Leaving Cert: Complaints over ‘unfair’ maths paper one exam will be considered during marking - SEC

The State Examinations Commission (SEC) has said “commentary and correspondence” from students, parents and teachers over the higher-level Leaving Cert maths exam will be considered during the marking process.

The Leaving Cert maths paper one exam on Friday attracted heavy criticism from many students who felt it was excessively difficult and unfair.

While Monday’s maths paper two exam was generally well-received, criticism of Friday’s paper continued as RTÉ's Liveline dedicated its programme on Monday to an “avalanche” of calls and messages from parents and students.

“It was an awful shock,” said Roisin Farrelly, a Leaving Cert student from Ennis ... I saw so many other girls leaving the exam hall in tears. There was trauma on their faces.”

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Another Leaving Cert student, Michael Hughes, said: “It was complete panic stations. I was in shock, I had to water my face ... there were stories of people vomiting in the toilet.”

Pearse Ryan, a maths teacher in Limerick, said many students were worried that they might have to repeat their exams.

In a statement, the SEC said commentary and correspondence on the exams from students, parents and teachers will be brought to the attention of the chief examiner and will be considered in the “refinement of the draft marking scheme”.

This draft marking scheme sets out the weighting of marks attached to individual questions.

“The approach taken by the SEC to the development of the final marking schemes ensures consistency in the marking and fairness to candidates. The final marking scheme will be published, as will the marking schemes in all other subjects, after the issue of the Leaving Certificate results,” it said.

The SEC added that there will be no “cliff edge” or automatic return to lower pre-pandemic grade profiles for Leaving Cert results this year, in line with a pledge from Minister for Education Norma Foley.

Last year, for example, a similar move led to grades, on average, being artificially increased by 5.6 per cent on average to match the previous year’s grades.

One former senior State examiner contacted on Monday also pointed out that exams are marked according to a “bell curve” which is aimed at ensuring a similar proportion of students achieve H1s, H2s and H3s, etc, each year, regardless of the difficulty level.

Exams which prove particularly challenging compared to the previous year tend to be graded more generously, as a result.

Some of the criticism of Friday’s maths exam was that it broke with the pattern of previous years. However, the SEC said Friday’s paper was the “same format, structure and style“ as previous Leaving Cert higher level maths papers.

“Examination papers and draft marking schemes are developed through a rigorous development process to meet the requirements of the relevant syllabi and standards of assessment. The examination paper development process involves a multi-stage process of drafting, setting, translating and various layers of oversight and scrutiny,” it said.

“Those involved are experts in the subject who are also experienced teachers. As part of the normal paper development process, the mathematics papers were reviewed by subject experts before they were finalised in order to assess their suitability, the appropriateness of how they assess various learning outcomes as set out in the specification, the clarity of language in them and the demand they present.”

Leaving Cert exam papers are also subject to review by university representatives who view the draft examination papers and marking schemes.

The role of the representatives is to verify to university authorities that the exams are satisfactory for matriculation purposes.

The SEC said a total of just over 24,900 candidates, or 42 per cent, were registered to sit higher level maths this year, while a further 32,700 were due to sit ordinary level (55 per cent) and almost 1,500 at foundation level (2.5 per cent).