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YOUNG PDs SLAM LEAVING CERTIFICATE BIOLOGY PAPER

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  • 14-06-2002 7:27pm
    #1
    ciderandhavoc
    Closed Accounts Posts: 132 ✭✭


    YOUNG PDs SLAM LEAVING CERTIFICATE BIOLOGY PAPER

    STATEMENT BY David Cochrane
    Young Progressive Democrats

    In light of the recent concerns raised over the past few days in regards the Honours Leaving Certificate Biology Examinations, the YPDs have decided to communicate the concerns of the students to the Department of Education.

    We share many of the concerns that students who undertook the exam have in regards specific sections of the paper, and are in the process of formalising a submission to relevant people and groups to highlight the issues.

    The Young Progressive Democrats have set up a website to allow for students to make their concerns known at http://www.youngpds.org - This site will allow students to leave their comments in regards the paper on the site, we are committed to making sure that these concerns are dealt with and addressed by the people and groups responsible for the exam.


    ENDS


    FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

    David Cochrane
    085-7213132
    dave@youngpds.org

    Alan McGaughey
    087-2437727
    alanmcgaughey@ireland.com


Comments

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    #2
    [Deleted User]
    Posts: 242 ✭ [Deleted User]


    Moderated


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    #3
    Robbo
    Moderators, Social & Fun Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 10,563 Mod ✭✭✭✭Robbo


    ...And what do you hope to achieve by this?


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    #4
    bonkey
    Registered Users Posts: 15,443 ✭✭✭✭bonkey


    It strikes me as a bit of opportiunistic limelight grabbing.

    Maybe I'm doing the YPDs a disservice, but it looks to me like they have decided "people are making a fuss about this - lets join them", rather than "this was done wrongly, and we wish to complain....as do others".

    If you see what I mean.....
    The Young Progressive Democrats have set up a website to allow for students to make their concerns known

    No they havent. They have used an existing website, which is very obviously their own platform, and added a facility there to allow ppl to complain. Again - theres a subtle difference.

    If the YPDs were out for the students, they would have set up a standalone site with a relevant name, and added no more than a banner or note somewhere taking credit for it.

    Of course, I suppose it is too much to expect this degree of "seperation" between marketing and action any more...

    jc


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    #5
    Bard
    Registered Users Posts: 12,309 ✭✭✭✭Bard


    "slams" Biology Paper?

    "SPAMS" Boards.ie more like.

    --

    C'mon YPD's - ye can do better than that, surely.


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    #6
    daveirl
    Closed Accounts Posts: 14,483 ✭✭✭✭daveirl


    This post has been deleted.


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    #7
    leeroybrown
    Closed Accounts Posts: 7,563 ✭✭✭leeroybrown


    It strikes me as a bit of opportiunistic limelight grabbing.

    Isn't that the entire basis of the Irish political system.


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    #8
    PHB
    Registered Users Posts: 20,617 ✭✭✭✭PHB



    And more importantly you are forgetting that the Leaving in marked on a grading curve so the distribution of results will remain the same regardless of the difficulty of the paper.

    Sorry, can anyone else confirm this, I was fairly sure that the LC was marked by thousands of people therefore a grading curve would be impossible?


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    #9
    seamus
    Registered Users Posts: 68,317 ✭✭✭✭seamus


    Sorry, can anyone else confirm this, I was fairly sure that the LC was marked by thousands of people therefore a grading curve would be impossible?

    Nope it's true. The marking scheme is constantly 'tweaked' to give the best spread of results. Afaik, each of marker takes a sample of papers, and returns their results, then the marking scheme is tweaked to avoid having too many A's (or indeed too many D's), and then they apply the new scheme to all papers. Or else they change the scheme while everyone is marking the actual papers, but that seems a tad unworkable.

    But actually to say that 'there will always be the same amount of each grade' is incorrect. Due to unknown factors, probability, or anything else, the no. of each grade does change from year to year. So some years there will be more A's and B's then ever before, but other years there may be less A's and B's then ever before. The only thing that is preserved is the shape of the curve - ie. Everyone tends to do badly or everyone tends to do well, or else it's fairly equally spread. But you'll never get a year with a record no. of A's and a record no of F's - that would wreck the curve. :)


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    #10
    fisifan01
    Closed Accounts Posts: 136 ✭✭fisifan01


    This and Mary Harney`s introduction of the minimum wage are the only good things the PDs have ever done. PD voters are snooty capitalist business people who feel contempt for those who are of lower socio economic background than them. The entire Progressive Democrat political philosophy is built around big bussiness making a profit from the everyday needs of irish people with privatisation and private rent schemes


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