Madam, – The Leaving Cert is very stressful for every student and the last thing we needed was the utter disaster that occurred this week. I believe this has been a national failure. Leaking of exams is obviously a very serious occurrence and should, of course be dealt with as the serious situation that it is. However, the complete lack of information faced by Leaving Cert students on Wednesday and the incredible stress and pressure placed on students is a national disgrace.
There were constant rumours all day regarding the fate of our exams and no official word until quite late in the day.
RTÉ reported the paper might be cancelled at 8.23pm. My friends and I called our principal who informed us he couldn’t get any information either. The 9pm news eventually confirmed our suspicions that the backup papers were in Athlone and “to put students at ease” the exam was rescheduled on Saturday.
It seems fairly logical to me that these backup papers should have been in the exam centres in case of an emergency such as this and not in Athlone where they could not be distributed in time.
Many of my peers rang me on Wednesday in a state, having heard the rumours and been unable to get confirmation. The general feeling was that everything we have studied and prepared for (as predicted by our teachers) has come up on this leaked paper. Now that it has been withdrawn we are in limbo as to whether or not we will be suitably prepared for the new paper.
Everyone is stressed, even those who were previously quite calm. The unnecessary stress caused to students was ridiculous.
The students deserve an explanation and a review of procedures, as 12 hours’ notice is hardly acceptable considering the six years we have spent preparing for this exam. – Yours, etc,
Madam, – With the utmost disgust I write to you. Scarcely an hour after the morbid news of English paper 2, I think I speak for the nation of 51,800 English Leaving Cert sitters who would otherwise have been attempting the paper on Thursday. It’s a complete and utter disgrace.
For two years other students and I have prepared poetry, single texts and comparative essays. However, predictions emerged from the nation’s most respected educators, which were religiously absorbed like Bible verses. I know of countless students who had narrowed down their poetry to their favourite out of four, their comparative to their favourite out of two, and their Macbeth essay to the predicted theme. Not in the true spirit of examinations possibly, but every one of them was prepared to do an excellent paper 2.
Now, uncertainty enshrouds our country’s sixth years. Do they continue on with their revision of the texts that appeared on the Co Louth variation of the exam? Or do they start new poets, thematic essays, etc, in the hope that the new paper 2 will not let their new revision plans down? Perhaps they will sit there, utterly conflicted as to what to do now.
The mix-up which occurred in the “Wee County” today will have more than “Wee” ramifications. – Yours, etc,
Madam, – My disgust at the rescheduling of English paper 2 is hard to describe, despite my years of English study. As soon as the rumours and panic began to spread we were assured by friends and teachers in the media that there was no need to worry: the State Examinations Commission had a backup paper.
Clearly they have a backup paper, but no backup plan.
I don’t understand how they couldn’t be prepared for an incident such as this. The fact that it wasn’t reported initially is also disturbing. Has it happened before? How many people have had an advantage in the past?
All I can say is, expect a fall in the standard of Maths and Irish this year as we spend the Saturday morning, which was to have been spent studying those subjects, struggling through an exhausting exam. – Yours, etc,
Madam, – Forty years ago this month I sat my Leaving Certificate examination. The world has seen many changes since then, except our ability to repeat history. We students learned some time after completing the Leaving Certificate English paper and Maths paper that copies of those papers had been stolen and leaked, earlier, in Dublin, and that we had to re-sit the exams the following Saturday.
To the Leaving Certificate students of 2009 I can truly say that we survived, and so will you.
Good luck from the class of 1969. – Yours, etc,
Madam, – Lest anyone get too carried away by the evils of modern communications or the falling ethics of students in relation to the Leaving Cert English paper drama, can I recall the old Intermediate and Leaving Certificate in 1969, when exam papers were stolen from the Department of Education?
Using the limited facilities that we had in those days – carrier pigeons, Morse code, semaphore, etc – the contents of those exam papers were transmitted across the country, accurately, within about a day. I remember the 49A bus being a particularly powerful communications hub in this regard.
As will happen in the current case, we sat newly prepared papers, but not before we had also sat the original ones with which we were then quite familiar. It was a long summer. – Yours, etc,
Madam, – While the paper 2 mix-up is regrettable, what’s more regrettable is the knee-jerk reaction by the officials in the Department of Education to reschedule the exam for Saturday. Most of the students will have already had their weekend mapped out for revision.
This decision shows a lack of understanding of the students’ position and a lack of clear-headed planning. Most students will not be mentally prepared for this re-sit given that they would have been steered in a certain direction by their teachers – who have no opportunity now to offer any advice.
This exam should have been re-scheduled for the day after the exams were due to end, or even the following Saturday when students would have had time to recover. – Yours, etc,
Madam, – The reporting by the media (and particularly Morning Ireland), was nothing short of a disgrace. Words like “fiasco” should never have been used in this context. This was not a fiasco by any stretch of the imagination. It was a human error which any of us could have made. Attempting to cover it up would be a major transgression.
The media has done nothing to alleviate the stress which Leaving Cert students may experience as a result. While feelings of frustration, annoyance and anger were drummed up, a great opportunity to turn this into a learning experience was missed.
Nobody died as a result of the error. All the Leaving Cert students are in the same boat. Perhaps the second paper will be easier. How many of their contemporaries around the world would be delighted if this were their main problem? These are the kinds of messages we should be giving our young adults in the hope that it may help them to deal with the many vicissitudes which life will throw them in the years to come.
I have bought all the papers today and I will use them in September to explain two words to my new First Years: hyperbole and jeremiad. – Yours, etc,