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.

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.