The postponed Leaving Cert exams get underway around the country this evening.

One exam will take place each evening for the next four weeks, with two a day over the weekends.

The exams traditionally kick off with English Paper One; however, this year students are beginning with biology.

More than 2,500 students have decided to sit the exams – around 4% of the Class of 2020.

Leaving Cert

Guidance counsellor Donnchadh O'Mahoney from Loreto College in Dublin said most are already taking college courses.

“The majority of students that are sitting these exams will have been offered college places this year and will have started college places,” he said.

“The reason they are going back to sit these exams is they probably want a college place further up on their CAO list that they really, really wanted.

“So they probably started these and they are studying in these but they said, ‘look I’ll take these exams and if I do better and get offered another one for next year brilliant – if I don’t, nothing lost, nothing gained.’”

Exams

He said more people decided to sit biology than any other subject.

“We are starting off with biology which, funnily enough, is the most popular subject in theses exams to sit in 2020,” he said.

“Obviously with the calculated grades that were given out to students back in September, I suppose the most disgruntled among those were probably those who studied biology. That is why students want to sit it now in November.

Gaeilge

Meanwhile, the number of Leaving Cert exemptions for Irish has increased by 16% in the past year.

It follows a change to the rules that a principal can sign off on the exemption instead of relying on a cert from a psychologist.

The Irish Independent reports the number of students getting the dispensation is now more than 6,000 compared with 5.076 in the 2018-19 academic year.