‘Much tougher than recent years’: Reaction to Monday’s Leaving Cert exams

* More than 100,000 students have completed day four of the State exams

* Leaving Cert: There was relief for many following a “fair and approachable” higher level maths paper 2 exam (9.30-12pm) but Irish paper 1 (2-4.20pm) was much “tougher than recent years.”

* Junior Cycle: Students had science (9.30-11.30am) and a “fair and topical” business studies exam (1.30-3.30pm)

So, that’s it for today, folks. We’ll be back here tomorrow.

If you’ve been affected by the stress of maths paper 1, we hope the State Examination Commission’s plans to take some of the criticism into account during the marking process will be of some comfort.

In the meantime, up tomorrow for Leaving Cert students is Irish paper 2 (9.30-12.35pm) and biology (2-5pm)

We have some last-minute Irish and biology tips here.

For Junior Cycle students, it’s graphics or Italian (9.30-11am) and French (1.30-3.30pm).

‘Irish was great as the listening didn’t have a Donegal accent’

Georgia Farrelly, a student at Clogher Road Community College, Drimnagh, is one of our Irish Times Leaving Cert diarists.

While the essay titles in today’s exam didn’t go in her favour, there was at least one plus: no Irish with a Donegal accent.

You can read her diary here.

‘Many will be frustrated’: Leaving Cert Irish paper 1 (higher)

Peter McGuire has filed a reaction piece to today’s Leaving Irish paper 1 at both higher at ordinary level. You can read it here:

If it was tough for students, Claire Grealy, an Irish teacher at the Institute of Education, has some reassuring words:

It is important for students to remember that they already have points earned from their oral and have a fresh exam ahead.

—  Claire Grealy

Ruff day? A visual guide to Leaving Cert maths paper one and two

Peadar MacEochaidh gives his take on the higher level maths exams...

Try these at home: Leaving Cert Irish paper one - higher and ordinary

The exam papers for Leaving Cert Irish paper one for both higher and ordinary are available now.

The higher level paper was “challenging” and “disappointing” in the eyes of some teachers, while ordinary level was “well received and very doable”.

The listening section is also availble to listen back to.

- Higher level:

- Ordinary level

‘Much tougher than previous years’: Mixed reaction to Leaving Cert Irish paper 1 (higher)

There was a mixed reaction among teachers to Leaving Cert Irish paper one (higher) which may have posed challenges for the best-prepared students.

Linda Dolan, Irish teacher at Mercy College, Sligo, said the highly anticipated essay section offered the title An Costas Maireachtála, or the cost of living.

“Although a very topical issue, students may have found this quite broad if they had prepared a piece more focused on the housing crisis,” she said Dolan, a Studyclix expert.

“Students might have also struggled with the term ‘éagóir’ or ‘injustice’ in the fourth option. The title ‘Fadhb na nDrugaí', I would suspect, was the hot favourite. ‘Misneach” appeared in the scéal section, a term students may have been familiar with because of President Higgins’ famous Bernese Mountain Dog,” she said.

“The díospóireacht (debate) question was based on the Irish language and charities. Students would have needed to have been well prepared for those. Overall, this paper may have proved challenging for some students today.”

Clare Grealy, an Irish teacher with the Institute of Education, said the paper challenged students.

“This was a much tougher paper than previous years, not just in terms of its topics but also in how questions were phrased. For example, many would have read the question on ‘things that affect the health of the person’, seen the word ‘health’ and possibly started a discussion on the health service,” she said.

“In other cases, the vocabulary chosen in the question was potentially likely to drive students away from question they were well prepared for. Many students would have prepared material on homelessness or racism. Only if you knew the term ‘éagóir’ meant ‘injustice’ would you understand.”

While some prompts were obscured by language choices, she said others were “too niche” for students to feel confident in the intense setting of the exam hall.

Frustrated

Knowing how to discuss something in English is very different to having those tools in Irish and thus many will be frustrated,” she said.

—  Claire Grealy

“How one goes about approaching ‘Irish in the Digital Age’ is something that would perturb teachers, never mind students. Other topics were certainly more immediately culturally relevant (cost of living). One must wonder how much a 17 or 18-year old would have explored this element through Irish. Knowing how to discuss something in English is very different to having those tools in Irish and thus many will be frustrated,” she said.

While there were eight compositional choices, she said the vast majority of students will most likely have narrowed it down to only two options: drugs, and famous people.

“Even at that, one must wonder how many students had prepared discussions of individuals – Michael D. Higgins, Elon Musk, etc – in the lead up to the exam,” she said.

