French tape gets an earful as Hitler makes history

AFTER almost a week of exams, Leaving Certificate students taking French hit major obstacles in yesterday morning’s aural exam.

After what teachers and students felt was a reasonable written exam, the speed, diction and vocabulary of the tape posed problems.

ASTI French spokesman Bernard Lynch said this was very serious, given that the aural is worth 20% of the final result for higher level students and 25% for those who chose ordinary level.

“The vocabulary used was very difficult and the diction was very poor on a couple of the passages. It’s an unrealistic standard and could mean a difference of one or two grades for students who struggled with it,” he said.

His TUI counterpart Mary Costelloe was equally critical. “Two of the five pieces were far too fast and three people were talking in one of them. The complexity was just piled on this year,” she said.

Ms Costelloe was pleased with the higher level paper, and said it was nice to see students asked to write about why people should study French, the Special Olympics and ethnic minorities, all familiar topics.

The ordinary level paper was well laid out and seemed very manageable, she said.

The aural exam for Junior Certificate candidates brought the same criticism as previous years because ordinary and higher level students must answer questions based on the same tape. Mr Lynch said it is unfair to expect the same understanding from ordinary level students.

TUI’s junior cycle French spokeswoman Ann Weafer said there was a lot of material to get through on the higher level paper but she welcomed questions which allowed for not understanding every single word. She said the ordinary level paper lacked the improved layout in other subjects.

There were no major problems with Leaving Cert history, according to ASTI’s subject representative John O’Sullivan.While sections A and B on Irish history at higher level gave good choices, he felt that students would have had difficulty with section D if a question on Hitler had not appeared.

TUI’s senior cycle history spokesman Donough O’Brien said students would have been glad to see Parnell in section A, but he was surprised that there was no full Northern Ireland question.

He said the ordinary level paper offered good choice in the short questions and some essays in section C were long but fair.

John O’Sullivan said the higher level Junior Cert history exam was testing. TUI’s Dermot Lucey said students who had not covered the full course might have had difficulties.

He said the ordinary level paper was more satisfactory.

TOMORROW: Reviews of Leaving Certificate Business and Biology; Junior Certificate Business Studies.