Leaving Cert Q and A: 'Calculated grades' vs sitting the exams - that is the question...

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Q. I am a Leaving Cert student, what happens now?

A. Due to what the Department of Education describes as “compelling health advice” the exams will not take place this summer. All Leaving Cert students instead have the option of accepting ‘calculated grades’ or sitting written exams at a later date, when it is safe to do so. This date has yet to be confirmed. Students will be contacted by their schools to ask which option they’’d prefer.

Q. How will ‘calculated grades’ work?

A. Calculated grades will be totted up the same way for all students, whether they are completing the established Leaving Cert, Leaving Cert Applied, or the Leaving Cert Applied Programme. In lieu of an exam, or final project work, this system will take into account the grade a student would have been expected to achieve in the written exams, as well as a class ranking in each subject. This will be assigned by a student’s teacher, based on the student’s classwork, assessments, previous exams, such as Christmas and the mocks but with certain caveats. Importantly, teachers can’’t set additional assessments to help make their decisions or discuss marks with the student.

The grade decided on by a teacher will then be vetted by a ‘subject alignment group’, made up of other teachers in the student’s school. School principals then sign-off on these grades and submit these to the Department of Education, which will finalise the grades for each student, and issue formal State certification.

Q. I am worried this process won’t be fair - is it?

A. The Department of Education is maintaining that ‘calculated grades’ developed by schools are the fairest alternative in lieu of the traditional exams which cannot be held safely this year. It says that teachers and schools will have to be objective in their assessment of students, and make their decisions based on a range of evidence.

Q. How will the appeals process work?

A. There will be a three-step appeals process. This includes a series of checks that data was correctly entered by the school and the Department of Education. If a student remains unhappy, they can ask that their grades be reviewed by an independent appeals panel. If a student remains unhappy with this, they will have the option of sitting the written exam. Students will not be able to reopen the original estimated score their teacher gave them.

Q. When will we know our results?

A. Joe McHugh, the Minister for Education, said he would like to see students receiving their results as close as possible to August, when they would usually receive them. This has not been confirmed yet, as it remains to be seen how much administrative work will be involved with all of this. The Department of Education is asking teachers and schools to have their part completed by the end of May.