Opinion adds a new level to maths paper
Eamonn Toland, founder of TheMathsTutor.ie said the contexts and applications section was very biased towards statistics and students who were a bit weak in this area might have struggled.
He said that several questions about the analysis of employment data asked for subjective opinions and might have no clearly correct answer. While this is typical of the new Project Maths syllabus, he said, a lot of students might find it difficult.
However, Association of Secondary Teachers Ireland spokesman for Leaving Certificate maths Tony McGennis saw asking students for their interpretation of data as a welcome feature.
He felt, for example, that asking for two categories of people who might not be in the labour force was quite straightforward for many students. He believes it would allow students with a reasonable level of general knowledge gain marks without relying purely on maths and might encourage more students to stick with higher level in future years.
He said students at the school he was superintending at had most issues with the last part of a geometry question about two wheel-of-fortune games.
For ordinary level candidates, Mr McGennis said there was a similar subjective question about why people might not be registered for property tax, as part of a wider question on the issue. He said some students reported difficulty with a probability question, which is normal enough for Paper 2, and the question on the incircle of a triangle looked harder than one on the same topic at higher level.
* The first of two papers for most students of Irish completed the fourth day of the Leaving Certificate, and ASTI’s Robbie Cronin thought the higher level test was fair.
He said the listening test seemed good, with questions at an appropriate level, and there was wide range of essay titles. Among them were compositions about famous people, how the young years are the best, poverty or human rights in Ireland, and the important things in students’ lives.
However, he was critical of the debate title, which asked students to support or oppose a motion about improvement in the Irish economy. He was uncertain that most students would have understood the word ‘cúinsÃ’ for affairs, and said ‘cúrsaÃ’ might have been preferable.
TUI subject spokeswoman Ruth Morrissey said the essay subjects were topical and relevant to young people, and may have been ones they also prepared for their oral test earlier in the year. She believed there would have been enough scope for students to argue against the economic improvement debate, talking about other issues also discussed in class.
Ms Morrissey thought students who had used material from Bliain na Gaeilge last year might have picked a talk to be given to German visitors about the importance of the language and of Irish culture.
For ordinary level students, there were some words in the listening tests that might have caught them out, but the rest of the paper she considered a good start to their Irish exams. She said they were given quite broad essay titles, to allow students show their ability on topics such as favourite countries, friends, and music, sports, and television programmes.
Mr Cronin agreed about the difficulty of some language in the aural test for ordinary level students, but considered the rest of the paper to have been excellent.
He said many students found the introductions given for short story choices easy enough to understand; one was about getting caught in a fog on a mountain climb, the other about meeting a friend who was angry about something. A scenario he considered very student-friendly asked candidates to write the conversation with their parents about spending too much time on Facebook instead of studying.
* @BarryPierce
After today I’ll never have to look at numbers ever again
* @KTeeeaaa
Meh, Leaving Cert you’re just not doing it for me anymore really
* @AlexDefratyka
That was so horrible
* @elayyna_
forever scarred by maths paper two #leavingcertproblems
* @falloutstylxs
If I don’t get an A in cspe I don’t know what to say
* @adamokeeffe9
CSPE shouldn’t even be an exam
* @ellencashin96
So happy with Irish
* @JessicaBarry17
That Irish paper was super
* @Explicit_Lyrics
That Irish was bullshit
* @ImLegal5SOS
I wrote about 5SOS in my irish exam and told the examiner to go buy their album
* @LouiseNaughton
Would love to know who thought it was a good idea to have Irish paper 2 and Biology on the same day
* @Lazy_skittles
Should really get off twitter and do some study for tomorrow
An error on an Irish-language version of last Friday’s first maths exam for higher level Leaving Certificate students will be taken into account when marking begins.
The State Examinations Commission last night admitted that some might have been confused by the mistaken use of the letter ‘x’ instead of an ‘a’ in part of a question. It was worth less than 1% of total marks in maths for around 700 students who were entered for the exam, around 4% of all students taking Leaving Certificate maths this year.
Many of the unusually high number of mistakes on last year’s Junior and Leaving Certificate exams were on maths papers, leading to extra precautions being taken by the commission to prevent errors getting through in this year’s exams.
A spokesperson said last night that students taking the Irish version also had access to an English version of the paper, which did not contain the error.
CONNECT WITH US TODAY
Be the first to know the latest news and updates
