Leaving Cert ends on the right note with fair exams

TO borrow a bad pun from students in the Ursuline Convent, Waterford, the Leaving Cert ended on the right note yesterday with a higher level paper which was fair but not easy and an ordinary level paper which pleased candidates and was a good test of their knowledge.

"It's the last exam and the pupils are exhausted at this stage and some have had a break of a week before this exam," said Ms Louise O'Connell, chairperson of the Post-Primary Music Teachers' Association. "We'd like to see the exam moved forward."

She said that overall both teachers and students were pleased with the higher level paper and she complimented its presentation.

Question I introduced a new style of harmony question, allowing the insertion of chord symbols and students at both levels were happy with that and the excellent choice offered, said Ms Veronica O'Sullivan ASTI, subject representative and a teacher at the Ursuline Convent. "The new questions were testing but very successful," said Ms O'Connell.

Higher level students were reasonably happy" with the melody section, said Ms O'Sullivan, although the semi-quaver rests and the 318 time of 7(i) were a little off-putting. The appearance of modern Irish composer John Buckley in the history and form section may have made 9(b) a little daunting.

Sister Anne O'Flanagan, a teacher in Mercy College, Moate, Co Westmeath, and a representative of the joint management bodies on the NCCA, complimented the layout and degree of choice of a "comprehensive"

higher level paper and remarked that the changes in the harmony question were a good follow-on from the Junior Cert. Bars 11-13 in 1(B) might have been a little difficult because of the change of key while piece 3 was technically more demanding than in previous years.

Students had the option of doing harmony or counterpoint, another welcome development, although Sister O'Flanagan noted that there was no imitative counterpoint on the higher level paper.

Both Sister O'Flanagan and Mr O'Sullivan commented that was perhaps a little obscure. Ms O'Connell noted that the print and the instruments in that extract was hard to read, a view shared by Sister O'Flanagan.

They also said they were glad the difficulties surrounding last month's LC aural exam, detailed in The Irish Times last Thursday, were being addressed by the Department.

At ordinary level, Ms O'Connell said students had a lot of work to do in the harmony question. "The history was very good," she added. "They would have been prepared for that and it was straight forward." Sister O'Flanagan said, that in section A, part 3, students, had more to do than usual but that everything else was "grand".