Timetable change a relief as students face exams

THE vast majority of students beginning their Leaving Certificate tomorrow will have at least one morning or afternoon free during the first three days of exams.

Following changes again to this year’s timetable, students will have their two English papers split across Wednesday and Thursday mornings for the second successive year – both writing-intensive exams were previously held on the first day.

Only 13,000 of the 55,383 people sitting this year’s Leaving Certificate will have a second exam tomorrow, when home economics papers are taken. Around 5,000 candidates are entered for Thursday afternoon’s engineering exam, in a slot which was allocated to chemistry last year.

But with up to 50% to 60% of their marks already allocated for practical tests and project work, engineering students will be under slightly less pressure for their written exam.

The higher and ordinary level chemistry papers will be taken this year during the third week of exams, on Tuesday, June 16.

The changes follow discussions between the Department of Education, the State Examinations Commission, which operates the exams independently, and representatives of school managers, parents and teachers.

Further timetable changes are planned in future years, although proposals by former education minister Mary Hanafin to hold one of the English papers on a Saturday in May continue to be opposed by schools because of perceived logistical barriers.

The proportion of students planning to take higher level Leaving Certificate maths is down to less than one in five, although by Friday morning when papers are handed out, that number is likely to fall below one in six, based on patterns from previous years.

This year’s Leaving Certificate also sees the first examination of two new subjects, design and communications graphics which replaces technical drawing, and technology, which is being taken by almost 700 students at 46 schools.

The examinations commission has received 3,269 entries for the Leaving Certificate Applied, with exams continuing from tomorrow morning to Thursday week, June 11.

More than 56,500 people are registered to begin Junior Certificate exams tomorrow, opening with English tomorrow morning and a second paper in the afternoon for higher level students.

With the exams traditionally – but not always – starting on the Wednesday after the June bank holiday, this year’s start is the earliest for the State exams since 1992 when they also began on June 3.

The results will be issued to Leaving Certificate students on Wednesday, August 11, and to those taking the Junior Certificate in mid-September.

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