Leaving Cert students get down to business

Leaving Certificate students got down to business in the morning and needed some quite specific knowledge on many of the questions.

This was particularly so for those sitting the higher level exam, according to Association of Secondary Teachers Ireland (ASTI) subject spokeswoman Margo McGann.

She said students needed to recognise acronyms, for example, for foreign direct investment and capital gains tax, while the break-even chart was in a difficult format. Ms McGann also felt that students who anticipated a number of calculation questions will have been disappointed, as such tasks only accounted for 30 of the paper’s 400 marks. But she was pleased with the topics of the applied business question, about a returned emigrant setting up a surf school in Donegal, and the business-in-action section about a wedding dress designer.

Ms McGann said the ordinary level exam contained no surprises so well-prepared students should also have done well. It was being taken by a minority of the 17,000 candidates for Leaving Certificate Business.

She said the introductory text to many questions was interesting and relevant, and the only issue she had was with a question asking for a line graph, which she considered more of a mathematical task than the trend graphs, bar or pie charts they would be accustomed to doing for this subject.

lTeachers’ Union of Ireland (TUI) Art spokeswoman Maureen Roche thought students had great choice from questions at both levels yesterday evening.

The higher level exam featured what she said were lovely questions on passage graves and the Bronze Age in the Irish section, with further options about Jack B Yeats, Georgian country houses, or one of eight named Irish artists.

In the European section, Ms Roche said there were straightforward questions on old staples such as Giotto and Botticelli. She said that there was a lovely question on rural architecture in the appreciation section, which also had a good question on a smartphone app in the gallery question.

ASTI spokeswoman Liz Morrissey said the topics were all fine but felt the detail required in most questions meant students would have to be higher level English candidates, and might have had trouble getting to finish in time.

She said the pictured sculpture in a cathedral might not have been known to many students, perhaps restricting them from answering on a course area they were prepared well for. But, she said the questions on Giotto, Botticelli’s Birth of Venus and Michaelangelo’s David, were all straightforward.

Ms Roche said the ordinary level exam also offered nice choices, with an Irish section that included the Bronze Age, Book of Kells, Casino at Marino, Walter Osborne or any one of seven artists.

She thought a photo-editing software question was very age-appropriate, and praised a question about T-shirts promoting a charity walk, street festival or farmers’ market, giving options for rural and urban candidates, she said.

Ms Morrissey said the ordinary level paper was straightforward, and welcomed the inclusion of the names of all pictured works.

She particularly liked the photo portrait question, saying students should be well able to answer with reference to their apps and software.