From Leaving CertiFiCate to Leaving SChooL a Longitudinal Study ...

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From Leaving Certificate to Leaving School
level. Change was somewhat more common in Irish, with a tenth of the
higher level group changing levels in the run-up to the exam. Again the
pattern for Maths is quite distinctive, with a fifth of higher level students
‘dropping down’ a level in the course of the few months prior to the examination.
When questioned about choosing subject levels, students were sometimes
ambivalent as to whether ‘choice’ had been involved in the process.
In many cases, the levels taken were seen as naturally following on
from those taken in junior cycle, with any movement being ‘downward’
from higher to ordinary level (see Smyth and Calvert, 2011). The level
undertaken at Leaving Certificate thus often depended on their Junior
Certificate level and the ability groups in which students were placed
during junior cycle:
Depends what you did in your Junior Cert … I came straight from
Junior Cert to fifth year so whatever I was doing honours in, in Junior
Cert, I stayed doing honours in fifth year. (Argyle Street, coed
school, mixed intake)
Interviewer: When did you choose the level at which to take subjects
for Leaving Cert?
Just in third year.
You didn’t really [choose]. Nobody asked you.
Yeah you didn’t pick, the results [decided it].
If you done well in honours in Junior Cert you just went on doing it.
And if you done ordinary for Junior Cert you can’t go up when you
go to Leaving Cert like. (Dixon Street, coed school, working-class
intake)
One group of students reported how taking particular subject levels was
part of a cumulative process that started as early as first year:
Well, I personally have never sat in an honours Maths class in my
life. Since the day I came into first year I’ve never once been in an
honours Maths class.
Interviewer: So what about choosing the levels then?