Roller coaster results 2004

By Mairead Lavery

Getting the Leaving Cert results is a memorable day in most people's lives, and for the class of 2004 the long wait ended yesterday. This week, Mairead Lavery checks out the results and finds a few surprises and shocks in the details

This year, 58,753 candidates sat the Leaving Certificate examination, down 1.3% on the 59,536 who sat the exam last year. Of these, 17,094 candidates (29%) followed either the Leaving Certificate Applied or Leaving Certificate Vocational programmes. Only 41,659 candidates followed the established Leaving Certificate programme. In all, almost 450,000 individual grades in 58 different subjects had to be produced by the State Examination Commission by yesterday's deadline.

Few surprises in results

At higher-level, students sitting Applied Maths and Italian have the distinction of getting the highest percentage of A grades in this year's exams, at 29.3% and 28.7%, respectively. The subjects where it proved hardest to pick up a top grade at higher level were Art, at 4.3%, and Home Economics S&S, at 4.9%. Physics, at 10.6%, had the highest failure rate at this level. At ordinary level, students taking Applied Maths and History were the top performers, with the latter also having the distinction of producing the third highest percentage of fails. Even though only 16 students sat Economic History at ordinary level, almost half failed the subject.

The results in most subjects followed a broadly similar pattern to those of previous years. Maths was an exception, and despite being considered extremely difficult, results at higher level were significantly up on last year. A massive 16.1% of those sitting the higher paper scored A's, compared to 13.2% last year. On the ordinary paper, this year's figure for A's was 15.7%, compared to 10.9% for 2003. However, the numbers failing this exam continues to cause concern, with 11.5% getting an E grade or less on the ordinary paper. In broad numbers, this translates to well over 4,000 students failing maths in the Leaving Cert.

Outside of Maths, when it comes to numbers, English, Irish and Geography are the subjects with the highest number of students sitting the exam, and results across all grades and levels were very similar to last year. Even though the percentage of fails in English looks small, it still adds up to over 1,000 students failing to make the grade in this subject, and that has serious implications if they want to attend any third-level college. The 10% increase in those taking History last year wasn't sustained, with numbers down by a similar percentage this year.

Grades up in foreign languages

French continues to be by far the most popular foreign language, and top grades in higher-level papers were well up on last year, with 11.6% scoring an A, compared to 8.3% in 2003. This is despite the fact that the paper was not well received at exam time. The figures were also excellent for German, where the A grades at higher level came in at 14.4%, compared to 11.8% last year.

Of the science subjects, both Chemistry and Biology lost some of their sparkle, with A grades down on last year. In chemistry over 3% fewer got the top grade, and failure rates were up 2% on last year. This year's Biology paper was also considered very tough and, perhaps reflecting this, A grades were down from 19% to 15.3%. The numbers taking Agricultural Science were up 10%, and grades at higher level were up by a similar level. However, at the ordinary level the picture told a different story, with only nine of the 967 who sat the exam getting an A and 155 or 16.6% failing the subject.

Results across all the business subjects were very much in line with last year. The one exception was Economic History at ordinary level. Although only 16 students sat the exam, almost half or 44% failed it with no one managing to get either an A or B1 grade.

It was also steady as she goes in the technical subjects - Engineering, Technical Drawing and Construction Studies - with grades much the same as last year. In Music, numbers taking the subject were up 10%; however, A grades were well down at 11.6%, compared to 18% last year. Art has the distinction of being the subject where it was hardest to pick up the highest grade, with only 4.3% getting the A compared to 7.7% last year.

Viewing of marked scripts and appeals

The State Examinations Commission will be providing a "Viewing of Marked Scripts'' service again this year. This free service offers all candidates the opportunity to view one or more of their marked examination scripts and should help them in deciding whether or not to lodge an appeal against a result. With the exception of external candidates, all applications for Viewing of Marked Scripts should be made through the candidate's school. The closing date for receipt of completed application forms in schools is next Tuesday. All candidates will have access to the Marking Schemes and will be able to see how they applied in their case. The Viewing of Scripts will take place in schools on Friday and Saturday, 3 and 4 September.

Leaving Certificate Applied Programme

The number of students taking the two-year Leaving Certificate Applied (LCA) continues to grow, with 3,529 on the programme this year - an increase of 230 on 2003. LCA students have been building their credits right through the two years of their Leaving Certificate Programme so these results are just the final stage of their examination process.

The results for Leaving Certificate Applied students differ from those of their counterparts in the established Leaving Certificate. Graduates from the Applied Programme receive a single award, made on the basis of credits accumulated over the two-year cycle. This award is given at three levels: Pass for those students with total credits of 60% to 69%, Merit for 70% to 84%, and Distinction for 85% to 100%.