Exam Centres

aphex™

I am wondering if anyone knows if Fás or any crowd like that run LC exam centres?

Reason is i go to a (full time) repeat school (well known) and last year (yes i was there last year too ) half-way through every exam muppets would come out and start talking outside the window i was sitting beside- v. annoying!

Also the standard in the school is going to be pretty high. While most papers are marked fairly nationally, which is true, as my teachers keep telling me, English wasn't marked evenly last year :mad: .

Anyway im looking for a place thats alot less hassle. Anybody know of exam centres like this?
i dont want to take any chances this year............

Boston

DOn't follow you at all. the department of education takes over rooms in the school you attend and operate those rooms for the period of the exam. you are asigned your exam centre based on where your sitting the leaving. you can't jsut go to some random place to sit it.

aphex™

Originally posted by Boston
DOn't follow you at all. the department of education takes over rooms in the school you attend and operate those rooms for the period of the exam. you are asigned your exam centre based on where your sitting the leaving. you can't jsut go to some random place to sit it.

Well its a private school, innit? so they give u an application for the LC, you pick what subjects you want to do __and where u want to sit it__. This is then sent off to the department. Otherwise they wouldnt know you're doing the LC.

Alot of people come up to dublin for the school, and do the exam at home in their old (or some other) school in June.

I dont want to go back to my old schools (i literally will masacre the skangers if i see any of them), and im pissed cos last year i couldnt think in the exam hall for of muppets shouting outside "jesus that was a hard exam!". The guy in front of me was wearing cotton buds in each ear cos of the noise.

ANyway, you can sit the leaving cert in any school (exam centre- you just have to ask the exam centre first), but i reckon theres bound to be some place like Fás or whatever running exam centres for anyone who just wants to do the exam, you know, who dont necessarily go to school?

Boston

no mate its only schools as far as i know, why can't you sit it in the private school? are we talking about IOE here? i'm possive they will allow you sit your exam there. Just find any school, so in and ask if you can sit the exam there, i don't know what effect this will have on fees and havign to pay for a full year. Some places run night courses for the leavign and you might be able to get in there.

claire h

If there's noise in/around the exam centre, get the supervisor to do something about it. You can't be the only person having trouble concentrating, and they'll send one of the attendants out to shut up the yappers. (I was an attendant at the exams last year - spent half my time going outside and telling people to shut up.)

As for high standards in schools... *shrugs* Just sounds like you're trying to beat the system to me, and I'm not sure it'll work. Just work hard like the rest of us.

aphex™

well i can see why you might think im trying to beat the system.... but i suppose theres a disadvantage (in theory) in the fact im sitting the LC with people whove already done it before and have a higher standard.
Im not moaning about what my old centre, i was only preempting replies like "why would u not do it where you are now". Of course some people reply anyway.

Back to the point:
if anybody knows of any other options for places to sit the leaving other than a normal school pls let me know.
cheers

Shane

Not sure how it works but a friend of mine was attending Park in Galway last year and sat the exams in our school. However, I don't think Park do exams in their buildings anyway so he had no choice in the matter! I can tell you that he was registered as an outside candidate so I assume that is how he picked the centre.

Bono_85

yeah whats the deal with that? How come they get marked much harder, I mean I know why but if I do a perfect exam and then they go and decide to try and take marks off me, its a stupid system??

Delphi91

One quick question: why would you assume that the situation would be any different in another school???

If the school and supervisor take their job and responsibilities seriously, the situation should not arise. Speak to the supervisor and ask that the noisy people be moved on. He/she can send the attendant to do it, or if they won't move, send for the school principal.

As a supervisor, I have had external candidates sit in my center. However it has usually been because they have come from somewhere which is not recognised as an exam center. I don't think you can pick and choose where you want to sit the exam (I can be corrected on this if I'm wrong).

Mike

aphex™

Originally posted by Delphi91
don't think you can pick and choose where you want to sit the exam (I can be corrected on this if I'm wrong).

