Cost of Marking the Mocks

deelite · 03-02-2013 11:35AM #1

Couldn't find anything about the price for 2013. However, we have to pay 120 for the mocks to be corrected - but friends of ours are paying 30 euro and others are paying nothing at all - the schools are all within the same ares and none are private or anything.

Why is there such a price difference?

juniorcert · 03-02-2013 12:15PM

Is your school sending the mock papers away to another school to be corrected? That's what my school are doing and we have to pay 110 I think. But other schools have the teachers within the school correcting them, they usually charge 20-30 euro. So basically sending them away costs a lot more than them being corrected in the school

Bazinga_N · 03-02-2013 12:59PM

I know ours are only €20, but our teachers are correcting them. Maybe it's more if they get corrected?

spurious · 03-02-2013 01:01PM

The companies charge between 6 and 8 euro per paper to correct them. The people correcting them get a small fraction of that.

KevinEIRE · 04-02-2013 07:07PM

My school was 100. The cost is sending them off then getting them corrected, and the cost of the actual papers. It was supposed to be something like 120 but my school balanced it off

Outkast_IRE · 04-02-2013 07:09PM

Why the hell should it cost anything ?

KevinEIRE · 04-02-2013 07:13PM

Outkast_IRE wrote: »

Why the hell should it cost anything ?

The cost of the papers, the people marking them, the cost of getting them to the destination, and probable tax.. haha

spurious · 04-02-2013 09:20PM

For Junior Cert. the papers cost about 2.00-2.50 each, more for maps and photos etc. The CDs and DVDs are fairly pricey too.

Personally, I don't see the point of mocks at all. I know what my students will get in the JC. I'd rather be covering the course.

positivealf · 05-02-2013 08:31PM

Mocks are a nice way to practice for the real thing even though the mocks aren't a big deal it's always great to be prepared

. In my school the cost is 20 EUROS. I know for a fact in some schools it's about 100 euros! Don't stress it, I'm currently doing my mocks and the fact that I have time to post on these forums and go on twitter is a good sign

spurious · 05-02-2013 09:13PM

positivealf wrote: »

Mocks are a nice way to practice for the real thing even though the mocks aren't a big deal it's always great to be prepared . In my school the cost is 20 EUROS. I know for a fact in some schools it's about 100 euros! Don't stress it, I'm currently doing my mocks and the fact that I have time to post on these forums and go on twitter is a good sign

Your teachers are probably correcting your papers. That will be nice for them in the so called week off for mid term.
20 euro would cover the exam papers for the number of subjects most students do.

deelite · 05-02-2013 10:35PM

Thanks for all the answers

EoghanIRL · 08-02-2013 10:41PM

I can't figure why people with medical cards get the mocks for free . What does a medical card have to do with the pres and why should I pay 130 euros while aAlot of people in my year get them free of cost . It seems highly unfair .

Also I don't see the point in the mocks . I agree with spurious opinion .

Bazinga_N · 09-02-2013 11:55AM

EoghanIRL wrote: »

I can't figure why people with medical cards get the mocks for free . What does a medical card have to do with the pres and why should I pay 130 euros while aAlot of people in my year get them free of cost . It seems highly unfair .

Also I don't see the point in the mocks . I agree with spurious opinion .

I've a medical card and I've to pay for my mocks.

It's the actual Junior Cert and Leaving Cert, people with medical cards don't pay for. The reason people have medical cards in their first place is because their income is low enough to qualify for one, not everyone has the money to pay for exams or medical services.

EoghanIRL · 10-02-2013 11:57PM

Bazinga_N wrote: »

I've a medical card and I've to pay for my mocks.

It's the actual Junior Cert and Leaving Cert, people with medical cards don't pay for. The reason people have medical cards in their first place is because their income is low enough to qualify for one, not everyone has the money to pay for exams or medical services.

