Analysis of Results Excel Files Instructions
· Spreadsheets for the analysis of Leaving Certificate results are available on the PDST homepage: www.pdst.ie, click on the link for the Subject Analysis Spreadsheet
· The spreadsheets are designed to facilitate the analysis of Leaving Certificate examination results over the past 5 years.
· They will enable you to compare results in your school and also compare those results with the national statistics in various subjects.
· The spreadsheets are also designed to inform subject department planning discussions.
· The current draft of the excel files cover the years 2008 to 2012. At the moment a new set of spreadsheets will have to be generated for next year’s results but we hope to develop a tool that can be updated automatically.
· The spreadsheets can be viewed online but must be downloaded in order to manipulate them, click on the blue arrow to do this
· Each subject spreadsheet contains the State Examinations Commission statistics for that subject and a sample set of results for a school.
· Replace the sample set of results with your own department results in the yellow cells on the ‘Data Entry’ worksheet. The results, analysed from a number of perspectives, appear on adjacent sheets; use the tabs at the bottom of the worksheet to view these.
· The data is analysed as follows:
o Overview of 2012 results
o Overview of past 5 years
§ by attainment in exams
§ by numbers taking that subject
§ by performance at each level
· Reflective comments about this data may be inserted by clicking on the link on the bottom of each worksheet. These combine into a single pages commentary on the last tab.
· The separate spreadsheet entitled “2012 LC points calc” will enable you to calculate points for each individual student, rank students and compare points over the past five years.
· These spreadsheets are still under development and suggestions are very welcome
These spreadsheets are still under development and your observations would be greatly appreciated.
As an on-line version of this tool is not yet available, updated files and instructions will be available for 2013.
Any feedback or queries should be sent to
Instructions for reading the spreadsheets (based on LC French)
Tab one is called Data Entry and is the only page that information is entered.
The spreadsheets contain sample school data and is not indicative of any school.
One replaces the data in the yellow boxes only with the number of students who achieved the grade at the specific level.
Eg: 5 students obtained an A grade at Higher Level in the Leaving Certificate in 2012,
Eg: 14 students obtained a C grade at Ordinary Level in the Leaving Certificate in 2009
The spreadsheet automatically adds the number of students who sat papers at that level
Eg: 48 students sat Higher Level French in 2012
The spreadsheet automatically calculates the percentage of those who achieved each grade from among that level.
Eg: 29% of students (14 individuals) got a C grade at Higher Level French in 2012
In future versions it is intended to include a space for the number absent from an exam.
Change the number of students who achieved an A grade in Higher Level French in 2012 from 5 to 6 to show the automatic recalculation
Ie: the class increases from 48 to 49 and the percentage getting A in Higher Level French increases from 10 to 12
Undo this change before you proceed to avoid confusion later
The number of students who achieved each grade at each level over the last 5 years is the only information that needs to be entered. All the charts statistics etc. on adjacent tabs are generated and updated automatically.
Looking at the spreadsheet in more detail
Go to the 2012 Overview tab
This sheet contains numerical data and charts summarizing the data for 2012 only.
Some people prefer looking at figures to understand while graphs may be easier to explain data.
The table at the top is in three parts:
- Take up of the subject
- Exam attainment at exam level (e.g.: comparison of students taking a higher level paper)
- Exam attainment of a whole school cohort (eg: comparison of all students who sat papers in this subject)
Taking the example of French in 2012
48 took Higher Level
36 took Ordinary Level
84 in total took French
5 students achieved a grade B at Higher Level
Looking at the table at the top of this tab:
57% of students in this school sat French at Higher level whereas nationally that was
53% so the school is 4% above the national average. Consequently the school is below the national average for Ordinary level.
NB: There are occasions when it is positive for a school to be below National average.
The next panel is divided into two:
· Comparing ALL students in your school who sat an exam in this subject with the averages for ALL students who sat papers in the same subject nationally.
· Comparing the group of students in your school who sat the paper AT EACH LEVEL in this subject with the averages for student who sat the same paper in this subject nationally
In this example 5 students achieved a grade B at Higher level so:
· 6% of ALL students in this school (blue and red combined) got a grade A at Higher level or
· 10% of the Higher Level class (blue only)
· 15% of ALL students who took French in the Leaving Certificate got the same grade A at Higher Level or
· 28% of Higher Level students
In this example, comparing all the students who took a French paper in this school with all students who took a French paper nationally, the results for students who achieved a Higher Level B was 9% below par
When looking at just the group of students who took the Higher Level paper, 10% achieved a B grade whereas nationally this was 28% (18% below par)
Looking at those who achieved Honours (A,B or C at HL)
Of all students who took a French paper in this school 29% got an A, B or C at Higher Level whereas Nationally it was 40% (<11%)
Of those students who took a Higher Level paper, 50% of them got an A, B or C whereas, nationally, 75% got an A,B or C.