Biology paper bonus for more than 40 students

MORE than 40 students have been given a late offer of a college place after hundreds of students had their Leaving Certificate biology results upgraded because the possible answers to a question worth less than 1% of the total marks were widened.

The State Examinations Commission (SEC) rechecked the exam papers of almost 1,900 of the 20,100 higher level biology candidates after one parent lodged an appeal. In the re-check, a pattern emerged from the remarking of appealed grades, and have now given a higher grade to 621 students.

The question around which the concerns were raised asked students for a definition of the word “predation”, for three marks out of the 400 total marks on the paper. In the original marking scheme on which grades were awarded in August, the accepted answer was “Killing (or catching) and eating another animal”.