I think some schools do the mocks aswell . But you are right about the jc . It still seems highly unfair thought . Firstly having a medical card doesn't have anything to do with paying for jc or a free bus ticket . People in my opinion should not be exempt from paying these fees . We're all in the same boat at the end of the day.

spurious · 11-02-2013 07:59AM

EoghanIRL wrote: »

I think some schools do the mocks aswell . But you are right about the jc . It still seems highly unfair thought . Firstly having a medical card doesn't have anything to do with paying for jc or a free bus ticket . People in my opinion should not be exempt from paying these fees . We're all in the same boat at the end of the day.

You realise how low someone's income level has to be to qualify for a medical card? A 100+ euro swipe out of such a low income is substantial.

Anyway, the SEC/DESS will eventually get rid of the exam fees, they almost cost more to collect than they bring in.

Bluestrike · 11-02-2013 04:42PM

I don't have to pay anything for my Mocks to be corrected, although now i think about it, it is probably taken from the school fees i pay at the start of the year

Grian1 · 11-02-2013 10:03PM

EoghanIRL wrote: »

I think some schools do the mocks aswell . But you are right about the jc . It still seems highly unfair thought . Firstly having a medical card doesn't have anything to do with paying for jc or a free bus ticket.

I've a medical card. I don't have to pay for my mocks. I have to buy my own bus tickets. I go to a really posh school. There is one other person in my class that has a medical card and she is not someone I'd like to be compared to.

spurious · 12-02-2013 11:01AM

Grian1 wrote: »

I've a medical card. I don't have to pay for my mocks. I have to buy my own bus tickets. I go to a really posh school. There is one other person in my class that has a medical card and she is not someone I'd like to be compared to.

That is your school's decision, whereas the JC/LC fees is a DES decision.

What sort of a school identifies people with medical cards?

deelite · 14-02-2013 10:46PM

Do the results of the mocks get sent home by post or are they just given out in school?

positivealf · 14-02-2013 11:43PM

deelite wrote: »

Do the results of the mocks get sent home by post or are they just given out in school?

Good question, I got my science mock result on ePortal, however I'm sure our results will get home.

Man City 10 · 18-02-2013 09:14PM

spurious wrote: »

For Junior Cert. the papers cost about 2.00-2.50 each, more for maps and photos etc. The CDs and DVDs are fairly pricey too.

Personally, I don't see the point of mocks at all. I know what my students will get in the JC. I'd rather be covering the course.

Are you a teacher

positivealf · 18-02-2013 09:25PM

Man City 10 wrote: »

Are you a teacher

Spurious is obviously a teacher considering he/she has students.

Man City 10 · 18-02-2013 09:34PM

positivealf wrote: »

Spurious is obviously a teacher considering he/she has students.

Then spurious you don't mind me asking if having a job of a teacher fun,
I mean from what I imagine it sounds like a great craic!!!
Correcting peoples tests and homework
Setting up homework
Getting paid good
Summers off
Teaching lessons in Class
etc.
Is that all it or is it the whole opposite
What are your views??

positivealf · 18-02-2013 09:43PM

Man City 10 wrote: »

Then spurious you don't mind me asking if having a job of a teacher fun,
I mean from what I imagine it sounds like a great craic!!!
Correcting peoples tests and homework
Setting up homework
Getting paid good
Summers off
Teaching lessons in Class
etc.
Is that all it or is it the whole opposite
What are your views??

As a student from what I've witnessed it really depends on who the teacher is, i mean some people just can't teach and others can't even manage a primary school classroom. In secondary school the students are more rebellious because they are teenagers and can cause a lost of hassle for a teacher if they can sense that the teacher is 'weak'. I suggest if you want to be a good teacher you have to be strict by walking in with a lot of confidence, no smile on on your face and please teach properly.

Man City 10 · 18-02-2013 09:46PM

positivealf wrote: »

As a student from what I've witnessed it really depends on who the teacher is, i mean some people just can't teach and others can't even manage a primary school classroom. In secondary school the students are more rebellious because they are teenagers and can cause a lost of hassle for a teacher if they can sense that the teacher is 'weak'. I suggest if you want to be a good teacher you have to be strict by walking in with a lot of confidence, no smile on on your face and please teach properly.

