AN 18-year-old, who gave up her beloved hockey and going out with friends to study, has spoken of her devastation after losing a university scholarship when "a computer algorithm" downgraded her predicted A-level results.
Down High pupil Charlotte Hart said her ABC results in Politics, History and French, despite an AAB prediction means she misses out on her first choice of Bristol University.
She is one of scores of angry Year 14 pupils, with Rathmore Grammar pupil Declan Heery taking to Twitter to vent frustration at Education Minister Peter Weir and CCEA exam board after receiving BBC grades.
"100 per cent attendance, achieving AAB at AS which I worked out of my skin to achieve and to be quite literally thrown under the bus by this thankless grading system. Action needs to be taken.
"I feel betrayed, confused and above all upset."
Former chaplain to the Lord Mayor of Belfast Rev Karen Sethuraman's daughter, Erin who "got As in GCSE" and "sitting on and on track for" ABB, ended up with BCE.
"Predicted grades are not reliable and are unfair. I have an extremely distraught teen who aims to do medicine - and cannot even apply to do biomedicine which was her route."
Charlotte Hart told the Irish News: "It's hugely devastating. I spoke to my history teacher who said I'd been placed as a very strong A. How did I go from a strong A to getting a B?"
The Ballynahinch teenager was taking 13 exams to boost disappointing AS grades last year.
"I played a lot of hockey and I dropped a lot, I went to extra classes, stayed in school to study, every spare period I studied, I had gone to teachers handing in extra essays, I didn't go out with friends at weekends.
"I'm very, very disappointed.
"Some pupils who didn't work and their grades are better than they expected. It looks like they have been randomly handed out.
"I believed what CCEA told us. They were reassuring everyone the computer algorithm they have was much different from England and everyone would get the grades they needed and get their places in universities.
"That hasn't happened. One of my friends got four As at AS-level and hasn't got a university (place). Another was predicted 3 As and got three Bs and didn't get into medicine. Another was top in his class in Business Studies and got a B - he got into medicine, luckily, but I can't fathom how you can go from being so high-ranking in your class to getting a B."
For her the change in grade also carries a financial penalty.
"I got into Southampton, but I had a sports scholarship from Bristol. They say they'll take me if I get them changed on appeal, but I won't know what that process is until Monday.
"It's an insult to the teaching profession who have worked with us for two years and know what we can do, our work.
"Ignoring that and having grades determined by a computer algorithm is devastating, it really is devastating."
