By gamed you mean put in a shit load of work into an exam that has a pre-cooked syllabus and answer questions through rote learning in a way that examiners like?
Is that not what most schools are doing to prepare the LC cycle. Is the issue that all the schools which arenât at the top of the league tables are full of Dead Poet Society types taking a different approach?
Itâs quite a different argument to saying the system is rigged by the way.
I put my son in The Institute last year as he had been having some problems and wanted to leave the school he was in, I felt putting him in there gave him a good chance of getting a decent LC and hopefully a college place and get him back on track. Turns out he didnât get his 1st choice despite having in excess of 100 points more than he needed because he needed a H4 in English and was given a H6 despite averaging around 70% in his coursework etc. Monday will be interesting to see what grade the school gave him. Hope it stays fine for some of the sneery cunts on here and theirs.
Life is indeed an uphill battle against the wind. Just as you reach the summit an Exocet missile cuts off your arm. You gotta regroup and plough on.
These lessons are best learned at a young age. There are myriads of traps, education, employment, life partners, kids, promotions, house changes, family occasions, rejections, fuck-ups, separations, illness, death.
A few points gone astray when your 18 isnât the end really. Water always finds its own level.
Institute have it totally gamed. I got the geography notes 25 years ago from a mate the year before and walked out with A2 with little interest in the subject. They have it boxed off to a tee.
I think it has to be the case. Even in the toughest schools each class would have a handful of students doing their best often under difficult circumstances. They might not be looking for 620 points but they could be looking for 350 or 400 to get into an IT. If these kids had their points cut because of their schoolâs demographic that would probably end their third level aspirations for good.
It is unfair but what the government have done is the lesser of 2 evils imho. Finally, itâs been a badly kept secret for years that paying the likes of The Institute is paying for access to the exam questions. The sooner a light is shined on this sort of bollox acting the better.
I donât disagree but I donât think theyâre doing anything particularly underhand or using info not available to every other teacher/pupil in the country. Theyâve got a motivated student-body and theyâve studied the predictable patterns of the LC and equipped students how best to navigate it. That option is open to any teacher.
You could argue that the LC should be far less predictable and less about rote learning. Iâm unconvinced that would change much in terms of which schools outperform/underperform though.
At least you admit this algorithm is âunfairâ.
If each class had a handful of students (your words) who got 350-400 points or higher each year then by definition normalising results to previous patterns along with across the board grade inflation wouldnât disadvantage them.
I know a lad who sat the leaving cert 3 times. First time he failed almost everythingâŚsecond time in the institute he scraped a pass in most subjectsâŚand the third time in the institute again he cobbled together enough points to do a science degree. This lad is now a GP after paying to do it in balbecs neck of the woods. Moral of the story is if youâre a thick lazy cunt try and try again and it helps if your parents can pay for the privilege.