In secondary school the students are more rebellious because they are teenagers and can cause a lost of hassle for a teacher if they can sense that the teacher is 'weak'

I know what you mean by that I have a few in my school, fellow classmates reck their heads, feel very sorry for them because they cannot do anything, other then give them a bad note which they obvs. do not care

positivealf · 18-02-2013 09:51PM

Man City 10 wrote: »

In secondary school the students are more rebellious because they are teenagers and can cause a lost of hassle for a teacher if they can sense that the teacher is 'weak'

I know what you mean by that I have a few in my school, fellow classmates reck their heads, feel very sorry for them because they cannot do anything, other then give them a bad note which they obvs. do not care

Hahaha so true, i remember in my first year i thought it was cool to be a bad student, i started to grow and realise that they were actually ruining my time to learn, it's alright for a little fun here and then but when it goes down to the teacher spending the entire class talking to a student it can be really annoying. Especially if it lasts two weeks in a subject you find difficult in. Dude, in my history class these students at the back of the class always caused trouble and i didn't learn anything in history for 2 years. Now im making up for it.

spurious · 19-02-2013 08:21AM

I've been teaching a long time, in what the media like to call one of the most deprived areas in the country.

I'm paid less now than I was about 7 years ago. The examples of poor parenting become more and more frequent every year, while we drown in paperwork that no-one ever reads and have meetings nobody wants to fill in hours that could be better spent giving extra help to students.

I don't get the summers off. I get six weeks. I'm working for June and usually a bit of the first week of July and then once the LC results are out, I'm back in, along with most of my colleagues.

It was a great job for about the first 20 years. If I was 17 years old again, I wouldn't advise myself go into teaching today, being honest. Not with the way things are going. I feel sorry for all our young teachers on less than 14 hours a week, with no real hope of their hours increasing. It is a mystery to me why the teacher training courses keep taking hundreds of them in when there are no jobs for them.

Man City 10 · 19-02-2013 04:20PM

spurious wrote: »

I've been teaching a long time, in what the media like to call one of the most deprived areas in the country.

I'm paid less now than I was about 7 years ago. The examples of poor parenting become more and more frequent every year, while we drown in paperwork that no-one ever reads and have meetings nobody wants to fill in hours that could be better spent giving extra help to students.

I don't get the summers off. I get six weeks. I'm working for June and usually a bit of the first week of July and then once the LC results are out, I'm back in, along with most of my colleagues.

It was a great job for about the first 20 years. If I was 17 years old again, I wouldn't advise myself go into teaching today, being honest. Not with the way things are going. I feel sorry for all our young teachers on less than 14 hours a week, with no real hope of their hours increasing. It is a mystery to me why the teacher training courses keep taking hundreds of them in when there are no jobs for them.

I feel for your man, really do
Is this the same situation in all countries or only the education system in Ireland?

spurious · 19-02-2013 05:26PM

Man City 10 wrote: »

I feel for your man, really do
Is this the same situation in all countries or only the education system in Ireland?

People are leaving in droves to teach in places like Dubai where they seem to be having a great time. England would be pretty bad on the useless reports and meetings front. We like to slavishly follow the UK in our education system, paying no attention when they admit to mistakes. We had a child transferred to us from a UK school and he arrived with ten box files of 'reports'. Did any of us read them? No, we took the lad in our own class and had decided within ten or fifteen minutes that he was going to be fine. Ten box files of work by teachers in the UK that ended up skipped. What a waste of time.

The pay thing isn't the worst, everyone has been hit paywise, I suppose, but it's the 'having' to do these reports and plans and all this 'strategy planning' which in my view is almost entirely useless.

Instead of 3 hours doing that, let me take the kids who are behind on their projects, missed a few lessons, let me do something useful.

There used to be loads of clubs in our school (drama, table tennis, electronics, chess, computers etc.), run in the hours after school by teachers who chose to be there in their free time, but now every second week or so we have one of these stupid compulsory Croke Park meetings that the entire teaching staff sits around bored stiff at and no-one stays back to do the clubs any more.