“It is important for students to remember that they already have points earned from their oral and have a fresh exam ahead. Hopefully the studied material of paper 2 has less of opportunity for this paper’s misguided creativity.”

Máire Ní Cheallaigh, also an Irish teacher at the Institute, said the listening test was “broadly accessible”, though it did contain a few tricky moments for the students.

“However, thankfully students had the opportunity to reuse some of the vocabulary prepared for the Sraith Pictuir. This was a useful overlap that would have helped them navigate the piece,” she said.

“ The phrasing of several questions was familiar enough that those who had seen last year’s paper will be familiar with “aidhm” (aim) and “deis” (opportunity) in the questions’ demands.”

Ordinary level

Linda Dolan, meanwhile, said the ordinary level Irish paper 1 was “well received and very doable”.

“Students would have been content with the topics that were offered as they allowed them the opportunity to showcase the vocabulary they have learned in both junior and senior cycle,” she said.

“The titles for the scéal were also very doable and left open for interpretation. Without a doubt, there was something for everyone today on the ordinary level paper.”

Junior Cycle business: ‘A fair paper that provided scope for students to apply their knowledge’

While all the focus has been on the Leaving Cert, the Junior Cycle continues.

Students who sat business studies had a “fair” paper which challenged them to apply their knowledge to real life situations.

Ruairi Farrell, a business studies teacher at Greystones Community College in Wicklow and TUI representative, said topics issues such as Ireland’s 50th anniversary of EU membership and rising prices felt by all families in Ireland today were examined.

“Students were also given the opportunity to come up with creative solutions to contemporary issues such as what to do with a national budget surplus – who knows maybe the Minister for Finance would take the advice of our Junior Cycle students on board?”

There were plenty of financial calculations on the paper which examined both the economic and accounting aspects of the course.

“This may, however, have presented challenges for some students in a common level paper. Students could nevertheless relate to these challenging questions as the context was very relevant to the lives of young people focusing on areas such as part-time work, volunteering with local sporting organisations and demand for the new Apple iPhone 14,” he said.

“All in all, students at Greystones Community College described it as a fair paper that provided scope for them to apply their business knowledge”.

Complaints over ‘unfair’ maths paper one exam will be considered during marking – State Examinations Commission

The State Examinations Commission (SEC) says “commentary and correspondence” from students, parents and teachers over the higher-level Leaving Cert maths exam on Friday will be considered during the marking process.

While Monday’s maths paper two exam was generally well-received, the SEC said feedback from the paper will be brought to the attention of the chief examiner and will be considered in the “refinement of the draft marking scheme”.

This draft marking scheme sets out the weighting of marks attached to individual questions.

The SEC added that there will be no “cliff edge” or automatic return to lower pre-pandemic grade profiles for Leaving Cert results this year, in line with a pledge from Minister for Education Norma Foley.

Last year, for example, a similar move led to grades, on average, being artificially increased by 5.6 per cent on average to match the previous year’s grades.

‘I saw so many other girls leaving the exam hall in tears’

The fallout from Friday’s Leaving Cert higher level maths paper 2 exam continues.

RTÉ's Liveline dedicated its entire programme to a “deluge” and “avalanche” of calls and messages from parents and students upset at the exam.

Roisin Farrelly, a Leaving Cert student from Ennis, said: “It was an awful shock ... There was a huge discrepancy in difficulty compared to last year’s paper ... I saw so many other girls leaving the exam hall in tears. There was trauma on their faces.”

Michael Hughes, a Leaving Cert student, said: “I opened up that paper ... it was complete panic stations. I was in shock, I had to water my face ... instead of numbers, there was letter. One question had emojis in it. It was a mess ... there were stories of people vomiting in the toilet.”

Noelle, a parent of Leaving Cert candidate from Mullingar said: “She and others came out not knowing if she passed paper one ... They’re worried. We have a saying, ‘chuck it in the bucket’. They couldn’t do that. They were in shock ... we heard of students who just walked out.”

Another parent said the volume of students upset in one girls’ school was especially troubling: “The exam invigilator was handing out tissues to girls because so many were crying.”

One father said his son was “devastated”: “He’s well capable, and he said it was just bizarre”.

Pearse Ryan, a maths teacher in Limerick, said many upset students were worried that they might have to repeat their exams.

An anonymous examiner and parent, meanwhile, said that while the marking schemes will be adjusted, this year’s students are particularly disadvantaged due to their lack of exam experience and the level of upset caused.

‘A fair paper, with some tricky bits’

Louise Boylan, a maths teacher with the Institute of Education, says Leaving Cert maths paper 2 was much closer to what students are familiar with.

