Over the past few days there was some clarification on the issue of the Junior and Leaving Cert exams. The Department of Education considered the wishes of students and decided to cancel the Junior Cert. The Leaving Cert will go ahead and the good news is that there will be a choice.
You can sit your exam in June or opt for calculated grades, now to be called SEC Accredited Grades. Before making your decision, there is a few things you should know.
You can choose both options
The main concern this year was that students may not have been able to cover the compete curriculum for certain subjects. In this case, the option for calculated grades may be best. However, if you feel like you know your stuff for other subjects, you have the possibility to sit your exam for those.
Oral exams and project work
Externally assessed work such as projects and orals will be excluded from your calculated grade if you choose this option. However, some oral examinations will have to be cancelled even if you do decide to sit the exam due to safety reasons. You may take this into consideration, especially when thinking about Irish or other language exams. Unfortunately, the details about what oral exams won’t go ahead are yet to be released.
Calculated grades results
One last thing you should know about calculated grades is that you will not receive them before written examinations are taken. This means that if you are not happy with your accredited grade, you will not be able to sit your exam in hopes to improve it.
Written exams timetable
The Leaving Cert and Leaving Cert Applied timetables for the June exams have already been released. You can view the LC timetable here.
More information about the oral exams will be released in the coming weeks. Your teachers will be able to give you some personal feedback to help you make the right choice. In the meantime, get ready to return to schools from Monday 1 March.http://here
