Concerned students now fret over marking

Exam students are a suspicious lot. If their papers are easy, they worry examiners will mark them harshly; if the papers are difficult, they worry examiners will not be lenient enough.

This year has been no exception. Fuelled by the paranoia generated by the ASTI dispute, students seem to believe there are hordes of vengeful teachers out there preparing to tread on their dreams.

However, as Exam Times has pointed out repeatedly, the marking system is rigid and almost immutable and the grades awarded in August are certain to be boringly predictable. There will be some changes in individual subjects, but no great shifts overall.

In other words, if you have done well you will be rewarded - and if you have performed badly, well . . . .

Many of the e-mails received on the Irish Times website, ireland.com, have discussed "easy" and "hard" marking. After the first three manageable exams, e-mailer Deirdre Bushell wrote: "Hopefully they won't be marked harder due to the fact that they weren't very demanding."

Another e-mailer, Dylan Crowe, had a more jaundiced view. "This year's papers seem a lot easier than the last few. Have the education authorities taken pity on students? . . . More strikes please."

Unlike their predecessors in other decades, this year's students can vet, critique and evaluate the marking of their scripts. They can examine the examiners.

Introduced a few years ago, the viewing of scripts is unusual for most education systems, a case of enlightened accountability. It tends to be used by those who have done well, not the "losers" in the exam process.

School principals - who administer the facility - are often amazed at the number of students who already have secured places on high-points courses like medicine and law who nonetheless saunter into school in late August or early September to see their papers. "It's amazing - they want to make sure they have been given every point they deserve," one principal said.

Before any of that happens, many of you are still feeling sore about some of this week's papers, particularly French. According to e-mails to ireland.com, the tape quality for the aural test left a lot to be desired. The speed of the speakers irked many students and repeated playing seemed to make little difference.

A Meath mother who contacted Exam Times said her daughter was in tears coming out of Leaving Cert French. "She and her fellow students were unable to hear their tape properly due to the words echoing in the large canteen/assembly hall. Despite requesting the invigilator to adjust the sound on two occasions there was no improvement in clarity."