Leaving Cert 2023: Drop in top higher level maths grades amid criticism of ‘unfair’ paper

The proportion of Leaving Cert students who secured top grades in higher level maths has declined this year. It follows heavy criticism over the level of difficulty in the maths paper one, which many students felt was excessively hard and unfair.

A breakdown of results provided by the State Examinations Commission (SEC) shows that the proportion of students who achieved a top grade – a H1 – fell from 18 per cent last year to 11 per cent this year.

Similarly, the proportion who achieved a H1-H3 – traditionally known as an “honour” – fell from 60 per cent last year to 49.5 per cent this year.

A very small proportion of students – 0.5 per cent or 102 – failed the paper and achieved a H8. This is a similar proportion to last year when 0.3 per cent, or 64 students, failed the paper.

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A pass in higher level maths is a requirement for entry into a significant number of college courses, while many students are hoping to secure 25 bonus points which are awarded to grades from H6 upwards.

The SEC said commentary and correspondence on the exams from students, parents and teachers was brought to the attention of the chief examiner and was considered in the “refinement of the draft marking scheme”.

“This process resulted in a marking scheme that was at the more lenient end of the normal range,” it said.

The SEC added that it concluded that there was “no systemic issue” with the paper one.

It said many of the questions that were commented on as being unusual or abstract were, ultimately, “answered well” by candidates in comparison to their answering of other questions that did not attract any such comment.

“This is not to undermine the views expressed about the level of difficulty of the paper, but the SEC must base its decisions on the evidence available in the quality of engagement and answering in the candidates’ scripts and the expert views of the senior examining team,” it said.

It added that the results this year were not comparable to the results of last year or other preceding years.

Overall, students across all subjects and levels this year have benefited from the artificial inflation of marks awarded for their marked exams by an average of 7.9 per cent.

This was on foot of a direction from Minister for Education Norma Foley who requested that grades this year should, on aggregate, be no lower than last year.

The unadjusted marks in this year’s exams were lower across the board than in 2022, which resulted in exam authorities applying a bigger upward adjustment to bring them into line with last year’s exams.

Using what authorities describe as a “linear adjustment”, the extent to which additional marks were added was greater for lower marks and smaller for higher marks.

For example, on a scale of one to 100, a mark of zero was adjusted upwards by 13 per cent, a mark of 50 was increased by 9 per cent and a mark of 100 rose by just over 5 per cent.

This move, in turn, pushed some 71 per cent of students’ grades upwards.

It means that this year’s students have matched the record haul of top grades of 2022 and 2021. They are, on average, about 60 points higher than results secured before the pandemic.

The extent of grade inflation is most notable in the proportion of H1 grades at higher level across all subjects at just over 14 per cent, a similar figure to 2022 and 2021. By contrast, the proportion of H1 grades at higher level in the years before the pandemic was just 5-6 per cent.

More than 60,000 students, meanwhile, will be able to access their grades on Friday from 10am online.

Candidates will have access to more detailed data on their grades – such as marks for individual components, the post-marking adjustment mark and final mark – from next Tuesday, August 29th.

They will also be able to apply to view their scripts on the same day, in advance of CAO offers which are due to issue online on Wednesday, August 30th.