Current affairs a boost for history students

THE appearance of Charles Haughey on yesterday’s Leaving Certificate ordinary level history paper may have been welcomed by many students who paid attention to the news the previous day.

Students were sitting the first papers on the revised syllabus yesterday afternoon and no significant difficulties arose.

With their special topic assignments already submitted, students had less writing to do in the exam than in previous years.

However, the ASTI’s Michael Stokes felt the ordinary level paper, on which students were asked about Haughey or Garret FitzGerald’s contribution to public affairs, was quite tough in places. He said the subjects in paragraph questions on some Irish and European topics were obscure and might not have been covered in detail.

For example, under Europe 1871 to 1920, the four topics were very tough to choose from: Pope Leo XIII, the Krupp family, Douglas Haig and developments in science and medicine.

He said the higher level paper was more approachable and featured many more types of question seen in the Leaving Certificate under the old syllabus. He cited an easy question on Cosgrave government steps to establish the Free State and another about Seán Lemass.

Donough O’Brien of the TUI said the higher level questions were mixed enough to suit most students. However, some topics included questions based on case studies examined in class, but others didn’t, so some students might have been happier than others, depending on which topics they prepared for.

He said the ordinary level paper featured a page with photos and cartoons, which should have been much bigger. He also felt students might have been limited by some of the choices given to them, although popular subjects like anti-Semitism, the oil crisis, the Civil War and Countess Markievicz also came up.

The morning’s Leaving Certificate higher level business paper was described as fair by TUI spokesperson, Joe Gallagher. He said the units on management and marketing, and business in action, came up in three questions, apart from the applied business question (ABQ), so anybody well prepared for them should do well. Students also liked the question on financial interpretation and were expecting it to come up.

The ASTI’s Luke Glynn said there was a good choice of fair questions in section A of the higher level paper, but the ABQ was time-consuming.

He said the ordinary level paper was a bit more challenging as some short questions required too much information. In section 2, he felt the domestic environment question may have been difficult.

The Junior Certificate business studies ordinary level exam comprised just one paper, which the ASTI’s Pat Morris said had a nice variety of short questions. He said section B contained quite predictable topics like the household budget, letter writing, wages and the national budget.

He was particularly pleased with the first higher level paper and felt the 20 short questions were fairly standard. The second section included typical subjects, such as household budget, a club question and economic growth.

Mr Morris said it was as nice a paper as he has seen for a long time and the afternoon paper was also satisfactory. He said questions on delivery systems and the book of first entry were like those which came up before and the provision of a wages book to be completed by students was helpful.

The TUI’s Ivan O’Callaghan complimented the colour and presentation of all three papers and said the short questions on the morning’s ordinary level paper were very fair. In section B, he said there were no surprises and questions were balanced and could be done in time.

For the first higher level paper, Mr O’Callaghan said there were no obvious problems in the short questions and all the long questions in section B were very approachable as they were on very predictable topics.

He said the afternoon paper was also very straightforward and the format similar to that of previous years.

Jerry McCarthy of the Business Studies Teachers Association of Ireland said the first higher level paper was along expected lines but students found questions challenging. The increased choice within the 20 short questions was welcome although more choice would be better.