Could you pass English Paper 1? 'Lovely' variety in Leaving Cert exam; Junior Cycle test 'babyish'
Leaving certificate students filling in their exam number on the answer booklet before receiving their first exam paper at Douglas Community School, Cork. Picture: Denis Minihane.
Leaving Cert English was first out of the traps with "lovely" variety and approachable essays while "babyish" Buzz Lightyear material may be a black mark on an otherwise "candidate friendly" Junior Cycle paper.
The first day of the 2023 State exams got off to a start this Wednesday morning, with Leaving Cert English Paper 1 and Junior Cycle English.
The Leaving Cert higher-level English Paper 1 examines comprehension and composing, giving students the choice of three texts as well as seven essay prompts.
The first text involved an extract from , a novel by Tanzanian-born British author Abdulrazak Gurnah, who won the Nobel Prize winner for literature in 2021.
A second text included an extract of edited text by author Henry Eliot entitled as well as an iconic photograph, taken in 1907 by Alfred Stieglitz, which shows people boarding a ship, migrating for work.
Text three included two edited articles on the subject of Artificial Intelligence (AI).
Teachers’ Union of Ireland (TUI) subject representative Nessa O’Meara said students she had spoken to after the exam thought it was a "lovely paper".
“They were delighted with the different choices of Question Bs [on the comprehension texts], the personal letter in particular.”
They also found the essay prompts, which included a short story, a feature article and a motion for an international debating competition, “extremely approachable”, she added.
“Overall and all around, it was ‘grand’ is what I was told. That’s all you can hope for, not one of them now had any complaints, they were all extremely happy with it. First out of the traps anyway, they all seem happy.”
Texts that appeared on the Leaving Cert ordinary-level Paper 1 included an extract from an article by Liam Mackey which originally appeared in the , in which Irish international soccer player, Denise O’Sullivan reflects on her life and career.
It also included a speech delivered by Booker Prize winning author George Saunders to a group of students graduating from Syracuse University, and an article from the The Smithsonian in which the author discusses the mysterious graffiti artist, Banksy.
Ms O’Meara said: “Any of the students I talked to today who sat the Ordinary Level were also happy.”
“They also had great choice with 'Question Bs' as well; They had a radio interview as well as a personal letter which they were delighted about.”
Overall, Junior Cycle higher level English was a very “candidate friendly” paper, according to Association of Secondary Teachers Ireland (ASTI) subject representative Kate Barry.
The teacher in Loreto Secondary School in Fermoy told the : “There wasn’t really any nasty surprises on it.”
Question 7, which asked students to write about the art of good storytelling, discussing at least three aspects of it seen in either the prescribed Shakespearean play or one of the novels they studied may have been challenging, Ms Barry said.
“They mightn’t necessarily have looked at it through those lenses. Good candidates would be able to take what they know about characters, and themes and how the play is written and would have been able to answer okay. Maybe for some of the weaker candidates, they might have found that a bit challenging.”
Ms Barry also pointed to the first page of the exam paper, which featured a series of Tweets inspired by tips from a Pixar screenwriter.
The series of five tweets were sampled from a Twitter profile calling itself ‘Buzz Lightyear’ that shared the same picture as the famous Pixar character.
"That’s inappropriate for the cohort,” Ms Barry said.
“They are 15, 16, coming to the end of compulsory education. They are heading into their Senior Cycle, and it's about Pixar and Buzz Lightyear? That’s very babyish.”
“It’s more, I would think, appropriate to the middle classes like third and fourth class in primary school. That’s a perennial problem with [the exam paper], that the stimulus material that students are given is on the whole quite babyish. I would say the unseen poem by Roger McGough this year was much more appropriate for the level of candidate.”
Overall, the Junior Cycle ordinary level paper was “very fair”, she added.
“It sampled across the subject domain. They got to use poetry, their novel and something about their film. Overall, it was very fair and quite well pitched to candidates at that level, they would be fine.”
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