The questions poured into The Irish Times website yesterday, as both students and parents explored the implications of the Leaving Certificate results.
Many inquired about the viewing-of-script process. Some students and parents, in the excitement of opening the envelope with their Leaving Certificate results, seemed unaware that the form to seek to view scripts is in this envelope with the result sheet. This free service offers all students the opportunity to view one or more of their marked examination scripts, and see how the marking scheme has been applied in each question.
Appeal
This facility helps you decide whether to lodge an appeal against a result. With the exception of external candidates, all applications for viewing of marked scripts should be made through your school, and the application closing date in schools is Tuesday, August 20th.
External candidates, who took the Leaving Cert outside a second-level school, should follow the instructions that accompany their provisional statement of results.
To help make up your mind whether to pay the fee of €40 per subject, you will have access to the marking schemes for every paper and will be able to see how they applied in your case.
The viewing of scripts will be in your school on Friday, August 30th, and Saturday, August 31st. You have to be present to view them and may be accompanied by one other person. Some visitors to our website inquired if they could get a parent to view the scripts on their behalf, as they were going abroad to celebrate their results. Unfortunately, viewing a script in these circumstances is not possible; you must be present yourself. You still have the option of requesting a recheck and paying the €40 per subject.
All appeal applications to have a script re-marked must be with the State Examinations Commission by 5pm on Wednesday, September 4th.
Given that about 20 per cent of appeals are successful each year, students who are 1 per cent shy of the next grade up are statistically more likely to achieve an upgrade than one who is 4 per cent adrift. The only way you can know your percentage mark in each of your Leaving Certificate subjects is to view all your scripts over the three sessions on the weekend of August 30th to 31st.
It is not unusual for a small number of students to discover some administrative error in the transcribing of marks from their written work to the front cover of the answer book – these can be rectified in a few working days between the SEC and the CAO, and students’ CAO offers may be revised.
The results of appeals are issued to all schools in mid-October. If your grade in one or more subjects is improved or, in very rare cases reduced, the CAO is advised by the SEC in October, and any college place you would have been entitled to under the revised points will then be offered to you, no matter what you may have accepted in the meantime. The college may not be able to allow you start in late October, but you are guaranteed your place on the course for 2014-2015.
Higher-level maths
Even though the numbers failing maths at all three levels has dropped considerably to 3,760, we still had a number of inquiries from students in this situation. If you are one of the unfortunate few candidates to fail higher-level maths, a number of colleges including DIT and NUI Galway (Wednesday, August 21st), UL (Thursday, August 22nd) and NUI Maynooth (Friday, August 23rd) offer second-chance higher-level maths exams, to enable you to access level eight engineering courses.
CIT and WIT have introduced a special maths exam, on Tuesday, August 20th, and Friday, August 30th, respectively, for any students who have already applied to either college and have failed maths at any level.
