Some expected personalities pop up on Irish paper

The Irish exams for Leaving Certificate students were on the morning timetable and featured some expected personalities.

Ruth Morrissey of the Teachers’ Union of Ireland gave a very positive response to the second paper for higher level students.

She said the use of a comprehension piece about Nelson Mandela was no great surprise and a welcome move to relevant topical issues from some of the subjects in past years.

The other passage, which looked back at 2013, she considered to be a good mix of current affairs, Irish language matters and other events. It included reference to the death of Seamus Heaney, who already appeared on both higher level Leaving Certificate English papers last week but not in the section where most expected him.

Ms Morrissey said questions on short story Dís required in-depth answers but most higher level students should have managed. She felt students would have been well used to analysing poem An Spailpín Fánach’s theme, but some might have been challenged by a question on its metre, and a question on the late Maidhc Dainín Ó Sé’s A Thig Ná Tit Orm was fine.

Association of Secondary Teachers Ireland (ASTI) spokesperson Robbie Cronin said the Mandela piece was very fair, as was the related grammar question, one which often causes most concern. He said students were positive on the 2013 review and its language was not too academic.

He agreed about the difficulty of the question about the metre of the poem, and said the question about the story An Triail was very fair.

Mr Cronin said the first ordinary level comprehension piece about sean-nós dancer Sibéal Davitt was very good, despite some challenging words, and he was very positive about a second piece, which was on Brian O’Driscoll’s rugby career.

He said there were no real surprises in the paper, and the questions on prose would have been studied and prepared for in classes by teachers.

Ms Morrissey thought questions on the novel Hurlamaboc gave students at this level good direction and guidance, but the vocabulary needed for the question on Oisín i dTír na nÓg might have posed difficulties. She said students could not have been asked about two nicer poems than Géibheann and Colscaradh, and should have been well practiced on the kind of questions which that appeared about feelings and themes in them.

n The emphasis on plant systems rather than human systems in yesterday’s higher level biology exam may have disappointed many Leaving Certificate students, according to ASTI subject spokesperson Ciara O’Shea.

She said the nervous and breathing systems were the only two human systems examined on a paper, which she said drew mixed reactions from students she had spoken with. Some were very pleased with the short questions but not with the longer ones, while the feeling was reversed for other students.

She said there was something for everyone in experiment questions on seeds in germination, microscopic study of animal cells, and heart dissection.

There was a topical question about DNA analysis and last year’s horse-meat scandal, while the nervous system question was linked nicely with an article extract about Alzheimer’s disease.

Ms O’Shea said the topical issue of obesity featured in an endocrine system question for ordinary level students, but part of a question about how the eye works was probably tough at this level. She said most students would generally have been happy with the exam.