2020 Leaving Cert record results may impact Tipperary CAO applicants who did exams in recent years

This Monday, students received calculated grades which seen a record increase in the number of H1 grades, outperforming any other year on record. 

Despite the largely positive response towards such desirable grades, the news has come to the apparent detriment of students from other years as they will compete against the class of 2020 for their place in third level. 

The calculated grades of 2020 have seen an increase of on average 4.4% higher than the class of 2020. The proportion of H1 and H2 grades awarded has increased by 5%. 

This may result in a point’s inflation which could other applicants lose out on their desired place.  

Many students take the decision to reapply through the CAO. Thousands of students from 2019 took the decision to take a year out for reasons such as financial concerns or uncertainty towards their desired course as reasons to redo their application process. 

“I decided to take the year out mainly because I felt I was too young to make the decision about going to third level and I feared I’d regret my course choice,” says Kayleigh Ryan, 19 from Donaskeigh. 

After sitting her Leaving Cert in 2019, Kayleigh had originally intended on pursuing a career in teaching.

Kayleigh believes there is an unreasonable amount of pressure placed on students to quickly decide which course to choose while they are in senior cycle, which leads to confusion and indecision. 

“By results day 2019, the realisation hit me that I wasn’t fully sure this was the career path I wanted to go for.” 

Kayleigh made the decision taken by many students to work for the year, reapplying through the CAO for her desired course. 

Now intent on gaining a place in Speech and Language Therapy in UCC, she is now faced with competing against the inflated grades of this year’s Leaving Cert to gain a place in the competitive course. 

“While I completely sympathise with the class of 2020 and have always hoped for the best outcome for them, I think the issue needs to be handled with equity.

There are 20,000 students who are in the same situation as me. Our grades were marked on a completely different scale, making them seem devalued in the space of a few days.” 

While Minister Harris has promised an increase of places available will remedy the inflated points, stating that of the 20,000 applying using past year’s grades 12,000 students will get offered places. 

This has left over 8,000 students to the detriment of the new grading system, with the challenge of 2020 continuing to wreck havoc for many hopeful students. Students are now faced with the new challenge of competing against the unique class of 2020, with the extent of such challenges to be made clear this coming Friday. 

A year like no other for Leaving Certificate students