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Exam board to address Leaving Cert 'predictability'

A report published by the Department of Education today was critical of “rote learning” and highlighted the common practice of memorising pre-packaged answers.

A REPORT PUBLISHED by the Department of Education today has called on the State Examination Commission (SEC) to address predictability in the Leaving Certificate.

The SEC will now set out proposals to tackle what the Higher Education Authority and National Council for Curriculum and Assessment called “problematic predictability”.

The research was critical of so-called ‘rote learning’ and highlighted reports of students memorising pre-packaged answers and essays to gain maximum points.

Education Minister Ruairi Quinn told Morning Ireland that he had asked for predictability in the State exams to be looked at to ensure the bridge between secondary level and higher level education is strengthened. He added that such predictability had become a “big issue”.

Commentary frequently around exams in June is often about “no surprises” and a “good exam” is equated to a predictable one, he said.

This leads to ‘teaching to the test’, for example anticipating what poets will come up in the English examination. Teachers, under pressure, will concentrate on predicted questions that are likely to arise.

“Therefore the curriculum is bypassed in favour of concentrating on those questions that will arise and the preparation of tailored answers. That is not what critical thinking and analytical skills are about,” he added.

The report also recommends that the number of grades that can be achieved in the Leaving Certificate exams be reduced from 14 to eight. The NCCA and the SEC will analyse the benefits of getting rid of the sub-categories in the B and C grades to leave just A1, A2, B, C, D, E, NG.

The proposed change could reduce the “race for points” if used in conjunction with a shift in how undergraduate courses are organised, said the organisations.

The paper also recommended that universities should review their portfolio of courses with a view to reducing their number and introducing more generic first-year courses.

In a statement, the Minister said he was “in agreement with the overall thrust of the recommendations in the report”.

Quinn, however, also moved to assure current Fifth and Sixth Year students that no changes will be implemented in the education system that would “change the path they are taking”.

The proposals outlined in the report will not take affect within the 2012 school year.

The HEA, NCCA and SEC will now work to prepare and submit implementation plans for the curriculum reform agenda, concluded Quinn.

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    Mute Liam Byrne
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    Dec 22nd 2011, 9:24 AM

    The leaving cert has always been about learning off answers. It’s not about knowledge, but memory- why are they only realising this now!?!?!?

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    Mute Kieran Murphy
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    Dec 22nd 2011, 10:03 AM

    I predicted my whole leaving cert perfectly including the language exams so that’s either due to luck or the leaving is really too predictable

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    Mute Cormac Cahill
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    Dec 22nd 2011, 2:36 PM

    in my english exam i predicited 4 out of 4 of the poets to come up. was like a kid in a candy store.

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    Mute Siobhán K
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    Dec 22nd 2011, 10:34 AM

    It’s a mixture of luck and predictability. I’m doing my leaving in June, and I’ve already been told what is likely to come up in most subjects. The thing is, you learn everything, concentrate your energy on the predictions coming up to the exam and then hope to god on the day the paper is suited to you.

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    Mute Jack Kelly
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    Dec 22nd 2011, 11:55 AM

    I’m in Junior Cert and even now the exam seems to be predictable. Our teachers are always saying “Oh, that didn’t come up last year – it’s due up this year, make sure we go over this” or “this is definitely coming up this year – make sure to know this” and so forth. My friend, also a JC student, told me their teacher spent weeks on one section of history because it is likely to come up for us. Another friend’s class skipped the entire section because it’s not due up this year. A bit mad….

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    Mute Cormac Flanagan
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    Dec 22nd 2011, 9:30 AM

    So there not going to take place in June then.

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    Mute Iain Murray
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    Dec 22nd 2011, 1:59 PM

    Comment of the day!

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    Mute BJ
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    Dec 22nd 2011, 1:37 PM

    I wish they’d made mine more predictable!

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    Mute James Walsh
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    Dec 22nd 2011, 12:28 PM

    This is always going to be a problem because the Leaving Cert is one exam therefore its simply not possible to produce an exam paper that covers everything. Naturally students and teachers are always going to try and guess which sections of the courses are going to be examined. In effect the entire Leaving Cert course is a exercise in waste. Every exam probably covers at most 40% of what has been taught over the previous two years. Students spend vast amounts of time learning things that they are never going to be tested on.

    While its welcome that the problem is going to be looked at, realistically the only long term solution to this is to have a more holisitic approach to the syllabus. It would be better if subjects were also broken down in a more semester based approach rather than one two year course with one exam at the end. Such an approach would be involve continuous assessment, applied learning and peer review. It would require more resources to achieve this but the outcome should be better for students and that is where the focus should lie.

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    Mute Eoin Sheehy
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    Dec 22nd 2011, 1:55 PM

    Good Idea in theory but if it;’s like how the ‘revolutionary’ project Maths then it’ll be a disaster, didn’t have books for two months and our teacher still isn’t fully sure what’s on the course because there are parts in other books which aren’t in ours and vice versa!

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    Mute Daryl Walsh
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    Dec 23rd 2011, 10:52 AM

    As a leaving cert student up until last year, I understand where they’re coming from when they say predictable i.e the same section of the biology course can’t come up 2 years in a row, however.. You study the material for 2 years in order to be able to answer the questions that come up.. The course isn’t that big ya know so maybe it’s the actual structure of the leaving cert they should look at not the ‘predictability’ of it.

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    Mute Peter Costello
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    Jun 4th 2012, 6:34 PM

    Shouldn’t it really just ask all sections of each course and make them all part of the exam so that the entire course is covered. Or maybe the colleges should just have entrance exams instead.

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