Leaving Cert analysis: Positive reforms tackle high-stakes negativity

Wed, 15 Aug, 2018 - 07:15

By Niall Murray, Education Correspondent

The evidence in today’s Leaving Certificate results is not just of the positive effect of reforms, but also of the negative impact of the high stakes attached to the exams.

When some students historically risked missing out on Central Applications Office (CAO) points for college entry by getting anything under 40% in a higher-level exam, they opted instead to do the ordinary-level papers. This was proven by the wide extent to which most subjects experienced a rise in higher-level participation when new grades and a revised CAO points scale saw those with 30% to 40% awarded CAO points last year for the first time.

Although not as pronounced as in 2017, State Examinations Commission (SEC) data for the performance of Leaving Certificate 2018 students shows that students continue to migrate from ordinary level to higher level in a wide number of the most popular subjects.

They include maths, in which a record 31.5% of students opted for higher level in June, up from 30% a year ago and 27% in 2016. It is nearly double the 16% of maths students who took higher level just eight years ago, before the 2012 introduction of 25 bonus CAO points for those passing the subject began a strong turn-around.

The risk taken by most borderline maths students appears to have paid off, too, with very similar numbers getting a H8 (30% or less) and not securing any CAO points. At 303 students, they are around 20 fewer than a year ago.

The numbers getting bonus points, now available to those with a H6 or higher (at least 40%), are up nearly 500 to 15,540. This represents over 92% of all 16,837 students who took higher level in June.

In what looks to be another first, more students of Irish took the higher exam rather than ordinary level. Nearly 48% of the 46,750 people doing Irish this year took honours papers, up from 46% a year ago, while 45.9% did ordinary level in June and 6.2% chose foundation-level Irish.

The reasons behind this upward trend are likely a combination of the lure of college entry points for getting 30% or more (at least a H7 grade) and the switch in emphasis to the spoken language. The allocation of 40% of total marks in Irish for the oral test, significantly reducing the importance of written papers, has seen higher-level uptake increase from less than a third of those sitting it as recently as 2010.

In biology, numbers with a H8 grade for less than 30% at higher level jumped from 4.2% to 7.1% — nearly 1,900 students of the subject, some 750 more than a year ago. However, H1 grades for 90% or more were secured by 11.3% of the 26,543 students doing higher-level biology — more than double the 2017 figure.

In most other subjects where higher-level uptake has risen, the proportions of students getting H8 grades were similar or less than last year.

Biology was flagged in a recent study from Dublin City University as a subject in which exam tasks are significantly based on memory and recall. This was also true of agricultural science, one of the few subjects to see an increase in participation this year — results issue today to nearly 7,800 students.

Home economics has overtaken history in the popularity stakes, and French is close to being overtaken by geography as schools offer a wider range of language choices, Spanish seeing the biggest expansion in recent years.