You can, if u go to a private school. I filled out the form last year, and my friend sat LC in a school she had never been to.

The principle did move people on, but then he went off, this happened during every exam. I dont want to go into it that much, but needless im not taking my chances there again.
I think going to a smaller school would help. There were ~700 people doing the LC there last year.
If there are 120 people in this other place, thats alot less noise.
Im gonna put down a VEC school (?) or something, i think. I have to ask them first tho.

PHB

If you're really going in for the points I'd recommend the following.

Find a "lower class area" and find a school there and ask to sit the exam in an exam centre close by.
Since we all know that the leaving cert closly follows a grade curve, you'll find it easier to get higher marks in these exam centres.

Delphi91

Originally posted by PHB
...Find a "lower class area" and find a school there and ask to sit the exam in an exam centre close by.
Since we all know that the leaving cert closly follows a grade curve, you'll find it easier to get higher marks in these exam centres.

Good god, I have never come across such rubbish in my life!!!!

You would seem to be suggesting that those students in "upper class" areas get higher marks than those in "lower class" areas. What rubbish!

When examiners correct exam papers, the only information they have about a tudent is a number - no name, no school name, no class name, no socio-economic background indicator, etc, etc. This is the idea of the L.C - it is fair to all students.

A fellow teaching colleague of mine supervised in one of the countries top private schools for the last number of years. Many of the students left the exams after the obligatory 30 minute stay. Bet they didn't do too well in their results! Yet in the school where I teach (which has a very high population from what you term "lower class" areas), our top student got 590 points with many others over 500.

The only thing that you "might" be able to say is that he "may" get higher marks in his exam than others in that area. But if he does so, it won't be because they may be from a lower class area. It will be purely based on his intelligence, on the level of preparation that he might do for the exam and on how he performs on the day. I hope that you're not suggesting that "lower class" people are less intelligent than others???

You are going down a very dangerous road to suggest that students in lower class areas are marked down because of where they are from. If I was an examiner for the State Exams, I would feel disgusted, horrified and very angry at an accusation like that.

Mike

claire h

You would seem to be suggesting that those students in "upper class" areas get higher marks than those in "lower class" areas. What rubbish!

Ah, yes, because those tables that they print in the newspaper about the number of students from each school going to university... it's never just a list of private schools from so-called 'upper-class' areas, is it?

Let's be realistic here... it's not an ideal system. There's a reason a lot of parents who can afford it prefer to send their kids to private schools - better facilities, smaller class groups - and while it isn't always the case, these things *do* make a difference. It's not that kids from 'lower class' areas aren't as smart, it's that they often don't have access to a lot of the things that the 'upper class' kids do. You may have your personal story to back up your case, but the statistics show that it's largely the fee-paying schools who are getting the good results and sending students off to university.

Delphi91

Point taken. I agree that smaller class sizes and more facilities may lead to improved results.

But have a look at what the original post that I commented on actually said:

...Find a "lower class area" and find a school there and ask to sit the exam in an exam centre close by. Since we all know that the leaving cert closly follows a grade curve, you'll find it easier to get higher marks in these exam centres.

The statement implies that you can get higher marks by sitting exams in lower class areas. That is complete rubbish. Does it mean that by doing the exam in a lower class area that he will get, say a B, whereas he would have gotten a C in a "middle class or higher" area? That's what its implying to me.

Ok, it is possible that he may get a higher mark than some of the students in those areas, but that is not necessarily true. However, the statement doesn't say that. It virtually guarantees that he will which is untrue.

Crash

You can choose your exam centres. i have a choice of five or so. its due to my school (ashfield) not having a large enough area for all the students to sit exams so you can sit it in st.enda's GAA club, st. judes, war memorial hall etc.

Talk to your guidance councillor or email the department.