How did we manage thirty years ago without all these meetings and this 'essential' planning and report writing - we just got on with the job.

/rant over

Bluestrike · 21-02-2013 10:47PM

I myself as a student think a teacher's job is tough, ye you get a long holiday (if you arent correcting junior + leaving certs) but every day you have to come in and deal with a group of rowdy tennagers with some of them not even wanting to learn and just trying to mess the whole time, to deal with that must be hard. And then there is the paperwork, you have to create and correct at least 30 students homework a night and to go through maybe the same answer dozens of times must be tiring and boring, especially if you have to do the same course each year, over and over. I would say only go into teaching if you really enjoy a specific subject or enjoy watching children grow and blossom. To be a teacher though you must demand respect. There are a few teachers like that in my school, who when they walk into a classroom every1 shuts up. Then there are others who are cool and connect with the students and generally students dont mess in the class as they enjoy it, but if you as a teacher show any sign of weakness, the students will ruthlessly attack you as a paranha might. To teach must be very hard but if you enjoy it, it can be a wonderful feeling seeing people develop and to send them on their way in life

I feel very philosophical after that, maybe i should write a book or sumthing :P

Man City 10 · 21-02-2013 10:57PM

but if you as a teacher show any sign of weakness, the students will ruthlessly attack you as a paranha might. To teach must be very hard but if you enjoy it, it can be a wonderful feeling seeing people develop and to send them on their way in life
Same situation in my school lol

Man City 10 · 21-02-2013 10:59PM

spurious wrote: »

People are leaving in droves to teach in places like Dubai where they seem to be having a great time. England would be pretty bad on the useless reports and meetings front. We like to slavishly follow the UK in our education system, paying no attention when they admit to mistakes. We had a child transferred to us from a UK school and he arrived with ten box files of 'reports'. Did any of us read them? No, we took the lad in our own class and had decided within ten or fifteen minutes that he was going to be fine. Ten box files of work by teachers in the UK that ended up skipped. What a waste of time.

The pay thing isn't the worst, everyone has been hit paywise, I suppose, but it's the 'having' to do these reports and plans and all this 'strategy planning' which in my view is almost entirely useless.

Instead of 3 hours doing that, let me take the kids who are behind on their projects, missed a few lessons, let me do something useful.

There used to be loads of clubs in our school (drama, table tennis, electronics, chess, computers etc.), run in the hours after school by teachers who chose to be there in their free time, but now every second week or so we have one of these stupid compulsory Croke Park meetings that the entire teaching staff sits around bored stiff at and no-one stays back to do the clubs any more.

How did we manage thirty years ago without all these meetings and this 'essential' planning and report writing - we just got on with the job.

/rant over

Tell me this so, Do you think all this problems and stuff came because of the recession??
Like was this the same situation 6,5 years ago?

spurious · 22-02-2013 07:10AM

Man City 10 wrote: »

Tell me this so, Do you think all this problems and stuff came because of the recession??
Like was this the same situation 6,5 years ago?

I suppose the signs were there from the early nineties as we hurtled headlong following the UK into mixed ability teaching, individual educational plans, individual behavioural plans, increasing class sizes, integration of children with special needs, school based assessment, all the buzz words, many of which the UK had decided were a bad idea, but we lashed after them anyway.

The recession made it worse as it cut the funding, but it's not like we were awash with money whenever the 'good' times were. I had smaller 'remedial' class sizes when I started teaching in '84 than I had at the height of the Celtic Tiger. Now there are none. Everyone is thrown in together, so you could have a child reading ahead of her age sitting beside one reading seven years behind their age and we're trying to prepare for two or sometimes three levels of exam in the one class. Utter madness.

deelite · 22-02-2013 07:45AM

The mock results are being given to the students in drips and drabs. For a 120 euro you'd think that you would receive all of them on a sheet of paper. Results are not being given to those who did not pay.

