No one gets lost in testing papers

Bogs, earthquakes, volcanoes, rocks, pollution and mixed farming. All of human life was there - in yesterday's Junior Cert geography exam.

Students found the papers testing but fair, said the educational pundits. Ms Joan Vaughan, a geography teacher at CBS Youghal, Co Cork, said the ordinary level had a "good mix of questions.

"While it would not be considered a simple paper it was fair and pupils should have been able to answer it with confidence."

As to the higher level, she said the paper was straightforward and many of the questions had appeared in previous exam papers.

A question which featured a map of Dublin city centre was "perhaps the only section I could quibble with", she said. "Dublin children would be very familiar with this region and hence find it easier to identify the different commercial activities of the area."

Another geography teacher, Ms Deirdre Cadden, did not agree with this view. "They have to be able to give proper grid references. There may have been a slight edge, but everybody's turn comes around."

Mr Billy Fitzpatrick, education officer with the TUI and a former geography teacher, said it was regrettable that there was just one question on the ordinary-level paper combining the Ordnance-Survey question with the aerial photo one. On the higher-level paper these two topics were treated as separate questions. Mr George Smith of Banagher Community College in Co Offaly, who is the TUI's subject representative, also regretted this development. Ms Cadden, of St Mac Dara's Community College - a committee member of the Geography Teachers Association - said that the higher-level exam was "very manageable and most students found the short questions easy". At the end of the day, "most students were happy enough with it", she said. As for the ordinary level, "we felt it was a bit more challenging, especially question 1 in relation to soil." Mr Smith also said the ordinary-level questions were nicely put and the paper was good overall. On the higher-level paper, he said the folder section was "challenging", in particular questions 4, 8 and 12. In the other section, the questions on the map were "more focussed than last year" and "fine".

He felt that the language was "a bit vague" in one or two places but compared to last year, the paper was better and it had improved.

This year's Junior Certificate exam - at both ordinary and higher level - in environmental and social studies would be welcomed by teachers, said Ms AnnMarie Gorman, a teacher at Killinarden Community College, Tallaght, Co Dublin. The ordinary level "was a vast improvement on last year," she said. "All the comments and suggestions from teachers were listened to - the paper was very well laid out, the short questions covered a wide range in both history and geography, there's a nice spread." The illustrations were improved too, she added. The drawings are of "a good, clear quality and there's a very good bar chart" and "the questions related very clearly to the bar chart". The paper was more accessible than expected, she said. She praised the question about the first World War, in which students were asked for a short account of trench warfare and given four hints to help them with this. "I was delighted to see that. It guided the students." It was a pity, she said, that the previous question on the Industrial Revolution did not have the same kind of hints. "Overall the ordinary-level paper was far more accessible than last year," she said. The higher level was also "clearly an improvement on last year's", she said.