THE CHEMISTRY papers were wide ranging and designed to reward students who had studied the entire course, according to teachers.For instance, at higher level, the main topic of question 9 was equilibrium, but students also needed a knowledge of contact processes, Mr Terence White, TUI subject representative, said.
The big surprise was question 2, which is usually referred to as "the tit ration question". Mr White, who teaches in St Paul's Community College, Waterford, said it was a back titration which dealt with the estimation of ammonia in fertiliser. This has not been asked since 1985, the first examination of the present syllabus, he said. However, students who had studied the section on nitrogen should have been okay.
Question 1, the shortanswer question, was typical, though sections (g) and (h) were sticky. "Overall, my higherlevel students were pleased. They particularly liked the organic chemistry questions and the thermochemistry," Mr White said.
Ms Mary Dowling Maher, ASTI subject representative, said that both papers were "fair but long to read. Practical work was well rewarded. In the case of the higherlevel paper, the student who liked organic chemistry would have done well."
Mr Ted Forde, a teacher in Ringsend Technical Institute, Dublin, also said students found the higherlevel paper time consuming. They were reasonably happy with the shortanswer question, but many of the longanswer questions had two topics, he added. This meant some students had difficulties completing them.
At ordinary level, Ms Dowling Maher said the layout was clear, with plenty of charts. Question 1(c) was a little challenging, while question 2 was somewhat difficult. Some students may have been thrown by question 4, which asked them to label the X and Y axis, she said. In regard to question 10(a) (i) and (ii), she expressed the hope that simple and basic answers would suffice.
Mr White said the ordinary level paper was slightly easier than last year. Questions 5(c) and 10(c) both asked students to balance an equation. "I have no problem with this, but in both cases the remainder of the question depended upon the balancing been done correctly. This seems a little unfair at ordinary level."
The paper also seem to contain several errors, only one of which was corrected, Mr White added. In question 2(a) the required concentration was unclear, while there seemed to be a more serious error in question 6(c), where the letters used to designate compounds appeared to have been transposed. A Department of Education spokesman said that if errors were present students would not be disadvantaged.