Maths Paper 1 'no walk in the park' as weary students look forward to weekend

Pictured outside the Loretto on Stephen's Green today are (l to r) Blanaid Killeen, Roland Harvey Haugh, and Cassie Brady who have just completed Maths paper 1. Picture: Leah Farrell / RollingNews.ie

Students exiting the 2023 Leaving Cert higher level maths exam will be feeling pretty tired this evening, teachers believe, following a ‘Jekyll and Hyde’ style exam that was far from a cake walk.

The 2023 State exams continued this Friday afternoon with both Leaving Cert and Junior Cycle maths exams taking place.

The higher level Leaving Cert exam tested students on topics like algebra, functions, logs, complex numbers, differentiation and integration, as well as calculus, financial maths, functions and sequences and series.

Some topics usually unpopular with students appeared on the Leaving Cert higher level exam, according to Brendan O’Sullivan, maths spokesperson with the Teachers’ Union of Ireland (TUI).

“Functions, logs, limits; They wouldn't be popular with them now. They didn’t hit them with them directly but as the exam progressed through questions, they would have caused them difficulty.” 

Students would have been very busy throughout the paper, he added.

An intense exam

"There was a lot of working things out. I would be very anxious to see students being rewarded for any efforts that they made.” 

The higher-level paper needed a lot of “higher-order thinking”, he added.

“I’d say they’d be pretty tired after it now. It was an intense exam; it wasn’t a cake walk.

“It wasn’t straightforward, no but the kids would have the work done and will be rewarded for what they put into it.

“I’m sure they kept going the whole way through and that will be rewarded in the marking scheme.” 

The first question on the higher-level paper was the nicest one, Mr. O'Sullivan said.

“It was more standard stuff. After that, the nasty stuff starts creeping into the questions. All the questions start off ok, to give them a chance, but then they bring in stuff to really challenge them.” 

The ordinary level paper was quite number heavy, he believed.

“Students were kept working. There were a few twists in the questions as well from what they would have been used to. It wouldn’t have been a straightforward walk in the park either, they would have had to show their mettle.

“Again, I think they would have gotten through it alright and there were topics there that they would recognise.”

'It was a Jekyll and Hyde paper'

Niall Duddy, maths spokesperson with the Association of Secondary Teachers Ireland (ASTI), said students he spoke to after the exam were glad to have had choices.

“Certainly at higher-level, where the big problems were in the first half of the paper.” 

A question on logs caused “their usual mayhem”, he added.

“It’s a tale as old as time, when there are logs on the paper they always seem to catch students unawares and this year is no different.

“It was a Jekyll and Hyde paper; Section A caused trouble, section B they loved, question 8, in particular, was very well received.”

A number of students reported feeling tired after the exam. 

“They are glad to have the weekend.” 

Students seemed happy enough with the ordinary-level paper.

“The general consensus with my own students was that they were happy enough with it and happy it was over.” 

However, a recent trend could be seen again this year, where ‘traditional’ Paper 2 topics appear on Paper 1.

Area, volume and probability appeared on the higher level Paper 1, and area and volume also appeared on the ordinary level paper.

“You can’t just dump the Paper 1 books over the weekend, you have to keep the whole thing revised,” Mr Duddy said.

Doctor and presenter Dr Nina Byrnes, whose son is currently sitting the Leaving Cert, commented about the stress this afternoon's exam appeared to cause some students.

"Sitting outside the school watching child after child melting into parents arms after maths," she wrote on Twitter.

"Was not popular. Not sure we are really teaching our kids anything with that stress. Son's college friends yesterday telling me college maths is easier! Something amiss."

Junior certificate

Meanwhile, the second sitting of the new Junior Cycle higher-level maths paper saw a wordy exam for higher-level students, according to Studyclix subject spokesperson Stephen Begley.

“Many questions contained multiple sentences and contexts surrounding them, with very few just ‘straight up’ maths questions.

“This would have surely swayed a few students in trying to unpack what was being asked of them.” 

The examiner pushed “to squeeze” in almost every topic on the course, with coordinate geometry, trigonometry, algebra, statistics, probability, geometry, financial maths, sets and number systems being examined, he added.

“The questions on statistics, trigonometry, co-ordinate geometry, and algebra will have surely delighted students, while geometry, financial maths and functions pushed students to really think.” 

The ordinary level paper was overall quite nice, Mr Begley said.

“It was a very fair paper overall, but indeed pushed students to really think in parts.”

“Working with graphs featured in several questions, similar to the higher-level paper, which tested students' conceptual knowledge around these.” 

The 2023 State exams continue on Monday, with Leaving Cert maths Paper 2 and Irish Paper 1, and Junior Cycle science and business studies.