How has the exams commission performed in its first year? Kathryn Holmquist examines the examiners
As the State Examinations Commission settles down to ranking the efforts of 56,000 students, the commission itself is under scrutiny. This is the first year that the commission has run the exam - and its success has been mixed.
The commission admitted to an error on the higher-level chemistry paper (question 2e), but other objections have yet to be addressed. The following is a check-list of its performance:
• Security
On Monday, June 9th, the commission wrongly gave an Applied Leaving Cert paper, on office administration and customer care, dated June 10th, to engineering students in eight schools - and to The Irish Times. Then again, the commission has successfully delivered 35 million pieces of paper to the right places and at the right time.
Grade: B
• Exam content
The commission has inherited the Department of Education's system of exam-writing. This includes a culture of expedience, in which papers have between two and nine errors. Examiners announce these corrections to students in the exam hall. However, this year many students did not hear a correction to the higher-level maths paper. Worse, students were asked questions in higher-levels maths and chemistry that had not been covered in the syllabus.
Grade: Fail
• Alleged errors in exams:
Teachers have complained to The Irish Times of errors in maths, biology, Irish, music, economics and chemistry. The commission disputes whether there was any error in some cases.
Grade: C
• Customer relations
Parents, students and teachers are writing to the commission to express their disquiet. The commission is taking all objections on board.
Examiners, who sit on committees and discuss the response of students to particular questions, are currently meeting to discuss these issues.
When enough people complain and the complaint is justified, marks are adjusted to take account of the difficulty of a question.
Grade: A
• Exam accessibility
In terms of clarity, the use of language in many papers this year was ambiguous.
Students often felt "trapped", as Mr John MacGabhann, education and research officer with the TUI, has put it.
This "ungenerous" and "unfriendly" approach appears to test students on what they don't know rather than on what they know.
Grade B
Overall points/grade: Must try harder. Appeal awaited.