Deb & Mock Costs

3_BOoYA_X

I erm found myself signed in on deb wensite tonight and discovered that Leaving Cert scripts cost €1.10 each, €8.00 to be corrected.

For subjects where two papers are involved (eg english) it is also twice the cost.

In my school i paid €107 to take 6 subjects in the mocks / 9 Scripts (English, Irish, Maths x2)
However, This works out at just under €82 euro.

I was wondering how much everyone else paid and is this fair? Because when you multiply the difference between 120 pupils (allowing for those taking 7 mock subjects) the school is profiting around €2000...... Is the school basically just ripping us off ?

randylonghorn

There are probably postage costs etc. with sending papers off to be corrected, but that shouldn't be major.

Are your mocks being supervised by full-time teachers as part of their normal timetable, or are there additional costs for extra hours for part-timers?

Can't think of any other major costs there would be, really ...

rainbowtrout

3_BOoYA_X wrote: »

I erm found myself signed in on deb wensite tonight and discovered that Leaving Cert scripts cost €1.10 each, €8.00 to be corrected.

For subjects where two papers are involved (eg english) it is also twice the cost.

In my school i paid €107 to take 6 subjects in the mocks / 9 Scripts (English, Irish, Maths x2)
However, This works out at just under €82 euro.

I was wondering how much everyone else paid and is this fair? Because when you multiply the difference between 120 pupils (allowing for those taking 7 mock subjects) the school is profiting around €2000...... Is the school basically just ripping us off ?

It's a bit hasty to jump to the conclusion that the school is a profit making organisation and out to rip you off.

Are you also taking into account the cost of the answer booklets provided. CDs for listening in Languages and Music?

The school I work in charges about €100 for the mocks and at that we are subsidising it to keep it affordable for students.

Postage costs would be quite substantial, a bundle of 30 scripts from one class is heavy. For me to send 5 or 6 scripts to my advising examiner by registered post in the summer when correcting the real thing costs €4.50


It could also be a case that the JC students in your school also pay €107 despite the fact that they could be doing 12 subjects and that LC fees subsidise that... but before you start complaining about subsidising JC, you would have benefitted from it 2 years ago.

degausserxo

Jeez, we paid the same last year and the teachers corrected the papers themselves.

cork*girl

I paid €145 for mine. 7 subjects.. they are being corrected outside of school.. tis still pretty expensive though. It would be interesting to see how much others paid for theirs

gemxpink

We paid €100, JC and LC. LCs mainly 7, about 20 have 8. JCs have 11 or 12.
Considering that the LC in our school was only 85 last year, think it's a bit steep.

Lawliet

Mine work out at about 65 euro for six subjects. I don't know why mine are so much cheaper than everyone else's. Maybe it's subsidised, or some of the teachers are correcting them themselves.
Either way I'm not complaining, I wouldn't have been able to afford much more than that.

ayumi

in my school until now havent mentioned to pay for the mocks and i know that you would usually pay but thats why i was confused on why they didnt tell us that we have to pay for them

3_BOoYA_X

Yeah the school is changed for the cd's it buys.. €12 Each. Thats about 10c per student :rolleyes: And twice that for a second language ....
And €1 per student who does geog for the os maps...*which the school take back*

Hmmm everyones elses seems kinda the same.

I just think its a bit of a rip off like. Our schools about 15 minutes drive from the center so id say they just deliever the script to and from.

randylonghorn

gemxpink wrote: »

We paid €100, JC and LC. LCs mainly 7, about 20 have 8. JCs have 11 or 12.
Considering that the LC in our school was only 85 last year, think it's a bit steep.

In one sense, yes, but remember the LC is run by the state, and the fee to students only pays part of the actual costs ... the mocks papers etc. come from commercial companies, they are in business to make a profit.

rainbowtrout

randylonghorn wrote: »

In one sense, yes, but remember the LC is run by the state, and the fee to students only pays part of the actual costs ... the mocks papers etc. come from commercial companies, they are in business to make a profit.

totally agree, LC is heavily subsided by the Dept of Education. if anyone remembers the debacle with the Leaving Cert English paper having to be changed last year, they will remember that it cost €1 million to rectify that mistake. And that was only one paper.

