No shocks for students in appliance of science

Junior Certificate science papers contained no surprises but raised more uncertainties about the exam-setting process.

Teachers’ Union of Ireland (TUI) spokesperson Gerry King said higher-level students were set a fair and balanced paper that featured many topics relating to everyday life, such as carbon monoxide risks from household appliances.

While the biology section did not examine any mandatory experiments, elements of them featured strongly throughout, with one question in the chemistry section and two physics experiments were also examined. Mr King noted the use of a number of graphs in the exam and thought the paper overall should not have been a problem for most students, with up to 35% of marks already accounted for through earlier- submitted coursework books and completion of experiments in schools.