Aural exam spins into CD era with mixed reactions

Leaving Certificate Irish: Google, September 11th, the Olympics and road accidents were among the topics students were asked to discuss in paper one of the Leaving Cert Irish exam yesterday.

This year also saw CDs used for the first time in the aural exam. While this led to an improvement in the quality of the recording, some students reported difficulties with the speed of the aural section.

At higher level, there was a mixed reaction to the written paper. According to Yvonne O'Toole of Holy Faith Secondary School in Clontarf , Dublin, and the skoool.ie representative for Irish, there was a good choice of topics.

These included drugs and sport, education, and refugees, all of which were topics most students would have prepared for.

However, students needed to read the questions carefully, she warned, as it was not always obvious that these topics were what was being examined. Another concern was the size of the font used in the comprehensions pieces.

"I would probably say the range of essays was a little bit broader this year," Ms O'Toole said. "But students would have had to look very carefully. I met students who read it and didn't realise the topics were there."

The first comprehension piece on the Statue of Liberty and September 11th was also more difficult than the second piece on the founders of google, she added.

ASTI subject representative Robbie Cronin, a teacher at Marian College in Dublin, also said his students were in general happy with the exam.

"It went very well, much better than last year. The topics were excellent," he said. "I haven't had a chance to listen to the aural exam, but students have said it was much easier than in their mocks."

But Claire Grealy, a teacher at the Institute of Education in Dublin, criticised the choice of topics on the paper.

In particular, she felt one topic in the essay section - asking students to write a letter to the editor of a newspaper in response to an article from a local politician criticising refugees - was a little "out of step politically.

"What I did notice is that the higher-level paper was a little bit outdated," she said. "It was an okay paper. It was testing enough, but it could have been better. A few more ideas could have come into it."

Several students had also complained about the speed of the aural section, Ms Grealy added. Others reported that the CD had skipped.

But at ordinary level the paper was "absolutely grand", Ms Grealy said. Last year the majority of Leaving Cert students - some 29,000 - opted to take the ordinary-level exam.

All of the comprehension pieces were "doable", she said, and students felt there was a good selection of essays.

"I don't think any student would have a problem with it."

Ms O'Toole also expressed her satisfaction with the ordinary-level paper.

"All of the students that I met were very happy ... The range was certainly there."