It didn’t quite add up for some honours students

IT wasn’t all sunshine for students sitting the Junior Certificate Maths papers at the Intermediate School, in Killorglin, Co Kerry.

Those taking the ordinary level paper indicated their satisfaction with the questions, but students who opted for higher level felt it was more difficult than they had expected.

Some of those doing the ordinary level paper were finished well before the stipulated time and emerged with smiles on their faces.

“Very easy. I expected it to be more difficult,” was the verdict of David Carroll. He was quick to add that Paper II, on Monday, should be a lot harder, especially the trigonometry section.

David’s friends, Michael McKenna and Conor O’Shea, agreed the paper was easy. Conor felt the algebra question was “real easy” and overall appeared happy with the way he had answered the questions.

A trio that sat the higher level paper – Jonathan O’Connor, Dylan Carey and Aidan Van Bladel – said while the first few questions were easy, the paper became more difficult. “I thought some of the questions were quite hard. Many people thought the one on geometry was definitely challenging,” said Jonathan.

Aidan thought question six on factorisation was the most difficult question, while Dylan said all the questions, with the exception of the first, were more testing than expected.

Three Killorglin girls, Emma Hayes, Karen O’Sullivan and Rachel O’Sullivan, who took the higher level paper, had mixed views about it.

Rachel thought it was “alright”, except for the last question, which she described as “quite challenging”, with the other girls nodding in agreement. Rachel also felt the last question may have been worded in a manner intended to confuse.

Emma found the first four questions easy, but the other questions then became more difficult.

Karen chimed in: “One and two were easy enough, but the last few questions were definitely harder.”