Contrary to public opinion, the Leaving Certificate exam questions are not as predictable as once thought, and students who study only what they presume will arise don't perform as well as those who prepare broadly for examinations.

Education Minister, Jan O'Sullivan, has today published a report confirming new reforms to Leaving Certificate points system along with new changes to CAO. The report, which also examines the ‘problematic predictability of examinations’ based its findings on research led by Oxford University.

The researchers from  Oxford University Centre of Educational Assessment and Queens University Belfast. found that while the ‘public sphere’ believe that the examinations were predictable, this had a negative effect on students as there is little evidence to support that examinations could be predicted. The researchers found that this is part of a wider problem in Europe in student state examinations.

According to the report:

“Concerns about the predictability of the Leaving Certificate examination question content were not sustained by the findings of this research overall. None of the examinations was found to be very problematically predictable in these terms. The researchers noted that it is important for the currency of the Leaving Certificate that it is a trusted assessment and they recommended that action be taken specifically to address the portrayal of the examinations in the public sphere in order to maintain trust in these important national examinations.”

A statement from the Dept.of Education today highlighted the issue:

‘The study found that despite the perception of many students and others, the Leaving Certificate examinations are not in fact very predictable and that those who rely on their predictability too much often do not perform as well as those who prepare more fully for the examinations.’

Read full report here..

Source: Education.ie

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