- Leaving Cert: geography (9.30-12 midday), maths paper one (2-4.30pm)
- Junior Cycle: history (9.30-11.30am), maths (1.30-3.30pm)
- Leaving Cert student diary: ‘I’m running on adrenaline ... Albufeira, we’re coming for you!’
- Classroom to College: our essential newsletter on the State exams
Time to recharge
Phew – that was intense. The first few days of the exams really are the hardest. The weekend, thankfully, offers the chance of some much-needed respite for everyone.
Leaving Cert students who sat maths paper one on Friday afternoon may well feel deflated. But remember: if it was hard for them, it was hard for lots of others too.
Examiners tend to mark “hard” exams easier in order to keep the same proportion of grades from year to year. It’s also know as the bell curve. So, there is every chance the marking scheme will take account of this.
Students
Why not take a deep breath – the weekend is an opportunity to recharge. It may be tempting to spend every moment revising, but rest is just as important.
Brian Mooney, our guidance counsellor, recommends a balanced approach: review upcoming exams in manageable sessions, and then step away from the books. Take a walk, get exercise, meet up with friends or watch your favourite show: it can do wonders for your focus and mood.
Parents
For parents, supporting your child can simply involve a calm presence and encouraging downtime. Try to keep the atmosphere relaxed and remind them that it’s normal to feel nervous or tired.
A favourite meal, a listening ear or a quiet space to work can make all the difference.
With balance, support and rest, your child can face the week ahead with greater energy and clarity.
Keep going – you’re doing great!
Student view: ‘It felt more like a test of endurance than a fair assessment of what we’ve learned’
Eoghan O’Leary, a maths teacher at Hamilton High School, Cork and head of maths at The Tuition Centre has been gathering reaction to maths paper one (higher level) from students.
While he said stronger students were generally able to navigate their way through it well, it posed some real challenges for weaker students. However, he said it was “not a repeat of 2023″, a reference to the notoriously difficult maths paper which sparked controversy.
These are some of his students’ responses:
Overall:
-"It felt more like a test of endurance than a fair assessment of what we’ve learned.”
-“Honestly, it left me feeling frustrated because no matter how much preparation I did, it didn’t feel like it paid off.”
Language of the paper:
-“It felt like all the questions were a bit abstract. Nothing was straightforward.”
-“Some of the questions had a bit of a funny structure and kind of tricky wording (especially that spider web question!!)”
Issues with specific topics:
-“The complex numbers question was difficult for the first and last part.”
-“That proof by induction was phrased very confusingly.”
-“Never seen that simultaneous equation before and way too many sequences and series.”
Short vs long questions:
-Short questions were disproportionately harder than the long ones.”
-“The short questions were IMPOSSIBLE but long questions were quite easy.”
-“Section A was too hard and it felt more abstract than Section B.”
Requests for fairness in marking:
-“The final sequences question—for it to be allowed in the marking scheme to figure out n using logic rather than a formula.”
“Didn’t like the question about finding the smallest value of n that contains point (4,4). Make it 5 marks plsss.”
Leaving Cert ordinary level maths paper one: ‘Students really needed to think’
Leaving Cert maths paper one at ordinary level was also challenging in parts, according to Jean Kelly, teacher at The Institute of Education.
“The core material was manageable but the students really need to read the questions carefully,” she said. “This paper had everything thrown in or at least as much of the syllabus as they could possibly fit in to just 10 questions”.
She said students would have been surprised by the sudden jumps between topics.
“A question could start in algebra in Part A, move to calculus in Part B and rates of change in part C. Many might find this lack of uniformity gave them a bit of whiplash as they had to quickly adapt to new areas of the course on the fly,” she said.
However, parts of the paper were “lovely” although students “really needed to think”.
“Questions had wordy window dressing to mask simple techniques that students would have already known. If you read carefully and pieced out the relevant material, you were flying, but you needed to know your concepts to make that call.”
“Students really did need to read the question over and over to get a sense of what they are asking. Each part of a question might have a new story element to be disentangled from central mathematics, so questions often didn’t build on each other.
As a result, some students will have found the more purely mathematical questions easier and so may have preferred the traditionally harder Part Bs to the Part As."
Overall, she said while there were lots of opportunities to get marks, it was definitely an exam that, at first glance, might have fallen outside of some students’ comfort zones.
