Students mostly sásta with Irish and biology

Irish Paper 2 was on the morning agenda for Leaving Certificate students, with higher level comprehension pieces about Apple founder Steve Jobs and the 40th anniversary of Raidió na Gaeltachta drawing praise.

But Robbie Cronin of the Association of Secondary Teachers Ireland (ASTI) said two parts of one question caused confusion as students felt the same answer could be given to both.

Mr Cronin said the prose, poetry and extra literature questions should not have caused undue stress, particularly for those who studied unprescribed poetry and prose, as the questions seemed easier.

TUI’s Ruth Morrissey was full of praise for the contemporary reading passages after criticism last year about the comprehension section. She said students seemed pleased with the subject matter and the questions this time around, while students would have been delighted with questions about the story Oisín i dTír na nÓg and the poem Mo Ghrása.

She felt questions on the ordinary level exam on JFK’s 1963 visit to Ireland and European cross-country champion Fionnuala Britton were very much oriented to students at this standard.

As well as the modern feel to the exam, she thought students would have liked being examined on short film Cáca Milis and the story Dís. The standard of questions on poems Mo Ghrása and An Spailpín Fánach was also considered very appropriate.

Mr Cronin also pointed to what he described as a pretty basic grammar mistake in a word in the JFK article, which had to form the answer to a question about what happened his patrol boat when fighting Japan in World War II. The State Examinations Commission last night accepted there was a spelling mistake but said it is highly unlikely to have caused students difficulty and those who used the incorrect spelling in their answer would not be penalised.

Very happy with Irish Paper 2 today, leaving is going very well so far..600 points coming my way #Woooooww

— Michelle Forde ☮ (@michelle_forde) June 11, 2013

Mr Cronin felt that unprescribed poetry questions were easier than the others.

*ASTI’s Ciara O’Shea said the higher level Leaving Certificate biology exam drew a mixed, but mostly positive student reaction. She said the short questions section probably caused more difficulty than others, including one asking students to distinguish between six sets of terms, and another on reproduction in a strawberry plant.

But, she said, a later question on experiments should have rewarded anyone who had studied them well. She thought students would have been pleased with longer questions on ecology and human reproduction, but noted that only two other human systems — endocrine and defence — were examined across the entire paper.

TUI’s Margaret O’Neill thought questions at higher level were very concise and allowed students show how well they understand the subject.

For ordinary level candidates, Ms O’Neill said questions were also very clear, but some veered closer to the standard of knowledge needed at higher level. She gave questions on fermentation and pacemakers as examples but said they were not unanswerable.

Ms O’Shea said it was a nice paper with a very topical question about climate change.

But she felt there were tricky parts on the skeleton and blood in one of the exam’s longer questions.