10-year high in students taking Junior Certificate
English papers set by the State Examinations Commission (SEC) kick off both sets of exams at 9.30am in almost 4,800 centres, including prisons where about 200 students are entered for exams.
The exams will also be the first test of all Leaving Cert students in part of the new Project Maths syllabus, which is a focus in the drive to push up student achievement in the subject.
The introduction of 25 bonus points for college entry for any student who passes higher-level Leaving Cert maths has seen the numbers taking higher level rise to 12,900 from 10,435 a year ago.
However, as about 2,000 students generally opt instead for ordinary level on exam day, the numbers who actually sit the tougher paper in the first maths exam on Friday — and any consequent impact on the points needed for college courses — will not be clear until the Leaving Cert results are out in August.
Last night Education Minister Ruairi Quinn said students who had worked hard for the higher-level exam should stay the course, even if they were nervous.
“Traditionally, many students hesitate at the last hurdle and opt for the lower level paper, but I would urge each student to think of the work that they have put in, listen to the advice of their teachers, and have faith in themselves,” he said.
The papers will be opened today by an estimated 53,789 Leaving Cert students (down from 55,550 in 2011), 3,301 taking Leaving Cert Applied (LCA) — 56 more than last year — and 59,684 candidates for the Junior Cert. The number of Junior Cert students is 2,000 higher than for the 2011 exam, a clear signal of the likely pressures on third-level colleges to cope with demand in a few years.
There should be less pressure on Leaving Cert students taking Irish exams than in previous years, as the combined marks for the written and listening tests next Monday and Tuesday have been reduced from 75% to 60%. The change is a result of increased emphasis on the oral tests taken in April, now worth 40% instead of 25% of the total marks.
National Association of Principals and Deputy Principals director Clive Byrne said parents of exam students should be mindful of the pressures they are under.
“A bit of extra TLC and understanding will go a long way. Remember that there is life after the Leaving Cert and today’s students are well placed to succeed,” he said.
He urged students themselves to heed the advice of their principals, year heads, and guidance counsellors so as to do their best over the course of the exams.
“Operate for the next few weeks in a structured way. Get enough sleep, watch your diet and of course make sure to read the exam paper first and be careful to answer the question you’re being asked. My advice would be to attempt all questions and always be conscious of time.”
For LCA students, the exam timetable ends tomorrow week, but some Leaving Cert students will not finish until June 22 and the final Junior Cert exam is a day earlier.
The timetables have been rearranged in recent years, with Leaving Cert students no longer facing a second English exam on the first afternoon, and the writing-intensive maths and Irish papers spread across Friday and next Monday and Tuesday.
The State Examinations Commission will cater for up to 52 Leaving Certificate candidates from Libya at exam centres in Malta and for one who has travelled to Dublin.
The exam has been taken by students at the International School of the Martyrs in Tripoli since 1997 but the civil war last year meant 66 candidates could not be facilitated by travelling exam superintendents.
Instead, efforts were made in conjunction with authorities in Malta for students to travel there from Libya for the exams.
While 28 were refused visas, a number with dual citizenship of other European countries did not need a visa and two superintendents travelled to Malta to facilitate them. However, after no students arrived, the exam centre was closed after three days. Fourteen students came to Cork, Dublin, and Limerick to sit the exams.
The commission has, on Department of Foreign Affairs advice, decided not to send exam staff to Libya this year.
However, it understands that students from the Tripoli school will be given visas to travel to Malta and has made arrangements to accommodate them. It is unclear how many candidates will travel there.
Almost 1,500 Leaving Certificate students will sit European and other languages not featured in the main curriculum — 200 more than last year. Almost half will take the Polish exam — up from 574 candidates a year ago to 739. The next most popular non-curricular EU languages are Lithuanian, to be sat by 278 students, Romanian (120), and Latvian (103). All 15 subjects will be examined on June 20. Last year, there were 1,274 students of these subjects and in Dutch, Portuguese, Hungarian, Ancient Greek, Swedish, Czech, Estonian, Slovakian, Bulgarian, Modern Greek, Danish, and Finnish.