Crash

Originally posted by Delphi91
The statement implies that you can get higher marks by sitting exams in lower class areas. That is complete rubbish. Does it mean that by doing the exam in a lower class area that he will get, say a B, whereas he would have gotten a C in a "middle class or higher" area? That's what its implying to me.

Ok, it is possible that he may get a higher mark than some of the students in those areas, but that is not necessarily true. However, the statement doesn't say that. It virtually guarantees that he will which is untrue.

actually if you replace lower class schools with lower achieving schools that makes sense. if a teacher is correcting a large number of C grade papers and comes across one that may have just hit a b2 in a school full of b2's, that exam will draw a lot more attention, especially after a day of correcting C or lower grade papers.

PHB

The statement implies that you can get higher marks by sitting exams in lower class areas. That is complete rubbish.
Ok, it is possible that he may get a higher mark than some of the students in those areas, but that is not necessarily true. However, the statement doesn't say that. It virtually guarantees that he will which is untrue.

Very simple system here.
The examiner gives out a certain amount of A's and B's and C's and if they dont they willl get a call from the head office andbe told to re check the papers.

People in lower class areas will statistically do worse than people in higher class areas. You can argue that this is not fair all youwant, and I completely agree but we live in the real world here and this guy wants to get as many points as possible. If he does sit his leaving cert in lower class areas he will have less competetion than if he sat them where the institute sits them.

Does it mean that by doing the exam in a lower class area that he will get, say a B, whereas he would have gotten a C in a "middle class or higher" area? That's what its implying to me.

Im not implying that, I'm saying it dead out, he will get a B in that area while he might get a C in a higher class area. The leaving cert is marked ona grade curve and while we don't like it, don't sit there and get screwed around because of it.

Boston

PHB so your basically saying i got my 520 not because i broke my balls but because i come from an area full of skangers that don't even sit a junior cert let alone the leaving cert? what a pile of hot steaming piss.

PHB

I dont know you're personal case Boston, but I'm saying that people are marked on a grade curve. Its a fact. They give out so many A's and B's and C's in each set of examination papers.

If he does it in an area where less people will be aiming for those high points he hasa much better chance to get them.

I knowmany examiners who have confirmed this and i'll give you an example of one.

MY sisters best friend is a home ec teacher, and she was correcting papers.
She found that so many people deeserved A's and when the cheif examinre rang her up to check how many A's she had given out, she was told to go back and find reasons to mark them down. Its not a nice system but tahts the way it is.

Boston

of course she was, you can't just bang out A's all over the place, but the idea that per set of exams theres a defined number of A b and c grades is bull, yes its true of the whole leaving cert in general. the same number of people get the grades year in, year out. 2.8% of those siting honors economics got an A1, if what you say is true, theres no chance of two people from a class of say 7 (such as mine) getting A1's

PHB

No, its not a dead certain thing. Im syaing that if he does his leaviung cert in a lower class area which is acedemically weaker than say doing it in the institute or something, he wiull get a better mark than he would have in the institute. Hence I think he should go do the leaving cert in a different place.

you can't just bang out A's all over the place

I dont htink you understood me. All of these people deserved A's in their papers, all of them. And she was told to mark them down.

Boston

so its all a big conspiracy against the IOE, see cult i told you.

don't mind phb if i don't take you word for any of this

PHB

Ok, your leaving cert is over now so it doesn't affect you.
If you want to get the best leaving cert, you gotta realise its a stupid sytem, and you should abuse it as much as possible.

Boston

o i abused it to hell, but now that i'm sitting in an engineering lecture i wish to hell someone how actually thought me something, instead of just how to play the system

a bientot

It is dreadful to note the absurd spelling mistakes in this thread....why is it that contributors are so lazy ar far as spellings are concerned.....and as for baisc grammar.............

Some claim to be teachers yet they cannot write a simple sentence without at least one mistake

We would appear to have got rid of Irish and proficiency in other European languages would now seem to be on the way out......

