THERE were deep and meaningful thoughts about parallelograms, spheres, triangles, vertical poles and obtuse angles at exam centres yesterday as Junior Cert students worked out their solutions to questions on paper II in maths.
A lot of students dread geometry but "this year paper II of the higher level was a pleasant surprise to find themselves in the position of being able to complete all the questions", said Ms Christina Conroy, a maths teacher at Donahies Community School in Dublin. "It was easier than expected," she said. The ordinary level was "a predictable paper presenting a reasonable challenge to all students", she said.
There were "no surprises" in either of the maths papers, according to Mr Gerard Nugent, a teacher at CBS Secondary School, in Youghal, Co Cork. In the ordinary level paper, students said That all the questions were "okay". Part IX of question one was "a bit difficult but it's still on the course", he said. A question about fitting a number of spheres into a box was also "a little bit more difficult than usual" but, he pointed out, there were plenty of examples of this kind of problem on past papers.
Both theorem questions were "fine", but the last part of question six may have caused "a little bit of concern but overall "it was a very fair paper".
On the higher level paper, Mr Nugent said that students found that "paper II was easier than paper I" the day before. "The students were pleased with the questions on theorems." Overall "it was a very reasonable paper," he said. The trigonometry was "grand" although one section was "a bit tricky but they can expect that on the honours paper... I didn't find anything unusual in it."
It was obvious that "plenty of time" had been given to the papers at both levels and that all the questions were "very carefully weighted and thought out", he said.
Mr Sean O'Brien, a maths teacher at CBS Secondary School, the Green, Tralee, Co Kerry, and the maths convenor with the ASTI, said that students "were happy" yesterday with their maths papers.
As to the ordinary level paper, he said the paper "was more difficult than last year with more testing end parts", but he added "there was enough in it for most students to achieve a reasonable grade".
On the higher level paper, the trigonometry questions were "long and slightly more testing that the others". The paper "did not have the tricky parts that were there last year".