Leaving Cert ordinary level maths paper one:
Stephen Begley, head of maths at Dundalk Grammar School and a Studyclix expert teacher, described the ordinary level paper as a “fair” but “not without challenge”.
The short questions in Section A were “quite nice” and students could play to their strengths answering any five of the six.
“Those who prepared using past papers would have benefitted from the familiarity of question styles from years gone by,” he said.
“The long questions in Section B had students answer any three of the four. The topics covered here were functions, differentiation, financial maths, number patterns, and area. Topic-wise, it followed suit with previous exams and students were well prompted and guided in parts.”
Overall, he said it was a “good start” to the ordinary level maths exams.
“All eyes will be on the paper 2 on Monday which I advise students to take a look at their statistics, trigonometry, coordinate geometry of the line and circle and probability over the weekend as these are always the main players.”
‘This was challenging for everyone’: Leaving Cert students pushed beyond comfort zone in tough maths paper one exam
Early reactions are in for higher-level maths paper one, and it’s safe to say that it’s left some students deflated.
Louise Boylan, a maths teacher at the Institute of Education, said the paper had an off-putting appearance but contained many manageable elements.
“Students likely won’t feel triumphant as they leave the exam hall, but they shouldn’t feel defeated,” she said, adding that there were many novel elements on the paper.
“While there was a lot that was out of the box – logic puzzle style questions, material that hasn’t appeared since the course’s overhaul – there was much that would be welcome.
“Algebraic skills, rates of change, differential calculus, and sequence and series would all have fallen into the familiar.”
Yet, the elements of the paper that will stand out to everyone will be the things that past papers won’t have shown them, she said.
“Within a number of questions there was something challenging. The second part of Q2, the middle of Q4 and the end of Q5 all added stings to otherwise approachable questions,” she said.
“However, if students could take a moment to breathe and look past their initial reactions, they will see that the question setter has given some helpful hints. Question four (b) told you the theorem and expression to use and five (c) bolded the font of one line to draw the student’s attention to it.”
Later in the paper, question seven’s “wall of text” will have caused some to pause, but once that was parsed, the underlying sequences and series were familiar.
“While question eight straddled a wide range of topics, question nine was neatly in line with previous work. The concluding question 10 may have more resembled an aptitude test rather than an application of learned methods,” she said.
Overall, Ms Boylan said it was a challenging paper for everyone sitting it as the question setter continues the trend of drawing from all corners of the course.
“As such there was material examined on the paper that simply wasn’t present in past exams and some students will rightly feel that they were pushed beyond their comfort zone. However, with much that will earn them marks, they shouldn’t focus solely on the negative – the marking will reflect the challenge,” she said.
First look: Leaving Cert maths paper one exams
We’ll have reaction shortly - in the meantime, these are the higher and ordinary level papers for Leaving Cert maths paper one:
Higher level:
Ordinary level:
Junior Cycle maths: mixed response as students struggle with some sections
There’s been a mixed response to the higher level Junior Cycle maths paper, with some students finding it too easy and others struggling with specific parts.
Students and teachers have noted that the paper was less wordy than in recent years, which they welcomed. Teachers and dyslexic students have repeatedly raised the wordiness of the maths paper, saying that it disadvantages them and is unnecessary.
Robert Chaney, ASTI subject representative for maths and a teacher at Presentation Secondary School in Loughboy, Co Kilkenny, said that his students were happy with the paper.
“The last part of question 16, which was about a cylinder, was probably the most difficult, but this will press the most-able students,” Mr Chaney said.
“The questions on sequences and coordinate geometry were very straightforward, with lots of guidance provided.”
On the ordinary level paper, Mr Chaney said that there was nothing problematic, although there were challenges.
“A question on the area of a vegetable patch left some wondering what was required. Some parts of the paper - particularly the section on coordinate geometry where they had to work out the slope of a line - were more testing and difficult than the higher-level paper, but otherwise no major issues,” he said.
Higher level:
Ordinary level:
‘Confusion and upset’ over delays linked to use of CDs/DVDs in some Leaving Cert Applied exams
Teachers involved in the Leaving Cert Applied programme have complained to us here in the Irish Times about technical problems in some exams which required the use of DVD and CD players.
“Lots of schools couldn’t access the files they needed to play a video because the formatting was in antiquated form,” sad one teacher, who asked not to be named. “This was despite schools setting it up exactly as requested.”
