particular subject, but the teacher is also aware that both students have been consistently operating at a H6 level, but may on a good day reach a H5 grade. What does the teacher do? Student A is a hard working, diligent student who is co-operative and pleasant. Student B is lazy, careless, rude, unpleasant and you expect they may have been regularly cheating on their tests. What decision does the teacher make in relation to Student A and Student B?
5. The usual teacher of a particular class has been on sick leave/maternity leave for the last 2 months, and had been replaced by a substitute teacher. Which teacher decides the predicted grade?
6. Many teachers live locally in their communities and are well-known. Using a predicted grading system would open up the possibility that some students or parents would use undue influence to ensure the teacher awarded them a high grade, or issue threats against them should they issue a grade too low.
7. Again, many students taking a Leaving Cert subject do so outside of school via tuition or self-directed learning, they have no teacher and no school work to base a prediction on.
8. A study for the UK government in 2011, investigated the accuracy of predicted grades and found that only 51% of predictions were accurate, while 42% of grades were over-estimated. This would have big consequences for the CAO system and would drive points up. leaving students who sat the leaving cert in previous years at a big disadvantage. Do we want an alternative which is only likely to be 50% correct? https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/32412/11-1043-investigating-accuracy-predicted-a-level-grades.pdf

The key question in all of this for students is:

Would you prefer your Leaving Cert results to be decided by your own hard work, on your own merits, in a fair and equitable exam system

or

have your educational qualifications decided by the subjective opinions of 7 or 8 teachers?

Stress and Mental Health

Stress and mental health issues have been mentioned as reasons enough to cancel the exams.

One basic principal of developing good mental health is for a person to develop the capacity and the ability to deal with challenges rather than avoid them. It is an important element in the mental development of any human being to be able to deal with stress and manage it in appropriate ways.

Exams are stressful, regardless of when they are held, so are driving tests, so are job interviews. We shouldn’t just decide to abandon things because some people get stressed by them. Professional help is available to help people deal with such matters, but it is essential that people be able to deal with stress, and one of the best ways of equipping yourself to deal with something properly is through lived experience.

For any student finding themselves overly stressed, Mental Health Ireland has some good advice in the link below:

https://www.mentalhealthireland.ie/a-to-z/s/#stress

If you are feeling overly stressed by exams, remember they are still at least four months away. Take a break this week, and get out for a walk every day and get some fresh air. Work on developing your own healthy strategy to help yourself deal with stress.

Conclusion

Postponing the Leaving Certificate until late July or August gives students at least six weeks extra to prepare for the exams. It will more than likely be eight weeks extra. This may compensate in some way towards the lack of teaching time in the 26 school days which will have been lost between the 13th of March and the 5th of May.

With nearly four months to go until August, there is ample opportunity now for students in the 22 Co.Wexford second level schools, to use the time wisely and prepare well.

Any student in a position to be able to read this, or use Snapchat or Instagram or tiktok, is in a position to use the endless stream of resources and information available on the internet on just about every topic known to man. For the more hands-on subjects, YouTube is filled with excellent instructional videos. There has never, in the whole of human history, been an easier time to be a student, in terms of the access and availability of information and resources. 

Have confidence in yourself, take a calm measured approach and if necessary seek help. Best of luck to you all.