Comedy helps ease nerves in Irish

WHETHER it was “in the name of the fada” in Irish or the “reasonable and fair” maths papers, student-friendly was the catchphrase which most appropriately summed up the fourth day of the 2009 Leaving and Junior certificate exams yesterday.

The Leaving Cert ordinary level Irish paper could hardly have been more student-friendly with funnyman Des Bishop and RTÉ’s Carrie Crowley both featuring strongly.

Robie Cronin of the ASTI and a teacher at Marion college in Dublin, gave the higher level Irish Leaving Cert paper 10 out of 10 for fairness and the way it reflected the real lives of students.

“There were some tough questions, as you would expect, but it was a very positive paper. There was, for instance, an essay on President Obama and another on the demise of the Celtic Tiger, so there was a very appropriate essay selection. In the two comprehension pieces, one of which dealt with a new gaeltacht in Canada, there were some tough questions, but I would still describe them as challenging but fair. Overall, it was a superb paper.”

Mr Cronin was equally positive about the quality of the lower level Irish paper yesterday, but was surprised to find that a comprehension article on Des Bishop was almost identical to what appeared on a mock exam paper issued by the Dublin Examining Board, a commercial enterprise that has been selling mock exam papers for 60 years.

Mr Cronin described the lower level paper overall, though, as “fabulous” and praised, in particular, its student-friendly nature.

“There were plenty of choices appropriate to the level and the experience of students.”

Blaithín Ní Liathain of the TUI agreed that both Irish papers were, in general, reasonable, but criticised the layout of the ordinary level paper and said the tape in the Irish aural was much too fast. “The weaker student would have had a problem with that,” she said.

In the morning, there was a positive overall verdict on the higher level Leaving Certificate maths paper 2, with teachers and students alike finding that there was nothing unusual or unexpected in it.

“It was quite a student-friendly paper,” said Brid Griffin of the Teachers Union of Ireland. “Some students might have been stuck for time but, all in all, it ran along predicted lines.”

Ms Griffin said that the “tricky bits” revolved around the questions on trigonometry, with some parts difficult to grasp conceptually. “Overall, though, taking the two papers as a whole, the higher level maths paper this year was fair and reasonable.”

By contrast, the ordinary level Leaving Cert paper was judged to be quite difficult, with a change in format unbalancing weaker students. Some questions had only two parts to them instead of the usual three and, according to teachers, this could have unnerved some exam candidates.

“The more academically challenged would have looked to get parts A and B right and take their chances on Part C,” said Ms Griffin, “so the change in format could have been quite off-putting for them”.

Imelda Moloney of the Teachers Union of Ireland agreed. “The trickiest question of all was Part B of Question 2. That required getting two points at the start in order to answer the rest of the question. If the student could get the first bit, sections 2 and 3 were easy enough, but if the student couldn’t, it was impossible to attempt the rest.”

The higher Junior Cert maths paper II was described as predictable by Eileen Scanlon of the ASTI. “It was as expected. There were no major surprises and I think it would have suited most students.”

Of the ordinary level Junior Cert paper, Maria Kelly of the ASTI said her students were very happy.