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754 Sligo Students Get Leaving Cert Results Today

As over 750 Sligo students anxiously receive the results of their leaving Certificate results this morning (9am) it has emerged that in a reversal of recent trends, the number failing maths has fallen dramatically, while record numbers opted to take the subject at higher level.

The Minister for Education and Skills Ruairí Quinn, T.D., has sent his congratulations to all students who will be collecting their results in person at their schools and by phone and from midday the results will be available on-line. However the number failing maths this year is still relatively high at close to 4,000. A decrease of 20 on recent years.

For the first time, all students were examined on two of the five strands of the new Project Maths syllabus, which has been criticised as “dumbing down maths’’ by some teachers.

The other main change to the Leaving Cert this year was in Irish where the oral component of the exams now accounts for 40% of the marks awarded.  The number of students taking higher level Irish has increased by almost 11% compared to last year.

The other striking feature is the fall-off in the number of exam candidates from grind schools, down over 20 per cent.

The sharp increase in numbers taking higher level maths comes after colleges agreed to Mr Quinn’s request to offer bonus CAO points for those taking the paper. This year, the 10,875 students with a grade D3 or better in higher level maths will secure a bonus 25 CAO points. This means they will enjoy a considerable advantage over the 35,000 students who took the ordinary level paper.

Nationally the results highlighted that;

Three students secured nine A1 grades, while 10 gained eight A1s. In all, 150 students scored a “perfect’’ Leaving with six A1s or better;

Failure rates remained high in several ordinary level subjects, including chemistry (16.6 per cent), biology (13.5 per cent) and physics (10.6 per cent);

Failure rates were also high in several language subjects at ordinary level, including Italian (10.3 per cent), French (6.9 per cent) and Spanish (7.2 per cent);

Among the main subjects, music is the “easiest’’ honour at higher level. Over 95 per cent of students secured an A, B or C;

Biology and business are the “hardest” honours, with an A, B or C rate of 71 per cent.

In the Northwest 754 Sligo students sat the exam, Donegal saw over 2,000 participate while Leitrim saw 419 sit the final second-level examination.

Next month will see the results of the 2012 Junior Certificate released to 815 students in Sligo,  430 in Leitrim and 2,228 in Donegal.


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