However, my son's school has certain policies with regard to fundraising etc., and two of his answers were marked wrong - I feel based on his school's policies - which makes me think that actually the mocks were marked in-house. (And the two questions weren't going to make any difference to his results)

Man City 10 · 22-02-2013 03:48PM

spurious wrote: »

I suppose the signs were there from the early nineties as we hurtled headlong following the UK into mixed ability teaching, individual educational plans, individual behavioural plans, increasing class sizes, integration of children with special needs, school based assessment, all the buzz words, many of which the UK had decided were a bad idea, but we lashed after them anyway.

The recession made it worse as it cut the funding, but it's not like we were awash with money whenever the 'good' times were. I had smaller 'remedial' class sizes when I started teaching in '84 than I had at the height of the Celtic Tiger. Now there are none. Everyone is thrown in together, so you could have a child reading ahead of her age sitting beside one reading seven years behind their age and we're trying to prepare for two or sometimes three levels of exam in the one class. Utter madness.

Are you a professor or teacher at a secondary school and if so may I ask what subject/s do you teach

DublinArnie · 22-02-2013 04:01PM

I don't have to pay anything

spurious · 22-02-2013 04:08PM

Man City 10 wrote: »

Are you a professor or teacher at a secondary school and if so may I ask what subject/s do you teach

I teach at second level in Dublin, have been teaching since 1984 and in my time have taught many subjects, but History, ESS and IT would be my most 'common' ones. I am also involved in teacher training on a sporadic basis.

Bluestrike · 22-02-2013 09:12PM

I'm guessing you proabably wont tell us the school you teach at as its too personal and all that

spurious · 22-02-2013 09:46PM

It's not that it wouldn't be right. I post here as a private individual, not representing my school.

Just a comment on the 'dribs and drabs' mock results...
Ours would be getting them back bit by bit from each teacher as they get corrected too, but we would always send out a mock 'result sheet' afterwards.

CathalRyano · 23-02-2013 08:22PM

spurious wrote: »

For Junior Cert. the papers cost about 2.00-2.50 each, more for maps and photos etc. The CDs and DVDs are fairly pricey too.

Personally, I don't see the point of mocks at all. I know what my students will get in the JC. I'd rather be covering the course.

I, as a student doing the Junior Cert, prefer having mocks to do. It gives us a good indication of what it will be like to do our real Junior Certificate exam and is a real motivation to study for the Junior Cert if we do poorly in our mock exam. I think that having such a motivation to study during these 2 weeks that we complete our mocks is a better way of going over the course than 2 weeks of normal classes.

xoxox1994 · 23-02-2013 09:49PM

EoghanIRL wrote: »

I think some schools do the mocks aswell . But you are right about the jc . It still seems highly unfair thought . Firstly having a medical card doesn't have anything to do with paying for jc or a free bus ticket . People in my opinion should not be exempt from paying these fees . We're all in the same boat at the end of the day.

I admit to be the owner of a medical card but for good reason. My dad is on a very low paying job and my mum unemployed at the moment. Both are very hard-workers but sadly there is little employment. The medical card is what is allowing us to live a very basic life and ease the pressure.
If you were in the same both as us you would not be saying the above.

Man City 10 · 24-02-2013 07:27PM

xoxox1994 wrote: »

I admit to be the owner of a medical card but for good reason. My dad is on a very low paying job and my mum unemployed at the moment. Both are very hard-workers but sadly there is little employment. The medical card is what is allowing us to live a very basic life and ease the pressure.
If you were in the same both as us you would not be saying the above.

Medical cards for life !!
I heard from some where people who even work full time are eligible for medical cards

Leopard_Star · 24-02-2013 08:06PM

Well our teachers correct them in school for free,or they told us if we want them sent off to a different school to be corrected i think its 20euro each paper..but why bother!?

xoxox1994 · 24-02-2013 08:24PM

Man City 10 wrote: »

Medical cards for life !!
I heard from some where people who even work full time are eligible for medical cards

Its all depending on your wage, even some people who work full time, can be on CE schemes, Jobbridge for eg so dont always jump to they are cheating the system!! The people working full time may also be on low wages which is why they need the medical cards.

Cost of Marking the Mocks

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