More than 80 Tipperary students to sit delayed Leaving Cert exams from today

84 Tipperary students are preparing to sit their delayed Leaving Cert exams over the next number of weeks.

They get underway today with Biology being the first subject.

The exams allow students who weren’t happy with their calculated grades, the chance to sit the exam properly.

Speaking on Tipp Today earlier, vice-president of the Tipperary branch of the Institute of Guidance Counsellors, Justin McGree said they can chose between the two results:

“The good news is that the best grade will be taken. They literally have nothing to lose so they’ll take the higher grade, whichever that is – whether it’s the estimated grade or the grade on the exam.

“The bad news is that they have to obviously juggle both [college] and the Leaving Cert possibly, if they’re already in college.

“It is tough to sit exams in the dark of November and at a much later time of day. That could be a factor for students.

“And I suppose the last negative is that we won’t see results until perhaps early February.”

There was much debacle around this year’s Leaving Cert and Justin says the same can’t happen next year:

“We do want clarity at this time of year, prior to Christmas, as to how it’s going to run next year.

“I know there are unknowns there with COVID, but I mean, we had a short lead-in last time and, with due respect to the Department of Education, there wasn’t a whole lot of time to plan.

“This time we feel we have the full year to have the Leaving Cert students fully aware of how it’s going to run or the options – Plan A, Plan B for example – and make it very clear from the outset.”