After months of preparation, note taking, and revision, more than 6,300 Galway students will put pen to paper during the Leaving Certificate, the Leaving Cert Applied and the Junior Certificate exams which began this week.
The numbers of students nationally to sit their State exams this year is believed to be in the region of 120,000, with some 55,550 candidates sitting the Leaving Cert which began with the first English paper yesterday morning followed by the Home Economics, Scientific, and Social exam in the afternoon.
This year, the predicted Leaving Cert entries for Galway show that, outside of Dublin, the county has the second highest number of students to sit the exams with a total of 3,157, behind Cork which has a total of 6,359. After Galway are Kildare (2,482 ), Limerick (2,464 ), Donegal (2,223 ), Kerry (1,863 ), Wexford (1,834 ), Mayo (1,795 ), Meath (1,788 ), and Louth (1,783 ). Counties with the lowest numbers sitting the Leaving Cert exams include Leitrim (454 ), Roscommon (542 ), Longford (592 ), and Cavan (774 ).
Other figures released by the State Examinations Commission show that this year the predicted numbers of students nationally to sit the Leaving Cert Applied exams stands at 3,245, with Galway reaching a total of 112. These exams also began yesterday with English and Communications the first subject for students to tackle, followed by Social Education in the afternoon.
Nationally 57,732 Junior Cert students began their exams this week with both English papers taking place yesterday. For Galway, the predicted Junior Cert entries for the 2011 exams is 3,094.
The length of time the 3,157 Leaving Cert students will be sitting exams at centres throughout Galway city and county is uncertain as it is dependent on the subjects chosen by each student. However, the final exams are scheduled to take place on Friday June 24.
With English, paper I, and home economics completed, students will be facing engineering this morning followed by English, paper II this afternoon, while tomorrow will be exams in Geography and Mathematics, paper I. Following some final revision over the weekend Mathematics, paper II, will take place on Monday morning next, followed by Irish, paper I, and Irish paper II on Tuesday morning. The rest of next week will be filled with exams in subjects such as Arabic, Russian, Business, History, Biology, Art, and German. Some students will be facing into a third week of exams with Physics, Physics and Chemistry, and Accounting on Monday, June 20, Spanish and Chemistry on June 21, Economics, Agricultural Economics, Construction Studies, Classical Studies, and Latin on June 22, Agricultural Science and Music on June 22, and finally Religious Studies, Applied Mathematics, Italian, Japanese, and Technology exams on June 24.
Leaving Certificate results are due to be issued on Wednesday August 17, while the Junior Certificate results will be issued in mid-September.
