First week of exams down and so far, so good

THE second papers in Irish kicked off the last day of week one for Leaving Certificate students yesterday.

Robbie Cronin of the ASTI said the film was down for possible examination for the first time and it provided students with a very fair question on Clare sa Spéir, asking them to discuss how the film portrays tension in modern families.

However, for those who did the optional course, he felt the question about the film was quite technical.

Mr Cronin said everything else was all fine, as the poems that were expected were examined and the language in the questions was student-friendly.

TUI’s Donal Ó Loinsigh said students should have no complaints about the second higher level paper as it contained no major catches. He said there were no twists in questions about Pádraig Ó Conaire’s Scothscéalta and questions on the short story A Thig Ná Tit Orm were also straightforward.

Mr Ó Loinsigh said it appeared, unlike other years, that the examiners set out not to try catching anyone out and let them earn marks purely on their ability to use the language.

Mr Cronin said students in the ordinary level Leaving Certificate paper were delighted with it, particularly that the film topic also came up on the paper. He said there was plenty of choice in the questions and the poetry questions were easy to understand.

For higher level Junior Certificate Irish students, it was also Paper II yesterday morning.

Bernadette Fitzgerald, TUI subject spokeswoman said the unseen passage from a novel about a terrorist kidnapping had tricky vocabulary, especially if you didn’t know that ‘fuadach’ means kidnap and ‘sceimhlitheoirí’ means terrorists.

The two unseen poems were fine, and two of the four short passages featured Ros na Rún and Hector which she said recognises that Irish is in the media.

In the afternoon, home economics papers were the fare for Leaving Certificate students.

The TUI’s Maureen McGivern said there was nothing particularly difficult in the higher level paper, although the questions sought very precise information in places. She had a concern about the question on a meat consumption pie chart asking students to comment on trends, as figures for just one year were shown.

Elsewhere, she felt that questions on convenience food and changes in family structures reflected issues with which young people would be familiar.

Ms McGivern said the ordinary level paper was very favourable and contained questions which were easy to read and understand, with a short questions section which should have caused few problems.

The common level Junior Certificate paper for Civic, Social & Political Education (CSPE) was the subject of positive comments.

TUI spokeswoman Anne O’Shea said there were no surprises and instructions were very clear, while a colour insert and questions about the Make Poverty History campaign were very topical.

The ASTI’s Michael Stokes praised the fact that so many topical issues were covered, including participation in politics, but questioned the level of knowledge expected of students about the Council of Europe’s work.

Brendan O’Regan, spokesman for the Association of CSPE Teachers gave the paper a broad welcome, particularly the range of topical questions although he said very few of the issues were specifically about young people themselves.