The teacher said it caused “confusion and upset” across a number of exam centres. “If this happened in the Leaving Cert exam, there would be uproar about it,” the teacher said.
The school, in this case, ultimately was able to play the relevant files with technical assistance. Several other schools also reported similar issues.
A spokesman for the State Examinations Commission (SEC) confirmed that it received “a small number of reports from centres with issues playing the DVD”.
“In some instances, these issues were resolved by switching to alternative equipment. The SEC also has contingency arrangements in place and the audio-visual file was issued in digital format to eight centres which reported technical difficulties with minimum delay,” he said.
It said it will review the complaints and it also has procedures in place to ensure that candidates affected will not be disadvantaged by the impact of any such interruption.
The spokesman said it has no reason to believe that the small number of issues reported “were anything other than local issues”, noting that the DVDs played successfully in the “vast majority of examination centres”.
Nonetheless the SEC said it is reviewing the wider use of CDs and DVDs. It says any consideration of alternatives has to take into account a range of factors including issues of scale, quality and utility - given that 100,000 CDs/DVDs are required each year - and the availability and functionality of audio-visual equipment in all schools.
‘I forget my bank card PIN most days, but I know I got 335 points’
We’ve been asking entertainers, politicians and broadcasters for their memories of sitting the Leaving Cert.
Comedian Emma Doran is the latest to share her exam highs and lows. It really is well worth reading.
Leaving Cert geography: ‘Every section contained challenges’
My colleague Peter McGuire has filed a detailed reaction piece on today’s Leaving Cert geography exam.
The consensus among teachers is that there was relief over the appearance of expected topics, although the paper had its challenging moments.
You can read his piece here.
Try this one at home:
As students re-enter the exam halls for the afternoon papers, it’s time to see what - if anything - you can dredge up from the recesses of your secondary school memory bank.
This is from this morning’s higher level Leaving Cert geography exam.
Can you tell your mantle from your crust? Your tectonic plate from your subduction zone?
Junior Cycle history: Race against time for students in ‘challenging’ exam
There are mixed views among teachers on the history exam, but most agree that the paper has turned into a very challenging race against time.
“The Junior Cycle History exam continues to pose a significant challenge for students, as they are required to answer eight questions across a vast range of topics within a strict two-hour window,” says Jamie Dockery, a history teacher at Tyndall College, Carlow and Studyclix subject expert.
“Not accounting for the time needed to pre-read the paper and reviewing answers — practices teachers actively encourage — students are left with roughly fifteen minutes per question. That’s a demanding pace, even for the most capable candidates,” he says.
This year, he said the difficulty was compounded by the “continued absence of mark allocations” on the exam paper.
“Each of the eight questions carried different marks, yet students were given no indication of this during the exam,” he says.
“This is particularly frustrating when every other subject (excepting geography) so far this summer — including English, religious education and Irish — has clearly displayed the marks for each question."
While it may be argued that when all questions must be answered, the mark breakdown is irrelevant, Dockery says that students should have the option to prioritise higher-value questions — a “basic exam strategy they are taught in every other subject”.
“Denying them this opportunity in History is both illogical and unfair,” he says. “It risks disadvantaging students in their results and may even deter some from continuing with history into senior cycle.”
In terms of the questions offered, he says this year’s exam was “challenging but fair overall”, particularly to the prepared student.
As expected, the work of the historian features throughout and remains an “must study” topic.
“It was also nice to see questions on the Plantations and the experience of women in 20th-century Ireland make their first appearance in the new format exam,” Dockery says.
“The ‘patterns of change’ question may have caused some students difficulty. Even though this was another anticipated topic, the way the question was laid out - placing emphasis on the writing of longer answers as the very last question in a long exam, will put some students under pressure, particularly weaker ones.”
Overall, however, he said there was a vast array of topics, a mixture of challenging questions and “plenty for the well-prepared student to sink their teeth into.”
Patrick Hickey, history teacher at The Tuition Centre, says the paper “required students to think on their feet”.
Question one, which usually features archaeology, instead focused on archives and the role of an archivist, setting a tone of interpretation and analysis.
“A Cold War question was expected and appeared in the form of a matching exercise,” Hickey says. “While some terms were specific, students only needed to answer eight out of twelve. A chronology question returned, this time on women’s achievements in politics. There was a wide range of sources used, including letters, paintings, and a bar chart on the number of women TDs in the Dáil.”