Just some basic maths to give people an idea how much it is subsidised

If 60,000 students on average sit the Leaving Cert in 7 subjects at a cost of €85 to each student (and I'm not sure but I think if you have a medical card there may be an exemption on the fee - don't quote me on that)

60,000 * 85 = €5.1 million

If on average an examiner is paid €10 to correct each paper - I'm just taking an average figure, not taking into account that several subjects have 2 papers, that €70 to correct each student's set of scripts. If that student does English, Irish and Maths they will have 10 papers which is a cost of €100 to correct a set of papers for a student. That's more than the €85 fee.

€85 doesn't even begin to cover the cost of printing exam papers, answer booklets, graph paper, OS maps, producing CDs for listening, DVDs for LCVP case study, transport and storage of papers, postage from school to Dept after every exam, and all the associated costs when correcting. Not to mind the costs incurred in paying people to set papers, proof-reading, production of marking schemes, paying examiners to supervise the exams. I'm not even considering the cost incurred in the appeals process. €85 is a steal when you think about it.

DEB etc as has been said, are a profit making business, but even they have overheads. It's not just a bunch of correctors that have to be paid. They have similar costs in production of papers, CDs, paying people to set papers etc. They also have to pay people to work in their centre to take orders from schools, recruit correctors, dispatch papers to schools, sort them when they come in for correction, dispatch them to correctors, pay for postage both ways, and then dispatch them back to the school. If a school complains about the poor standard of correction and sends the papers back for recorrection they pay another person to correct them the second time around. You also have to factor in the costs incurred by any business - ESB, phone, broadband etc. They still have to make a profit at the end of the day.

gemxpink

rainbowtrout wrote: »

totally agree, LC is heavily subsided by the Dept of Education. if anyone remembers the debacle with the Leaving Cert English paper having to be changed last year, they will remember that it cost €1 million to rectify that mistake. And that was only one paper.

Thank you, so many people don't even realise how much it actually costs the schools (gov. really) to put on these exams. It might be a bit high for us but if we were to pay the actual cost it'd be about €250 or more each for the mocks and LC so you're looking at €500 min.

**Timbuk2**

We didn't have to pay anything for our mocks, but then again ours are DEB but corrected by our own teachers (which I think is a far better system - it's much cheaper and the teachers then tell you exactly where you went wrong and how you should improve).

It's probably included in the €50 'stationery' fee we pay at the start of the year.

gemxpink

**Timbuk2** wrote: »

We didn't have to pay anything for our mocks, but then again ours are DEB but corrected by our own teachers (which I think is a far better system - it's much cheaper and the teachers then tell you exactly where you went wrong and how you should improve).

It's probably included in the €50 'stationery' fee we pay at the start of the year.

We pay 65 and 100 for mocks. :O
Your teachers probably get the sample ones and photocopy them aha.

almostnever

My mocks were free,both last year and now in my repeat school. Didn't know people paid to do them.

Cian92

In our school the pres are free. We pay an 80quid donation to the schools running costs at the start of the year and that covers it all. Our teachers correct them though.

spurious

Our school buys in the papers for some subjects, some teachers make their own and all papers are corrected in house. We do not charge our students. The total cost for papers and stationery (about 40 LC candidates and 80 JC) is just under €2000.

The mocks cause a great deal of unnecessary expense for lower income families. The V de P are run off their feet with families needing emergency funds for mocks.

cork*girl

I have paid €145 for mine.. I have also paid €90 at the start of the year for fees.. hmmm..

MunchkinKid

I paid €115 for mine. DEB papers 7 subjects each. And they are sent away to be corrected. Pretty steep for these days have to say!

