Sir, – The use of random selection to choose entrants to the more competitive college courses feels unfair because it seems that those selected and those refused have achieved the same results. They haven’t though and it’s even more unfair than it looks. Many will lose out on places to people who got lower marks than them. The categorisation of students into the brackets of H1 and H2, etc, lumps together people who have achieved varying marks. In principle those with 600 points might vary from a total of 90 to 100 per cent of all the marks that could have been scored. If the actual marks on the papers provided were given to students – surely the simplest thing to do, and the approach used in most school exams – then the numbers ending up on the same score would be greatly reduced. The premium for mathematics might be set by multiplying the result by 1.4.
The effect, while being very precise, would at least be rational and objectively fair.
It would seem unlikely anyone would score 600 points by getting 100 per cent in six subjects though. Oddly enough, if they did now, they might not even get into their chosen course. – Yours, etc,
BRIAN O’BRIEN,
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Kinsale,
Co Cork.
