'Fair and approachable' English paper 2 features Irish women poets
Co Cork native Victoria Kennefick was featured on English paper 2 today. Picture: Alison Miles/OSM Photo
Many students around the country would have been rejoicing at the selection of poets who appeared on today's Leaving Cert English paper 2, which also featured the work of an upcoming Cork poet.
The State exams continued for their second day, with Junior Cycle geography and English paper 2 in the afternoon.
Irish poet Paula Meehan made her first appearance since being added to the list of prescribed poets.
The 2023 unseen poem was by Victoria Kennefick, a native of Shanagarry, Co Cork, now living in Co Kerry.
“The first thing I looked at on the paper, as I suppose everyone in the country did, was the poets,” said Nessa O’Meara, subject representative with the Teachers’ Union of Ireland (TUI).
Adjustments to English paper 2 this year saw students given the choice of answering questions on five poets on the paper, rather than four.
“I think the whole country was hoping to see [Elizabeth] Bishop or Paula Meehan because it was her first time to be prescribed," said Ms O'Meara.
“I would say there are a lot of students across the country who were delighted to see her name on the paper. That was the big one, I think.
Other poets that appeared on the 2023 paper included Derek Mahon and Patrick Kavanagh.
English paper 2 examines students on their studied texts; A single text, as well as three prescribed comparative texts.
Students may have found the first question on Shakespeare’s “quite challenging” but the second question, focused on Lady Macbeth and the witches, would have appealed to any student who had studied gender in the play, Ms O’Meara said.
“Overall, it was another fair paper.” The ordinary level paper was also “very straight to the point,” she said.
“The language was very approachable for a Macbeth question; there was a little bit about production but also about characters, so they had a bit of choice.”
Kate Barry, subject representative with the Association of Secondary Teachers' Ireland (ASTI) said the questions this year on Macbeth were more nuanced than in recent years.
The Scottish play last appeared four years ago. "The question they asked four years ago was really nasty and challenging," she said.
"There's still nuance there so there's enough to determine between the more able candidates and the weaker candidates but they are not trying to catch people out in the way maybe that they were in other years by making the questions too complicated."
There's been some commentary in recent days about how "cruel" the Leaving Certificate is, Ms Barry said.
"This paper refutes this. It was very fair, with nothing scary, despite the appearance of the [Macbeth] witches, while at the same time challenging candidates to think critically and show evidence of in-depth engagement with literature."
Meanwhile, the new Junior Cycle common-level geography syllabus was also examined for the second time.
The paper included a good mix of questions, according to Thomas Cahill, subject spokesperson with the TUI.
The 2023 paper did a good job of using OS map skills, he added. The map was Dungarvan and used in several different questions.
One “bug-bear” with the new paper was that once again it included no marks on the questions, Mr Cahill said.
“They did the same last year. I don’t know why they do it. I think the line last year was that students should use the space provided [in the exam material] as a guideline.
"You can’t say that one student writes the same way as another student — it's not how it works," he said.
“I think if you have a student in there trying to manage their time and they’ve come to the last hour, maybe they took a bit too long and they have two questions left, one might be worth 20 marks and the other 40. It was a bug bear for me last year and it’s the same again this year.”
A common-level paper comes with its own challenges, he believes.
“But I thought overall it was a good paper for students looking to pass the test. There was enough there that they could get a pass but also if you were looking for your distinction, there was enough there that you could get your distinction.”
“More so than last year, it was a bit more accessible.”
ASTI geography spokesperson Edmond Hussey said he also believed the paper was “fairly accessible” for common level.
While a wide variety of learning outcomes were examined, surprisingly only one climate-change question appeared and nothing on globalisation, he noted.
With 10 questions to answer and 25 pages to be examined, it can be challenging for the student at this level to get the resilience to keep ploughing through, he said.
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