Today’s Leaving Cert higher level design and communication graphics (DCG) paper had “something for everyone”.
Overall, Rob Kiernan, DCG teacher at The Institute of Education, said it was a paper that students should be pleased with.
One challenging moment came in the form of an “unorthodox” question B-1, which may have caused some candidates to wobble.
However, he said the general tone of the paper was one of familiarity, testing things that “should be in everyone’s arsenal.”
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Leaving Cert, DCG higher level, Section A
Section A
Starting into the short questions of Section A, Mr Kiernan said every student will have found omething that suited them.
“For the more artistic visualisers, A-1’s question on axonometric axes was pretty standard,” he said.
“This year the examination of axonometries was limited to the short questions as the examiner seems to return to form from previous years after last year’s surprising reappearance in the long questions for a second year in a row.”
The more mathematically minded will have been pleased with A-2’s conics question, Mr Kiernan said.
“It is rather rare to see the elliptical outline as the hyperbolic/parabolic is much more common, so some might be kicking themselves for leaving it off their revision,” he said.
A-3 on an oblique plane should have been familiar to anyone who has looked over past papers as it has been a “meat and potatoes” question since 2009, he said.
A-4 continued the trend of interpenetration of solids becoming more prevalent on the exams, and so those who had been monitoring how the papers had been progressing will be pleased.
Section B
Moving into the longer Section B questions, Mr Kiernan said students will have been thrown by a “curveball” appearance of dynamic mechanism.
“This is a topic that typically appears in Section C and is totally optional in the exam, so some teachers might not have covered this specific material recently,” he said.
Leaving Cert, DCG higher level, Sections B and C
“Students could still attempt the question as it was very fair and reminiscent of rotation, which is part of Junior Cert. transformational geometry. But this would have pushed students to really stretch into a corner of their memories that they were not anticipating, so many may simply skip this question and thus commit to doing B-2 and B-3.”
Thankfully, he said, B-2 was a “standard but all-encompassing question” on intersecting planes.
“All the key co-ordinates were given – sometimes they omit some for added challenge – and the tasks would be very familiar to those who had looked at previous questions,” he said.
B-3 was a question on perspectives which Mr Kiernan many will welcome, not least because it reaffirmed the old relationship of a short axonometric question means a long perspective question and vice versa.
“These topics are often studied in tandem and firmly under a student’s belt by the end of fifth year, so students will be happy that they are back in such familiar territory.”
However, B-3(C) will have been trickier for some depending on how they comprehended the material.
“For those who can fully conceptualise the object in their minds it will be fine, but those who stick strictly to the procedural processing of the numbers and lines on the page will struggle to see how to procure the answer,” he said.
Section C
Students only needed to attempt one question from Section C, so will have been heavily influenced by what they covered in class.
“Schools which include engineering will tend towards C-4 on dynamic mechanism and C-5 on assemblies,” he said.
“The latter is strict test of draftsmanship in which the conventions are held to a very high standard of precision, but it really suits some. For many C-2 and C-3 will be their area of choice.”
Those who had looked at trends of previous papers and anticipated this year would be the time for hyperboloid of revolution to appear will be “thrilled”.
“This takes the basics of conics from A-2 but adds the 3rd dimension for lots of more complex geometry. For those who had prepared this task, it was a nice chance to shine,” Mr Kiernan said.
“C-3 was a standard take on surface geometry using a mocha jar as an example. This overlaps with the material of B-2 and really shows the value of transferable skills.”
He said that both B-2 and C-3 looked for dihedral angles and while C-3 specified “one-piece surface development”, this was just a synonym for “true shape” in B-2.
“If this was an area of the course you had any comfort with, this was a lovely question,” he said.
Leaving Cert, DCG ordinary level, section A
Leaving Cert, DCG ordinary level, sections B and C
