High rate of Leaving Cert Maths, Biology appeals successful

Almost a quarter of Leaving Cert candidates who appealed their result in higher level Mathematics received an upgrade, figures published by the State Examinations Commission on Wednesday show.

Higher level English attracted the highest number of appeals at 1,736, with 13.2 per cent of these proving successful.

Biology attracted 923 appeals (26.5 per cent upgraded), Irish attracted 908 appeals (12.8 per cent upgraded) and there were 795 Maths appeals (22.9 per cent upgraded).

There were only 200 appeals in ordinary level Maths, an exam which attracted criticism at the time for its reported difficulty, and 50 (or 25 per cent) were upgraded.

A total of 5,660 candidates made applications for appeals against 9,809 grades, leading to 1,822 upgrades - an 18.6 per cent success rate.

There were five results downgraded in the appeal process compared to three last year.

While such appeals may be of significant help to individual students needing a few extra points for their preferred college course, the State Examinations Commission (SEC) noted that the 1,822 upgrades accounted for only 0.47 per cent of all grades awarded in the 2015 Leaving Cert.

The Commission said because of the uncertain postal situation it had arranged for the results of the appeals to arrive in schools today by courier.

It is also publishing the appeals outcome through its online results service on Wednesday.

As part of the SEC’s annual quality assurance check, six candidates who had not appealed their results received an upgrade.

In addition, the SEC carried out a revision to the marking scheme for Leaving Certificate higher level Home Economics on foot of issues raised during the appeals process over one question worth 10 marks out of 400. All scripts where the marks awarded could have made a difference to the grade achieved were re-examined.

Upgrades were given to 33 candidates who had appealed and 425 candidates who had not.

Candidates who wish to view their re-marked scripts must complete an application form with the appeal results and return it to their school by next Monday, October 12th.

Viewing will be held in the SEC’s Athlone offices on Saturday, October 17th between 10.00am and 4.00pm.