The language of Shakespeare, our only language deserves special attention.............. so a dictionary at the elbow when putting words on the web.......................

aphex™

PHB you're pretty much spot on.
Except its really not a class issue in other schools, theres so many different people in my school at the mo, people from every corner of society. I suppose you are right technically about the class issue in other schools, but its really that i dont want to be anyway near 700 people whove paid 5 grand to sit the leaving, obviously they're motivated more.

Last year i was marked down from a b2 in french to a C1. You could see where the examiner scribbled it out. In my first french class this year the teacher (who was correcting some papers) spoke about how she had too many b2's or something like that. Now she didnt correct my paper or anything, but the same thing is happening in every subject every year.

The number of A1's in maths/physics/everything is set even before anybody sits the exam. Any examiner who has a set of average standard papers to correct will tell you that he/she will try and bring up a few of the better ones if poss.

Now, its my life and i may as well go with it. If it doesnt help, and we shall never know, so be it. But i firmly believe its worth it. **** the system anyway, its not fair, why cant i just pick a course in college and do it? Because all the rich gits (barristers, lawyers, dentists and their respective associations) make sure there arent that many places in College to study for that profession, meaning less competition, meaning they charge you what they want. Meaning they get more money- and milk non-professionals too. Oh and thats economics- Boston.

Sorry i havent been to involved in this thread- im in study in school until 8pm these days and im knackered after it!
Cheers for the (er on-topic) replies.

Boston

Originally posted by aphex™


The number of A1's in maths/physics/everything is set even before anybody sits the exam. Any examiner who has a set of average standard papers to correct will tell you that he/she will try and bring up a few of the better ones if poss.
.

absolutley true, its allways decided the precentage of grade awarded in advance, however PHB is claiming that they not only do this nationally but locally as well, as if each area is awarded a certain amouth oftop grades based on the social situation. PHB would have you believe that examers decide in advance how many A grades dublin north east west and south will get, this simply isn't true. what ever about people who may have been a A grade and not getting it, thats the ball game, its a competition lads you compete against the top, and they set the bar, what might have got an A one year, probably won't the next. If the collective intellegents of students sitting the leaving cert this year drops, then those with abite of cop on will find it ease to get the top grades. Its all supply and Demand Oh and thats economics aphex™

PHB

as if each area is awarded a certain amouth oftop grades based on the social situation

Im not saying that at all. Im saying each bunch of exam papers has to have in or around the same amount of A's and B's. I am also saying that there will be more A's in upper class areas than lower class areas.
Im not claiming that they say, oh ballymum gets 1 A while blackrock gets 50.


You think that the percentage amount of A's are set over the entire country, instead of what I'm saying which is that they are in each set, from different centres, of exam papers.

What you are saying is true, some areas will get a lot more A's than other areas, but I'm saying is that its all relative.
For example lets say Mr. Examiner is correcting an English Paper.

This next paper is borerline B1/A2 standerd, which is all too often the case in a subject which isnt set in stone like english.
He has just corrected two absolutely amazing papers, written by incredibly talented people. He will probably not give out the A2, and will probably give out the B1, even a B2 if the guy is unlucky.

This is because its all relative. While if that guy had been corrected after 2 D students, he might have gotten the A2, maybe even the A1.
Thats all the luck of the draw of what order you get corrected in, and you can't do anything about that.
However you can go to an centre where there will be a lot less A and B standerd people, and you can increase uour chances of being surrounded by D students. Hence pushing up your grade

aphex™

haha PHB looks like u won the argument... as Boston didnt reply within .5seconds.

richindub2

ask jim morris can you sit the exam in his office...im sure you/he would love it. Just think of all the fun that could be had!

Sev

Computers dont correct exam papers, people do. And people are not perfectly consistent, the examination system is riddled with human inaccuracy (as far as subjects like English, Classics and History are concerned anyway). I completely agree with the point PHB is making.