4,400 external candidates to sit Leaving Cert

By Niall Murray

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

A RECORD number of people not in school have applied to sit Leaving Certificate exams in June.

The State Examinations Commission received more than 4,400 applications from external candidates for this year’s exams up to the deadline at the end of January and expects the figure to increase in the coming months as late applicants get in contact.

The number of external candidates last year was just over 4,100, the largest entry for a decade in this category. These include people who have returned to education, some repeat Leaving Certificate students, and people applying to sit a small number of subjects.

Many of them have entered for the exam through programmes like the Vocational Training Opportunities Scheme (VTOS) for people on social welfare and the Back to Education Initiative (BTEI).

The Central Applications Office (CAO) has already reported an increase in numbers who have submitted lists of college courses they hope to gain entry on next autumn. The rise may reflect the interest in improving qualifications among people who have lost their jobs or people seeking to make their CVs more attractive.

Meanwhile, analysis of the 2008 Junior Certificate History exams has found there was a poor response rate to an important section of the higher level paper worth around 11% of total marks.

Students are required to answer 10 out of 20 short questions and, in previous years, have tended to answer extra questions.

But examiners who marked the 32,806 higher papers last summer noted that many candidates did not attempt the required 10 questions. They also reported that one-in-six students answered three or less of these short questions correctly.

The SEC published chief examiners’ reports on a number of Junior Certificate papers this week.

Another report showed that nearly one-third of the 4,500 students who sat ordinary level Junior Cert technical graphics did not attempt the required four questions in Section B of the paper — worth 70% of the entire marks.

"Candidates who do not attempt the required number of questions have a greatly reduced chance of obtaining a high grade in the examination. Teachers are advised to encourage candidates to use the full time allocation available for the examination and to attempt the required 10 questions in Section A, and the required four questions in Section B," the chief examiner wrote.

The report on the 2008 French exams shows a rise in the proportion of students taking the optional oral exam at this level. The 874 candidates taking this option, represent 2.6% of all 34,147 people who took the exam, up from 1.4% in 2006.

This appeared in the printed version of the Irish Examiner Wednesday, February 18, 2009