Junior Cert Geography: ‘Similar to 2015, it shocked a few of us’

Higher level Junior Certificate Geography had few shocks, but an expected question on climate change did not appear.

Junior Cert student at Belvedere College Dublin, Charlie MacNeice, said the higher level geography paper was fair.

“Climate didn’t come up like we expected, but everything else we had studied came up - I think I did well enough to get a B or even an A,” said Charlie.

“Ocean currents, irrigation, the geography mix and the Ordnance Survey maps all came up today so that was good,” said Charlie.

“I finished with 15 minutes to spare so I had enough time to come back and go over answers. It was a very reasonable paper, and the short questions were manageable too,” he said.

Rob Cleary said he was a bit “surprised” by some of the questions that came up on the geography paper.

‘Quite similar’

“It didn’t really have a linear pattern compared to other years. It was quite similar to last year, so that kind of shocked a few of us. The biggest shock for me was the topics that came up,” he said.

“On the section on the Ordnance Survey maps they asked us three topics for tourism and we only knew two, so we had to find a way to make up another one,” said Rob.

“I did find that I was struggling for time by the end, it really went down to the wire because you have to write so much,” he added.

Belvedere student Stephen Sullivan said he was “very happy” with how the exam went.

“The paper was quite good. There was a question on organised migration which I was prepared for. The paper was a bit hard, but it should be easily marked. I think I did better than I done in the mocks,” he said.

Maths, geography and science teacher and founder of Studyclix.ie, Luke Saunders, said: “Today’s Junior Cert Geography papers didn’t throw up any surprises and would have been well received by students.

“The map question requiring students to explain three reasons why tourists would be attracted to Westport was very doable and offered a variety of potential answers.”