Plenty of particle collisions but no real problems in Leaving Cert exam

More than 1,800 Leaving Certificate students took on Applied Maths papers which opened the last day of exams in 2014.

Christy Maginn, subject spokesperson for the Association of Secondary Teachers Ireland (ASTI), said the higher level exam had some new features but the style and content were all welcome, with the opening question on linear motion featuring no underlying problems.

He said students might have been unnerved by the appearance of the more challenging elements in the first, rather than the second parts of questions on projectiles, particle dynamics and differential equations.

He said a question on collisions was set out in a way not seen before but students should have progressed well on it, and most should have been familiar with issues in a relative velocity question that looked very long at first.

Also yesterday morning, around 1,300 students were scheduled to sit religious education exams, and ASTI spokesperson Aisling Flood was pleased at the level of relevance to young people’s lives in the questions. The first, for example, required them to connect their knowledge with their own experience and that of people in modern culture.

She said the language in the questions was very clear; there was a nice cross-cultural aspect in places for students of history or geography; and there was good current affairs in questions, such as the one about world hunger, poverty or discrimination. Ms Flood said the ordinary level paper also drew on current affairs as well as student knowledge, with one question about ancient expressions of religious belief through art or artefacts considered quite challenging.

The Leaving Certificate Italian written papers were assessed by Ciarán Mac Craith for the ASTI, who thought higher-level students would have been very busy. He said the written expression section topics were student-friendly and relevant to the syllabus, while comprehensions were time-consuming and would have tested candidates’ understanding of grammar.

Mr Mac Craith said the layout of the ordinary level paper was clear, written tasks were meaningful, and reading comprehension topics were interesting.

For 1,110 students, Leaving Certificate Technology ended their exams, and the higher level paper yesterday featured questions on the World Cup 2014 emblem, a robotic Mars rover, and health problems associated with prolonged use of mobile communication devices.