We don't have to pay for ours...I assume it's covered by our fees already. But we don't send them away for correcting, which imo is better because your teachers will give you comments and such where you can improve which outside correctors won't.

yourmother

Paid 85 euro for mine, they're all been sent away for correcting - 6 Honours subjects, Pass Maths and then LCVP also. Not bad compared to some on here.. we don't pay fees at the beginning of the year and if anyone has any trouble with the cost they can go and see the guidance councillor I think and the school pays for them!

Oh and we were told it's only a euro for the actual paper, the rest goes for correcting and the company!

DancingQueen:)

They never mentioned anything about paying to us so i assume we did at the start of the year. I'm paying 14.50 for the english paper to be sent away and corrected though.

Jay P

When I had to pay for mine last year, we were pretty much given the option by all teachers to either send them away to be corrected or else for the teacher to correct them him/herself. Some teachers even got other teachers in the school to correct the papers.
I think that's the fairest system, it doesn't put any unfair financial pressure on parents when times is already tough.

The___________

In my school we pay a tenner for the mock papers,as the teachers correct there own students scripts.

window_licker

we pay 20, and the teachers correct their students mocks. Think its kinda unfair though, id rather them be corrected by someone else! EVen a diffferent teacher in the school!

dee o gee

We pay €120 regardless of how many subjects your doing, im doing 6 plus LCVP, they get sent away for correcting, but the teachers go through them when we get them back and tell us where we went wrong and re-corrects them if they are corrected unfairly.
I do think its quite steep considering we aren't getting the full time for some exams (we got 15 or 20 minutes cut off our maths and english), and we have some edjits of teachers coming in and having a chat with the supervisor halfway through or opening the door and announcing 'oh theres mocks on in here'. :rolleyes:

Orlaladuck

I paid €120 for mine but we got the full time and they're being sent off to be corrected, 8 subjects in total. Honestly I wouldn't want my own teachers correcting mine. Some of them take Ages to correct stuff. Only 4 more subjects to go thank jebus.

Also I know about teachers talking -.- My poor friend sitting behind me in Maths or English had to listen to two go on for half of his exam. Then there's the added bells for classes and other years making a racket while the damn 3rd years get the lovely Warm hall with no noise. I've come out of every mock shivering so far the room's freezing.

Lawliet

Orlaladuck wrote: »

Also I know about teachers talking -.- My poor friend sitting behind me in Maths or English had to listen to two go on for half of his exam. Then there's the added bells for classes and other years making a racket while the damn 3rd years get the lovely Warm hall with no noise. I've come out of every mock shivering so far the room's freezing. I've come out of every mock shivering so far the room's freezing.

I'm the opposite, I'm sitting way too close to this massive heater designed to heat the whole gym. I had to leave biology yesterday for ten minutes after nearly fainting from the heat!

Our principal keeps going on about how they're keeping the mocks to as close to the real thing as possible, but then we're not allowed to go the toilet! Thankfully most teachers supervising understand that expecting people to sit a stressful three hour exam when they're dying for the toilet is just pure cruel. I cannot wait until next week is over.

rainbowtrout

dee o gee wrote: »

We pay €120 regardless of how many subjects your doing, im doing 6 plus LCVP, they get sent away for correcting, but the teachers go through them when we get them back and tell us where we went wrong and re-corrects them if they are corrected unfairly.
I do think its quite steep considering we aren't getting the full time for some exams (we got 15 or 20 minutes cut off our maths and english), and we have some edjits of teachers coming in and having a chat with the supervisor halfway through or opening the door and announcing 'oh theres mocks on in here'. :rolleyes:

But that's a timetabling issue in your school not a cost issue.

Orlaladuck

The cold was great for numbing my hands during english
which was convenient but it really slowed down my writing. And 3 hours without being able to goto the toliet?! That's retarded!

DancingQueen:)

The hall i'm taking the exams in is absolutely freezing We had a break in the middle of business on Friday so everyone could get their coat. People kept coming in and out to fix the heating which was very distracting. We're allowed to go to the toliet if we eed to but if too many people want to go some teachers don't let anyone.