A very difficult and long paper for ordinary-level students was the verdict of science teachers on yesterday's Junior Certificate exam. "It was a very testing paper. Some parts are much, much too difficult for weaker students. I'd single out certain bits in section A in particular," Mr Mattie Finnerty, a science teacher at Cashel Community School, Co Tipperary and ASTI subject representative, said. He also described some sections as "unfair". "Very tough," said Ms Mary McGrath, a science teacher at Our Lady's Secondary School in Templemore, Co Tipperary, about some of the questions on the ordinary level. "I felt the ordinary level was quite hard and too long."
Fourteen pages, she added, "was an awful lot of material to get through for ordinary level, especially when you consider that some are weak at reading and writing". Teachers mentioned in particular a question on the paper yesterday which asked students to choose how long it takes a 2,000watt electric fire to use one unit of electricity - 30 minutes, one hour or two hours, where one unit equals 1,000 watts used for one hour.
This type of calculation is much too difficult for ordinary level, according to teachers contacted by The Irish Times last night. There were good bits, though. Ms McGrath said the first question in section A of the paper, which asked students to label various parts of an apparatus, was "lovely". Part (h) in the same section was "lovely". She regretted that all questions were not broken into four parts - some were split into three, and this made it difficult to know which were the more important ones.
In comparison with the ordinary level, the higher-level paper was "lovely", "beautifully laid-out" and "a nicely constructed paper", she said.
Mr Finnerty said there were some "odd or unusual questions" in section A. Overall, however, he said the paper was "grand".
He was delighted that students were asked in every question to describe the practical, experimental work they had covered during class.
"The practical work has been rewarded," he said. "We put a lot of time into preparing, organising and tidying up after." In one question, students were asked to "describe a dinner menu and explain how it would contribute to a balanced diet". The wording of this question was "not great" and "it will leave examiners open to a wide range of answers", according to Mr Finnerty.
Home-economic students, he commented, "would have a huge advantage here". Many higher-level students would have avoided a question in the chemistry section on oxidisation, whereas they "loved" the preceding question about mixtures and dilute solutions, he said.
