Science and religion take centre stage for pupils

THE Junior Certificate higher level science exam was quite tough, according to Crena Shevlin, the Association of Secondary Teachers Ireland (ASTI) subject spokeswoman.

She said the biology section, which is many students’ preference, was particularly difficult. She felt that students were expected to show a greater understanding of the course material than the usual emphasis on practical experiments they have done in school, while photo-graphs were not in colour and some were unclear.

She felt the vocabulary in some questions was difficult for Junior Certificate students and said that a physics experiment in which copper is placed in hot and cold water was one candidates would not have seen, although they should have been able to apply knowledge from a particular topic to answer about it.