Edgy topics for interesting but 'long and tiring' paper

School's out: students celebrate end of exams:CHEATING IN exams, drinking in the street and graffiti were just some of the edgy topics that came up in yesterday's higher level Spanish Leaving Cert paper.

Students enjoyed an “interesting” paper, but some complained that it was “long and tiring”.

At 3,367 candidates, Spanish is still a minority subject but uptake is rising rapidly and the numbers have almost doubled in five years.

“In general, this exam was well-received,” said ASTI subject convenor for Spanish Maire Ní Ciarbha. “It was difficult in parts but the students felt there was scope to do well.”

There was a comprehension on a Spanish slang word “chuleta”, meaning cog note, and an examinations of the recent phenomenon of groups of young Spanish people drinking in the street.

“This was an interesting comprehension topic but the questions were very demanding,” said Ms Ní Ciarbha.

About one in three students took yesterday’s Spanish paper at ordinary level and the paper was described as “very challenging”.

The common listening comprehension featured Enrique Iglesias and Rafael Nadal.

There was a mixed reaction to yesterday’s Junior Certificate Spanish papers. “Some of the comprehensions were quite difficult, especially a passage about Madrid Zoo,” said one teacher.

Five thousand students took yesterday’s Spanish papers at higher and ordinary levels. The listening comprehension was described as “very wide-ranging”.

The subject is doing well, according to Ms Ni Ciarbha.

“The numbers are still rising, while German is way down. In schools where there is a choice between French and Spanish, students are increasingly choosing Spanish.”