English papers get mixed reviews

FARAWAY places such as Greece, Brazil, Africa and Moscow were among many destinations grabbing the attention of exam students across the country yesterday.

But holidays were probably far from the minds of the 120,000 candidates as they waded through a mix of challenging but fair questions on the Leaving and Junior Certificate English papers.

At both levels, teachers found the exams quite fair although some sections were described as tough.

John MacGabhann, English spokesman for the Teachers’ Union of Ireland, liked the general theme of travel and exploration evident in the first paper for higher level Leaving Cert.

The comprehension section featured extracts from Tim Severin’s The Jason Voyage and The Golden Horde and Travels from the Himalaya to Karpathos by Sheila Paine.

“It’s the aspiration of just about every student to travel, the paper seemed to tap into the genuine aspiration of kids,” he said.

However, ASTI counterpart Sheila Parsons had her reservations, believing that not many students would be interested in travelogues.

“The first paper for higher Leaving students was a little off-putting, and the two texts were long and quite difficult to read,” she said.

Mr MacGabhann had his own uncertainty about one of the ordinary level Leaving Cert essay titles.

It asked students to base a composition on the following line from the extract of a U2 concert review: “Unfortunately, she looked and sounded more like a Sesame Street throwback.”

“I’m just not sure if today’s Leaving Certs would know too much about the show, I think Sesame Street was not around in their time,” he said.

The appearance of Seamus Heaney on the higher level Leaving Cert Paper II should have come as no surprise to most students, according to both teachers.

For higher level Junior Cert students, the media section proved tough for many candidates, with a mock-up advertisement for an outdated mode of children’s communication.

A picture of a hand-held sea shell and the slogan “Join the Tin Can Revolution” would probably have meant more to the student’s parents.

One of the questions asked students to rewrite the text to read like a mobile phone ad.

“Children will probably get the joke but they wouldn’t be able to write about it. It was a bit conceptual for 15-year-olds,” said Ms Parsons.

At ordinary level, a comprehension piece from an Environmental Protection Agency brochure had some technical language, while the media section also offered some tough choices, but the English papers were considered quite fair.

Mr MacGabhann said the Leaving Cert Applied English & Communication gave students a chance to imagine themselves in positions of responsibility.