Double whammy of errors hits State exams

A double whammy of mistakes hit the State exams yesterday, with confusing errors appearing on both the Leaving Cert higher level maths and junior cert civic, social and political Education (CSPE) papers.

Students sitting maths were given inaccurate information on question 8a about a ship leaving port. However, the information appeared correctly on the Irish version of the exam. Eamonn Toland of TheMathsTutor.ie said four figures were given, while the calculation only required three. As a result, the question could not be completed accurately and two different answers may have been reached.

The State Examination Commission has acknowledged the errors. Marks may be given to students who attempted the question, or to those who gave one of the two possible answers, said sources.

Regarding the Junior Cert error, the Referendum Commission has described as "inaccurate" a definition of its role that appeared on yesterday's civic, social and political education exam.

A question said the commission’s job involved “presenting both sides of a proposed change to the Constitution so that the people of Ireland make informed decisions when voting”.

This role was discontinued as part of the Referendum Act of 2001 and its role is now to provide a general explanation of the proposal, ensure access to information and promote awareness of the referendum.

Referendum Commission spokeswoman Jacqueline Moore said it was “an inaccurate statement on the role of the Referendum Commission”.

Teachers said that the mistake would have no bearing on the students’ ability to answer the questions that followed. A statement from the State Examination Commission confirmed the error.

Meanwhile, the first full paper of the contentious Leaving Cert Project Maths syllabus, which focuses on real world maths applications, has received a broadly positive response.

Elaine Devlin, the ASTI subject representative for maths, said the State Examination Commission appeared to have learned from last year’s poorly received maths papers, and this year’s higher and ordinary papers were more accessible.

Aidan Roantree, a senior maths tutor at the Institute of Education, said most questions at higher level will have been familiar from previous sample papers.

He suggested the exam would have been welcomed by the vast majority of students. Ms Devlin said most of the questions were fair and approachable, although she and other teachers said question 9, about a shape called an arbelos, was particularly challenging.

Mr Toland of TheMathsTutor.ie had a different perspective. “Overall, the higher level paper was quite challenging, with questions written in a style that will demand a high level of understanding and interpretative skill,” he said.

“The section on contexts and applications seemed quite tricky. There was a difficult question on hypothesis testing and the second geometry question was not easy.”

The ordinary level exam also elicited a positive response. Jean Kelly, a maths teacher at the Institute of Education, said it was “an accessible and straightforward paper that will have dispelled the fears of Project Maths for ordinary level students”.

Ms Devlin said the layout of the exam should be improved next year, as students were not provided with adequate space for calculations in parts of question 7.