Exam ‘quite tough but had balance’

Almost 6,500 Leaving Certificate students were entered for yesterday’s higher level agricultural science exams, which teachers considered quite demanding.

Peter Keaney, subject spokesperson for the Association of Secondary Teachers Ireland (ASTI), said it had a good balance of theory and practice but average and good students faced a challenge getting top grades.

He considered the genetics question more straightforward than other years, but said there were difficult elements to some questions. One required the same type of cell division as the answer to at least two of the three parts, and another asked about the differences between pairs of phrases.