Exam topics leave no room for complaint

LEAVING CERT ORDINARY LEVEL IRISH PAPER 1:NEW YORK-born comedian Des Bishop made his second "appearance" in the Leaving Certificate programme this year, as teachers and students noted that a profile of Bishop on yesterday's ordinary level Irish paper "was very similar" to a comprehension on the mock exams set for Dublin in February.

“There was an 80 per cent overlap between the two texts and the questions were very similar to those that featured on the Dublin Exam Board mock paper,” said teacher Robbie Cronin.

Bishop is running a high-profile campaign for the learning of Irish since his successful television series, In the Name of the Fada, saw him taking up the language for the first time in 2007.

Yesterday’s ordinary level paper 1 featured composition pieces on part-time jobs, a conversation about the social networking site Bebo and a short story about finding an unidentified box on a beach.

Students were also offered straightforward essay themes on summer and their favourite days.

The comprehension section also featured a profile of broadcaster Carrie Crowley.

“No students could complain about the choice of compositions and the topics covered on this paper,” said Mr Cronin.

However, he suggested that students who did not take the Dublin mock exam may raise the issue of including Bishop in the comprehension section a second time.

“Overall this was a very student-friendly and reassuring paper,” said Claire Grealy of the Institute of Education in Dublin.

“Question 1 was very easily understood, with most titles leading to the past tense, which candidates would have been most comfortable with,” Ms Grealy added. “The vocabulary used throughout the paper was very straightforward.”

Other teachers complimented the layout of the paper and the topicality of the questions.

“The reaction from candidates was very favourable,” said Ms Grealy.

“I thought that all of today’s Irish papers were excellent,” Mr Cronin agreed.

Of the 52,143 students expected to sit the Leaving Certificate this year, more than 46,000 take Irish.

Two out of three students took the ordinary level paper.

More than 3,000 students took yesterday’s paper at foundation level, which was described as “fine” and “predictable”.