Music to the ears as Junior Cert paper contains no surprises

Around 11,000 Junior Certificate students completed their music exams in the morning, having already done some elements earlier in the year.

Miriam Ross for the Association of Secondary Teachers Ireland (ASTI) said both the higher and ordinary level papers were very accessible. She said they tested students’ prior knowledge, as well as their ability to apply their general listening skills.

At both levels, students seemed happy with the appearance of Bizet’s Farandole. For those doing higher level, Ms Ross said, songs from musicals and operas would have been a welcome choice given the popularity of musicals in recent years.

nIn the afternoon, it was the technology exams for over 3,200 Junior Certificate candidates.

Kieran Christie of ASTI said he felt that in the higher paper, there was a good selection of “fair and reasonable” shorter questions across the whole syllabus in section A.

“With regard to Section B and C, again it was a fair paper, it was a testing paper,” said Mr Christie. “I particularly liked the electronics questions and the mechanisms questions. There was nothing controversial, no great surprises.”

“At ordinary level I felt the questions were set at the appropriate level for the examination. I felt there was a particularly modern feel to the paper, especially the question on solar panels which the candidates would have found interesting.”