It’s what every student dreams about – exams being postponed! But that’s exactly what is happening with english paper 2.
The State Examinations Commission has decided to postpone Leaving Certificate English paper two, both Higher and Ordinary levels, after it emerged that students in one centre have already seen the paper. The examination has been rescheduled to take place on Saturday morning using a contingency paper.
English paper two was opened by mistake at an examination centre in Co Louth this morning. The error was immediately spotted and the papers were taken back, according to the state Examinations Commission. It has confirmed that a number of students did see the exam paper. In a statement tonight, the Examinations Commission said that in ‘fairness to all candidates’ taking the subject and ‘in order to protect the integrity of the examination process’ the Leaving Certificate English Paper two, Higher and Ordinary Level, is being deferred.
It says that the compromised papers have been replaced and the Leaving Certificate English Paper two examinations will now take place on Saturday, 6 June 2009 from 9.30am to 12.50pm. The Commission stressed that all of the other examinations scheduled for tomorrow are going ahead as planned.
A Helpline number is available for students affected by the cancellation of tomorrow’s Leaving Cert English Higher and Ordinary level paper 1800 713 913 and the website is www.examinations.ie. More than 115,000 second level students began their Leaving and Junior Certificate exams this morning. The exams began with English, Paper One, and will run until 19 June.
One man or woman in Louth is going to have an awful red face tonight.
I hope that idiot invigilator is suspended! English is the most predictable paper on the LC, and the department only has itself to blame for that – therefore, most if not all students have been relying on predictions to guide their study. These predictions were right, of course – the leaked paper accurately complied with predictions. Now everyone’s terrified the back-up paper will be a completely opposite paper. Stress!
Whoever opened the wrong papers should be fined for the cost of printing the replacement ones and fired from the job!!!! As if we dont already have enough stress during exam times. His mistake is goin to compromise this weekends study for thousands of students!
A joke! should be scrapped till the end of the exams its messing up everything! GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR
its a disgrace to our nation. the leaving cert students of 2009 are not being given the same oppurtunity as leaving certs in the past. Many people have been were relying on this weekend to polish off their study for subjects next week. This fiasco has compromised these plans. State Examinations Commision should step down and allow the department of education to be reinstated as the body in charge of state exams. Expect thousands upon thousands of complaints come August 12
Rubbish! Any study time lost over the weekend could have been made up on Thursday morning, when the postponed exam was supposed to be on. I also expect there are a lot of people who just planned to have a lie-in on Saturday and recuperate. My sympathies more to them. And what “opportunity” exactly did past students have that has been lost this year? 2 exams were prepared, independently; one is unusable, the other is being used. Boo-hoo! As for expecting lots of complaints, well, it does provide an excellent excuse for substandard students to query their marks, doesn’t it? Any old excuse will do. If you have the course studied, the 2nd exam should do just as well. Otherwise, it’s the luck of the draw, there may well be people who have prepared better for the exam coming up. Get over it!!
Caroline, That is total rubbish. I was completely prepared for the exam and I definitly found the exam today much harder that what was on the original paper. I do think that I’ve probably gone down at least one grade from how I would have done with the original paper. Fantastic for you if you did well but please don’t be so ignorant.
Now, I never said people would definitely do better in the second exam. How would I know? I said they MIGHT. And I am sure some did, as I am equally sure the ones who didn’t are more likely to be complaining. Sorry if you didn’t do as well as you feel you would have on the first paper. Anyway, it’s still the luck of the draw. The papers might very well have been reversed, the “harder” paper might have been the one that was cancelled. It wasn’t. So be it. At any rate, the department was not out to get you by doing this, it was never intended, it resulted from human error. Shouldn’t have happened, wsn’t deliberate.
Might I point out that at third level, the delay of an exam would be greeted with great glee, giving people extra time to study for it. Funny how your perspective changes, eh?
And – shig – how does going for medicine guarantee that (a) you’re going to get it or (b) do better than someone else? Good luck to you, but don’t assume. And btw, I did the LC some years back now, got more than enough points to do medicine and am now out in the Big Bad World. And Daddy isn’t around. Have done much harder exams since. I sincerely hope you don’t measure your worth by what course you are going for – the LC will mean nothing a few years from now, it really won’t, regardless of what you end up doing, and certainly medical students are not superior to anyone else, nor considered so…