'There was no one crying' - Leaving Cert Maths paper two 'trickier' than first but a 'fair test'

Thousands of students sat Leaving Cert maths paper two, and the common-level Junior Cert science exam.

The maths paper presented to Leaving Cert students on Monday morning had a few tricky questions, but stands as a “fair test”, while the language used on the Junior Cycle science exam may have proved difficult.

That’s the initial consensus as today’s first set of exams wraps up. Thousands of students sat Leaving Cert maths paper two, and the common-level Junior Cert science exam.

Maths paper two at both higher and ordinary level was seen by students as “trickier” than paper one last week, but overall it was seen as a “fair test”.

That’s according to Niall Duddy, a teacher at Presentation College, Galway, and subject representative with the Association of Secondary Teachers’ Ireland (ASTI). “There was no one crying coming out of the exam, I’ll put it that way.” 

On their way out of the exam hall this morning, students pointed Mr Duddy to several questions they found difficult.

“In section A of the higher level paper, they were telling me question 3C on the circle was one, in particular, that caught a few of them out. The feeling here as well was that question five was long enough for a short question. It was doable, but they felt it was just a bit long.” 

Trigonometry also appeared in this year’s paper two. “That’s in keeping with the blurring of the two lines between the two papers with material that would usually be on paper one or paper two.” 

Question nine looked more complicated than it turned out, he added. “A lot of students when they saw it thought ‘Oh my goodness, it looked desperate’ but when they actually got into the nuts and bolts of it, it actually turned out fine.” 

The consensus among students was that paper two was trickier than paper one but overall seemed to be fair. “And it was the same consensus with the ordinary level paper, it seemed to be a fair test.”

Trickier again than paper one. There were one or two that stood out, including question nine and question 10. But overall, for ordinary level it was seen as fair, nothing out of the ordinary or controversial.

The common-level science paper presented to Junior Cert students on Monday morning would have demanded careful reading, according to Mairead Glynn, the Teachers’ Union of Ireland (TUI) science representative.

“I thought overall it was pitched to quite high standards, "she told the Irish Examiner.

“I thought the English in it would be difficult for, let's say, what would traditionally be an ordinary level student because this is a common paper, taken by all students.”

“I thought that there was something in it for everyone, but a student would have to have read the questions very carefully and taken their time with it. I thought some of the chemistry questions were quite challenging.”

This included question 3d and question 13. “I thought students would have to be very careful reading it. And taking their time with that one.” 

"We are still only getting used to these papers, and what to expect [following Junior Cycle reform]. Overall, definitely, a well-prepared student who had done their revision would be able to tackle this paper but there were a few challenges in it.” 

"For most of the paper, it's not one that you could have gotten by on, without having done proper revision and study.”