Questions on the Reformation and the American and French Revolutions blended factual recall with analytical thinking, he says.
“Surprisingly, there was no question on Irish history from 1911 to 1923, despite the time teachers devote to it. Question 8, the only one without source material, may prove more challenging.”
More reaction to Leaving Cert geography: ‘Overall students will be happy’
The consensus among teachers is that the geography exam gave students ample opportunity to show off their skills and knowledge.
Stephen Doyle, a geography teacher at Moyle Park College, Dublin and a Studyclix subject expert, said the part one short questions followed a similar pattern to previous years and would have provided a comfortable introduction to students.
“Like previous years, map work and skills based questions such as OS maps, aerial photographs, graphs and tables featured heavily in section 1 this year,” he said.
Leaving Cert geography, higher level, part one:
“Part two of today’s higher-level exam gave plenty of options for students. There were no surprises on this paper with reliable questions such as Human interaction with the rock cycle, landform development and surface processes all coming up in the physical geography section. A prepared student would have had no trouble answering one or even two full questions in this section.”
For regional geography again, he said, there wereno major surprises.
“What was expected to come up came up. Concept of a region was due to make an appearance on the paper and it did not disappoint,” he said.
Leaving Cert geography, higher level, part two:
Leaving Cert geography map
“This year in the economic section they covered current topics such as sustainable development, European Union policy and economic development while in the human geography section, topics such as migration and urban expansion as well as dynamics of population were examined.”
In the final section of the exam, the “option” section of the paper required students to write a longer essay style question worth 80 marks.
“Geoecology tends to be a very popular option for students. There were two questions on soils and the popular biome question was specific again this year, requiring students to discuss the felling of tropical rainforests, agricultural practices and industrial development,” he said.
“Overall students will be happy with this exam as they had ample opportunity to show off their skills and knowledge in this subject.”
Similarly, Michael Doran, geography teacher at The Institute of Education, said students will be relieved by the appearance of anticipated topics like deposition and human impact on biomes.
“Every section contained challenges that would test a student’s grasp of the full range of the course.”
Many students, he said, will have gone straight to the geoecology question on page 18 to see if “their long hours of effort will have paid off”.
“A wave of relief will also have washed across many upon seeing the appearance of human impact on biomes question there. This appearance was rightly predicted by many and will have given them a solid foundation of confidence to go forward,” he said.
“This would have set the tone for the 2hrs 50minutes of writing that lay ahead. It was not necessarily an easy paper, but prepared students will have felt able to tackle the challenges.”
State examinations body defends ‘grossly unfair’ Junior Cycle exam
You may be aware of controversy over the inclusion of a question on short stories in the Junior Cycle, which featured for the first time.
There is more criticism of the wider exam from teachers, such as Alan O’Connor, in today’s letters section of The Irish Times.
He describes it as “grossly unfair and seemed deliberately designed to trip students and teachers up.”
In a statement to The Irish Times, the State Examination Commission says it is assured that the exam was “fully within the scope of the specification and in keeping with the aims, objectives and learning outcomes for Junior Cycle English.”
You can read more here.
Leaving Cert geography: ‘A fine paper students will be pleased with’
Students are leaving leaving exam halls after today’s Leaving Cert geography exam and the mood is upbeat.
Dan Sheedy, geography teacher and principal of TheTuitionCentre.ie, says geography students “will be happy with a very fair and balanced 2025 higher-level paper”.
“In physical geography, plenty of choice was available from the challenging but frequently appearing isostatic processes to the widely predicted landform of deposition which will have pleased everyone,” Mr Sheedy said.
“Questions on human interaction with the rock cycle, folding or faulting will also have been welcomed by all students as a chance to display the fruits of their hard work in this, the section they are most likely to attempt two questions from.
In the most widely chosen option, geoecology, some students may have been disappointed not to see the characteristics of a biome, however the anticipated topic of human Interference in biomes will have been seen with relief by many if not all. Mr Sheedy said.
“Migration and the European Union were themes throughout the paper, with both regional and human geography containing questions on these topics,” he said.
“The elective sections contained no surprises for the well-prepared student with sketch maps and 30-mark questions consistent with recent years. The short question section contained the usual mixture of physical, regional, statistical analysis and map/photo questions.
“Overall, it was a fine paper that all students will be pleased with,” he said.
