This year’s Leaving Cert agricultural science exam is scheduled for Monday 20 June.

The exam will take place from 2pm until 4.30pm for both higher and ordinary levels.

This year’s exam is offering more choice in questions than previous years with extra questions to choose from in both section A and section B.

As usual, it is one of the later-starting exams, being almost two weeks after the first exam.

English paper one is almost always the first exam to kick off proceedings and is set for Wednesday 8 June 2022 at 9.30am.

Polish, Lithuanian, Portuguese and Mandarin Chinese exams will be taking place from 9.30am to 12.50pm on the same Monday as the agricultural science exam.

Hebrew studies and ancient Greek are also on that morning from 9.30am to 12.30pm.

Marking scheme and question options

Total marks for the written agricultural science paper has not changed for 2022 and will stay at 300 marks, nor has the duration of the exam changed.

Recently the Irish Farmers Journal reported that the number of students taking higher level agricultural science as a Leaving Certificate subject increased by 43% over the last decade

However, section A will have an increase in choice with 12 questions provided and 10 to be answered.

In addition, there will be some internal choice through internal optionality in four questions.

In section B, there will be an increased choice with six questions and the student must answer four of these questions, with internal optionality in two questions.

Recently the Irish Farmers Journal reported that the number of students taking higher level agricultural science as a Leaving Certificate subject increased by 43% over the last decade, according to Department of Education figures.

Some 7,553 students took the subject’s higher-level exam in 2021, a significant increase from the 5,287 who did so in 2011.

Meanwhile, the number taking the subject at ordinary level has decreased from 1,186 to 915 over the same period.