Analysis of Results Excel Files Instructions
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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 corneliusyoung@pdst.ie
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:
1. Take up of the subject
2. Exam attainment at exam level (e.g.: comparison of students taking a
higher level paper)
3. 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.