STATE EXAMS: Sparring with Katie Taylor proves a test for Junior Certs

Junior Certificate students had their first maths papers and Olympic champion boxer Katie Taylor was the inspiration for a question at higher level.

Sat, 06 Jun, 2015 - 01:00

Niall Murray, Education Correspondent

Tony McGennis, an Association of Secondary Teachers Ireland (ASTI) maths spokesman, said the question about training on steps might have put students off at first sight but was manageable with the level of information provided. However, the final part asking them for an explanation for a mathematical statement may have been difficult for Junior Certificate students.

He thought students were guided well through a question about converting temperatures between Kelvin and Fahrenheit scales. Mr McGennis said a question requiring student to make an equation from a given situation about mobile phone charges using graphs was quite straightforward; but another that asked them to draw the graph of a function-plus-two may have been too abstract for some students.

Teachers’ Union of Ireland (TUI) maths spokeswoman Emily Dwyer said the paper was wide-ranging and well-differentiated. She said a number patterns question required higher-order thinking but high-achieving students should have risen to the challenge.

For ordinary level students, she felt that candidates who had covered the syllabus and revised reasonably well should have been able to manage most questions well. Ms Dwyer said it was quite a straightforward paper as, other than a question on interpretation of graphs, most questions were very accessible.

Mr McGennis said questions on fractions, Venn diagrams, percentages and arithmetic were all manageable. A question asking students to tell from a graph how far and how long someone walked and ran for may have been an unfamiliar format, he said.

The morning’s Junior Certificate geography higher level paper had no major surprises, according to ASTI’s Neil Curran.

He thought it contained many current and recent topics, including tourism into Ireland in 2013, earthquakes in New Zealand and traffic congestion in Dublin.

TUI’s Marie Kennedy said students were very pleased with the same exam, particularly those who chose the question on an aerial photo and ordnance survey map. She said the questions covered a very good and wide range of topics.

She felt the ordinary level paper was more challenging than usual, as a few questions might have been found hard by higher level students, but taking time to select questions should have made it okay for most.

Mr Curran said the exam was very fair, with a lot of photographs that could aid weaker students. He said a question about water supply was extremely topical.