Leaving Cert music: Beatles and Mozart strike the right note for well-prepared students

"That paper was just undoable, it was brutal, it just didn't make any sense, and my daughter was just so thrown, I think the shock was so profound" - so said one mother of a Leaving Certificate student who spoke to me this week about last week's Higher Level Maths paper 1.

Almost every other year something like this happens, with outcry over a Higher Level Maths paper deemed by some to be unfairly hard.

Maths at this level is a demanding subject, and for many students, especially those hoping to achieve high CAO points, there's a lot riding on how well they perform.

But a difficult paper does not mean that students will get lower grades.

In every subject every year, the State Examinations Commission calibrates its approach in order to ensure that consistency in grading standards is maintained over time, because like has got to be compared with like. It would be unfair if students sitting an exam in one year gained an advantage over those sitting the same exam in another year, just because a paper was easier or harder.

There's a complex standard setting system in place to ensure that this does not happen, and this system will kick in over the coming weeks as it has every year. It includes the consideration of issues that may have been raised by candidates, parents, teachers and others – such as particular difficulties in individual papers – which can lead, the SEC says, to "the refinement of the draft marking scheme".

This mother did complain to the SEC and she may take some comfort from this assurance that concerns expressed by parents and students can be taken on board.

The goal every year for the SEC is also to try and ensure that the results of one year won't differ too much compared to the results of a previous year.

These years, however, Covid continues to make that task a not fully achievable one. It may be a distant memory but the impact of the pandemic is still playing out right across the education system.

While it does "broadly follow the same rigorous approach", the SEC says that "any consideration of this complex issue requires awareness of the ongoing impact of the pandemic on examinations and assessment arrangements each year since 2020".

The Class of 2026 are the students who began first year wearing masks, their schools closed and they were sent home again for another period during that year. They missed out on the end of 6th class, and they were into their 2nd year before they saw their teachers and their classmates' faces in class.

In the exam papers returned to them, the State Examinations Commission says it continues to see the impact of such disruption.

The pattern of results recorded last year varied by subject and level due to a number of factors, it says, including "potentially... candidate behaviour in terms of their level of engagement in the classroom, their engagement with the assessment components, and their choice of subject level".

Because the education system is still 'settling' post-pandemic, the Government continues to allow additional marks to be added to Leaving Certificate scores, on a sliding scale in what is known as the post marking adjustment.

The mother who spoke to RTÉ News about her daughter's reaction knows about standardisation, and that steps are taken to fine-tune marking schemes to ensure fairness. But she may not take much comfort from this.

She describes her daughter as "a perfectionist", highly intelligent and a hard worker, but she says "she can get overwhelmed". Her daughter has her heart set on securing a place on a high points third-level course.

"She was just so thrown. She said to me 'Mum, when I realised how bad [that question] was, I just effed up other questions. I got basic stuff wrong'," the mother said.

For a small but significant number of students the Leaving Certificate exams are a time of overwhelming pressure. There is a level of anxiety experienced by some that is concerning, and the factors behind it merit investigating.

The points system is an external cause; the fact that some students know they need to achieve a perfect Leaving Cert, or close to, to secure a place on the course they want.

It's because the number of places on these courses, such as medicine or veterinary, are tightly restricted, even though those same professions are crying out for qualified graduates in these areas.

When it comes to veterinary and some other areas, it's hoped that new courses coming on stream this year will alleviate some of this pressure.

There is a deeper issue too. In schools there is huge concern about high anxiety levels among young people more generally. Is this a factor in the upset seen so often around a Higher Level Maths paper? There are concerns too that the pandemic has exacerbated anxiety levels among young people.

But back to that Maths paper. The State Examinations Commission has defended it. It said the Maths papers were "reviewed by subject experts to assess their suitability in terms of appropriateness of testin…