Leaving Cert Q&A: How do I apply for my calculated grades?

How do I apply to receive my calculated grades?

All Leaving Cert and Leaving Cert Applied students are required to register on gov.ie/leavingcertificate by 10pm on Thursday May 28th.

Students - where relevant - are also required to confirm the level at which they intended to sit each of their subjects. Cabdidates will have the option of confirming the level or changing to a lower level.

When registering on the website, students must have the following information to hand: (1) Your examination number; (2) Personal Public Service number (PPS), which you will use to create a four-digit PIN code; (3) Email address; (4) and mobile phone number.

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Once the Department of Education has received all the necessary data from schools, students will be asked to opt in through the portal to indicate if they wish to receive calculated grades

How, simply, will the calculated grades process work?

There are two stages to the process.

First, teachers will be asked to provide an estimated percentage mark for each student for each subject. Students will also be placed in a rank in their class. These estimates will be based on coursework and in-school assessments over the last two or three years.

Secondly, the department will apply a national “standardisation” to the grades. This could result in the adjustment of grades up or down based on a number of data sources.

These sources include a school’s achievement in a particular subject over recent years and the proportional distribution of grades nationally, sometimes referred to as a bell-curve.

What will happen in the case of a teacher who is due to grade their son or daughter?

Teachers will be directed to declare conflicts of interest when grading Leaving Cert students who are close family members.

In such circumstances, another teacher in the school or the deputy principal may be asked to examine available evidence of a student’s performance and mark the candidate accordingly.

Are there any rules to prevent students or parents lobbying teachers on their grades?

Any attempt to inappropriately interfere with the grading process may be recorded by a school and forwarded to the department.

In addition, the department has stated that teachers and schools must not be subjected to “any type of influence, inducement (including gifts), pressure or coercion by a parent/guardian, student or any other person in relation to a student’s mark or ranking either before or after it has been assigned”.

Such contact would be regarded as “totally inappropriate” and a “serious attempt to interfere with the fairness and objectivity” required of teachers and schools in the assigning mark for the students in the school as a whole.

I performed terribly in my mocks. What exams or assessments, exactly, will teachers base their judgements on when calculated grades on?

The guidance will state that teachers should draw on "existing records and available evidence" such as classwork, homework, class assessments, Christmas and summer exams and mock exams. Junior Cert results will not be considered.

Teachers will be required to provide a “fair, reasonable and carefully considered” judgement of the likely percentage mark each student would have achieved if they had sat their exams and completed coursework under normal conditions. As a result, an individual mock exam should not distort a student’s achievement.

What happens with the 100 per cent mark I was due to receive for the cancelled oral exams?

The department says these marks are no longer valid and all subjects will be assessed using the calculated grades model.

Teachers will be asked to consider what they feel the student would have achieved in the oral exam, based on past performance, as part of the process for awarding calculated grades.

What will happen with Leaving Cert candidates who have been studying for subjects outside their schools?

In cases where students are studying a subject outside school with a tutor or teacher, this shouldn’t be a problem. Schools will be required to engage with the tutor or teacher (it doesn’t have to be a registered teacher) outside the school when determining a student’s estimated grade.

Problems may arise in cases where a student is studying a subject outside school and does not have a tutor. Similarly, there may be issues for an “external candidate” (such as adult learners, home-schooled students or those in alternative or private college that are not officially State-recognised) who does not have a teacher or tutor.

A total of 2,858 external candidates are entered to sit the Leaving Cert this year, though it’s hard to say how many do not have a tutor or teacher.

Put simply, the calculated grades process is primarily school-based and requires teachers to be able to make an informed estimate of a student’s likely grade based on their work to date.

If this evidence is not available, a school principal will not be able to stand over the grade.

The department says it will examine all cases on a “case by case” basis, but has acknowledged that some may not be able to receive a calculated grade and will need to wait to sit the written Leaving Cert exams.

What happens if a student in a school is taking an extra subject outside the school, such as Polish?

A school will be asked to include that tutor’s estimate of a candidate’s mark if the school is satisfied it can stand over the estimate. The student’s performance in that subject will then be amalgamated with the school grades.

However, if the school is not satisfied that there is sufficient evidence available to them to stand over any estimated mark, it is required to inform the department. In this case, the student may not receive an estimated result for this subject

My school is new and has never had a Leaving Cert class before. Will our grades be assessed differently?

It is expected that these schools will be advised to work with whatever historical data is available for students during the senior cycle, in the same way as any other school.

Will international colleges recognise my calculated grades?

Students will receive a State-issued certificate and it is understood that these will be recognised in the UK and EU. Other countries, such as the UK, are also awarding calculated or predicted grades, which in turn will be recognised by Irish third level institutions.

When will results be issued?

There is no official date yet, but Minister for Education Joe McHugh has signalled that the provisional results will issue as close to the usual time in mid-August as possible.

Will I be able to appeal my grades?

Yes, but the appeals process will be limited to checking data entry errors rather than reviewing a teacher’s professional judgement.

Students will also be entitled to submit a request for their mark and school ranking under data protection legislation.

Those who are still unhappy will have the option to sit the deferred Leaving Cert written exams whenever they are held, which will be in line with public health advice. However, it will be too late to start college in the coming academic year based on these exam results Leaving Cert results.