The results of the Junior Certificate, as one would expect in an intermediary State exam in which the average ability levels of more than 65,000 students do not vary dramatically from year to year, did not contain any major surprises.
However, in four subjects there were significant variations which warranted comment by the Minister for Education and Science, Mr Martin, and will lead to early chief examiner's reports to identify the reasons for the changes.
The most striking of these were in ordinary level history. Here a change of format in the exam paper clearly made a difference. Questions which had previously been the same as those on the higher level paper were adapted to incorporate separate diagrams and source materials. This led to an 11.6 per cent increase in A grades and 12.1 per cent increase in B grades.
Higher level science also saw marked improvements, with examiners commenting on how focused students were, not attempting too many questions and spreading their answers well among the chemistry, physics and biology questions. Here the number of A grades went up by 7.3 per cent and B grades by 2.9 per cent. Something that will worry the Department of Education and Science will be the 5.1 per cent fall in A grades and 4.3 per cent fall in B grades in ordinary level mathematics. Many students had particular difficulty with trigonometry and geometry.
Another area of concern is Irish. There was a 4.5 per cent decrease in A grades and 6.2 per decrease in B grades in higher level Irish, and A-C grades in ordinary level Irish were also down slightly. This continues a decline which started in 1996. Department sources said there were difficulties in reading and listening comprehension and in the quality of expression in optional prose and poetry papers.
Ordinary level geography saw a fall in its higher grades: A grades by 1.6 per cent, B grades by 7.1 per cent and C grades by 1.6 per cent. Another area where there was a noticeable fall was in business studies; here the number of A grades decreased by 3.6 per cent and B grades by 3.2 per cent.
In higher level home economics, A grades were up by 1.6 per cent and B grades by 4.7 per cent.
The ASTI deputy general secretary, Mr John White, noted that an outsider might ask why 45 per cent of students got As or Bs in higher level history, while only 29 per cent achieved that standard in English, a subject calling for broadly similar skills and aptitudes. There was an even larger 21 per cent discrepancy between the high grades in home economics and business studies.
"All things being equal, and with equal quality teaching, you would expect a similar achievement in these subjects - yet the grades are significantly different," he said.
He noted the Irish exam marking was a combination of "norm referencing" - looking at recent years' trends and ensuring that there is no dramatic change - and "criterion referencing" - marking on the basis of mastery of certain subject areas.
Mr White said the discrepancies in grades in similar subjects suggested there was "a case for a more coherent philosophy to underpin the awarding of grades." He stressed that in a situation where students of the same ability receive similar grades, there should be only minor variations in grades from year to year, and from comparable subject to comparable subject.