“A fair paper, with some tricky bits, as you’d often expect, but there was surely plenty in there which students would have go to grips with,” she says.

More broadly, she has some good advice for all students: “It’s done – now on to the next day.”

Students reaction to maths paper two vs maths paper one: ‘It was like night and day’

Peter McGuire has filed a detailed teacher reaction piece here.

Niall Duddy, ASTI subject representative and a teacher at Presentation College, Athenry, said student reaction between papers one and two was like “night and day.”

“Students were so much more satisfied coming out of the exam today, although the trend of mixing topics across the two papers continued, with calculus appearing in part of question seven, which was mostly trigonometry,” Mr Duddy said.

Teacher reaction: ‘Students will certainly feel a weight lifted off their shoulders’

After a rocky start for many with paper 1, today’s maths paper 2 was a “fair, doable and well-set exam” which gave students lots of opportunity to showcase their knowledge, according to Stephen Begley, Studyclix expert and maths teacher at Dundalk Grammar School, Louth.

Louise Boylan, a maths teacher with the Institute of Education, also said paper 2 was “much more in-line with what students are familiar with”.

“Many will find this a fairer paper than Friday’s paper 1, which put many students on the back foot heading into today,” she said.

“The marking over the summer will reflect the reactions to the papers, and so students will often have done better than they intuitively felt in the moment.

Overall, she said the paper covered a broad spread of material, some of which was intermingled, but a prepared student would have been able to apply the topics they studied.

Begley said the usual suspects of probability, statistics, trigonometry, co-ordinate geometry and geometry appeared in well guided and well prompted questions.

“Students will certainly feel a weight lifted off their shoulders after what was a very fair paper,” he said.

He said the short questions each spanned a single topic and were certainly generous in what they asked.

“The questions were clear, direct, and very workable. Students would have been content with these and would have certainly built up their confidence throughout the paper as they made their way on to the long questions in Section B,” he said.

Given the choice due to this year’s amendments, he said students had to complete three of the four long questions in Section B contexts and applications.

“The first was a generous trigonometry question which covered their knowledge of triangles, trigonometric functions and a little touch of calculus, a delight for any higher level student,” he said.

“Most students would have been happy to work on this approachable and ‘straight-up’ question. Next was the traditional statistics & probability style question, which for those who prepared who this topic would have been thrilled to see.”

He said question 9 – which saw a mixture of area & volume, trigonometry and the circle – was a “very approachable question”.

The area & volume and orobability question was a “very workable section” and he said students could have certainly played to their strengths given the choice offered to them.

“Those who prepared the usual paper 2 topics would have certainly been very content with the paper,” he said. “Overall, the examiner offered the students a good deal of choice in a very decent set of questions. While of course elements of challenge appeared in parts, much of the paper was encouraging, straightforward and very fair.”

‘Kinda okay’ ... “easy” ... “a breeze”

It sounds like maths paper 2 was an improvement on Friday, if social media is anything to go by.

We’ll have some expert reaction shortly.

First look: Leaving Cert maths paper 2

You can view today’s Leaving Cert maths paper 2 here.

We’ll have reaction shortly.

– Higher level:

– Ordinary level:

Fallout over Leaving Cert maths paper 1 continues

As we covered here on Friday, many students found Leaving Cert maths paper 1 exceptionally challenging and upsetting:

Others felt the paper was unfair to students and didn’t bear much reflection to previous exams ...

On foot of this, we asked the State Examinations Commission (SEC) for a comment on the process around how the exam was set.

It said the format of the exam has not changed this year:

“Other than the notified adjustments, the Leaving Certificate Higher Level Mathematics Paper 1 was of the same format, structure and style as previous Leaving Certificate Higher level Mathematics papers,” it said in a statement.

It also pointed out that commentary and correspondence will be considered when the marking scheme for the exam is finalised:

“Such correspondence is brought to the attention of the chief examiner and is considered in the refinement of the draft marking scheme. The approach taken by the SEC to the development of the final marking schemes ensures consistency in the marking and fairness to candidates. The final marking scheme will be published, as will the marking schemes in all other subjects, after the issue of the Leaving Certificate results.”

It added that the exam paper was developed through a “rigorous development process”.

“Those involved are experts in the subject who are also experienced teachers. As part of the normal paper development process, the mathematics papers were reviewed by subject experts before they were finalised in order to assess their suitability, the appropriateness of how they assess various learning outcomes as set out in the specification, the clarity of language in them and the demand they present.”