Over 1,000 students complete first deferred Leaving Cert exam

More than 1,000 students have completed the postponed Leaving Cert 2020 Biology exam at centres across the country this evening.

More than 1,000 students have completed the postponed Leaving Cert 2020 Biology exam at centres across the country this evening.

It marks the beginning of the deferred Leaving Cert exams, which were cancelled for thousands of students this summer due to health and safety concerns during the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.

Exams will now run across evenings and weekends until the middle of December, with students receiving their results by February 2021 at the latest.

Biology is the most popular postponed exam students have opted to sit in the coming weeks, followed by Maths, English, and Chemistry.

Biology was also the most-appealed subject under calculated grades.

The 2020 Biology higher level paper was tough, with a lot of detail and questions covering a broad range of the syllabus.

That’s according to Lily Cronin, who is the Association of Secondary Teachers Ireland (ASTI) biology spokeswoman.

Ms Cronin, who is a teacher at Mercy Mount Hawk in Tralee, collected student feedback on the written exam.

The long questions were “tough” and photosynthesis and respiration appeared together, she said. “That could throw some students.” A question on viruses and immunity also appeared on the paper.

Danielle Kerr, a student in Errigal College in Letterkenny, found this year’s Biology paper fair but some questions were tricky.

“The genetics question, I didn’t understand the wording of the question.” She will sit Geography, English, Maths and History papers also during the course of the November exams. 

I’m prepared but I have a bit of last-minute studying to do.

The majority of students who opted for the November exams will be examined in just one subject with almost 80% sitting three exams or less.

Overall, approximately 2,500 students are due to sit exams in the coming weeks.

Marks downgraded

Among them is Aisling McGuinness from County Meath.

“I am only sitting one subject; Business,” she told the Irish Examiner.

“When I got my Leaving Cert results, I was very happy. I got 484 points which meant I had 22 points spare for primary school teaching in DCU so I was confident I got in.” 

But her preferred course jumped by 26 points when the CAO offers came out and she had missed it by 4 points.

“Primary school teaching in Marino went up by 32 points,” she added. “I had the exact points requirement but missed out in the random selection.” 

When I got my Leaving Cert results my business and biology were lower than I expected and it turns out my suspicions were correct.

"I had been downgraded in both which meant I lost 22 points. I would have gotten 506 points. I decided not to take my offer from the CAO and I’m hoping to secure a place on my course next year.” 

The State Examination Commission (SEC) is not publishing the written exam papers after each exam as is the tradition in previous years.

It will instead publish each paper up until the previous Friday every Monday.

It says it is doing this due to the low numbers of students taking the examinations, the possibility that some students may sit a delayed exam, and the possibility that not all exam papers will be taken by candidates.

The exams continue on tomorrow with Geography.