Broad knowledge a bonus as tipped topics didn’t arise

AFTER last year’s disastrous biology paper, Leaving Certificate students were anxious heading into their afternoon exam.

And while tipped topics like human reproduction and photosynthesis did not come up as expected, liver fluke and respiration did and students seemed pretty happy with the papers.

Just as in other years, students who had a good, broad knowledge of the course did well. It’s a broad subject and just about every aspect of the course was examined in the ordinary and higher-level papers.

Students, Ciara Bolger and Laura Foskin, were exhausted after the exam. But both were happy with their work.

“In general, it was very reasonable,” 17-year-old Ciara, a student of Our Lady of Mercy Secondary School in Waterford said.

“It was a lot more geared towards the course than last year’s paper. It was straightforward but demanded that students had a very broad knowledge of the course.”

Ciara said the question on respiration was fine, as was the one on reproduction. “There was almost a full question on the liver fluke which was grand. And the earthworm came up too. I even did an extra question and a half. I was apprehensive going in after last year’s shock paper. But I suppose none of us expected they’d give a paper like that again,” she said.

Laura Foskin has now finished her exams and looks forward to her 18th birthday next month. She didn’t know whether to take the higher or ordinary paper.

She admitted she was a borderline student but took the higher paper and was happy with her choice.

“The ecology question was definitely the worst. It was about trapping squirrels. They asked us to do some calculations and I didn’t see how we could do them. Maybe its just me. But I couldn’t see how it could be answered the way they wanted,” said Laura.

“Human reproduction was tipped and it didn’t come up. Photosynthesis was also tipped but respiration came up instead.

“There were a lot of tricky angles in the questions but they didn’t seem to want as much detail as last year so that wasn’t too bad,” she said.

Laura said none of her classmates seemed to be caught for time and she even did an extra question.