Paper 'predictable' and forthright

LEAVING CERT HIGHER LEVEL ENGLISH PAPER II:HIGHER LEVEL students breathed a collective sigh of relief yesterday morning on opening a "very predictable and straightforward" second paper.

Overall the questions were "terribly accessible", according to Anne Gormley, an English teacher in Laurel Hill College, Limerick. "It gave students a great boost. They had everything prepared for that paper," Ms Gormley said.

Students welcomed an "accessible" question on character in Othello, the most popular single text. "Most students who answered that were very happy with it," said TUI subject representative Alan Thompson, a teacher in the Abbey Vocational School, Donegal.

Questions on Wuthering Heights, another popular single text, presented few surprises.

Literary genre and theme were expected to come up in the comparative study and, true to form, they did. Some complaints were raised about the phrasing of the first question on theme in the comparative study section, which Jim Lusby of the Institute of Education, Dublin, described as "appalling and circuitous".

Otherwise, there were few complaints, although the questions were seen to be quite specific in what they asked, requiring students to apply their knowledge and their abilities according to Mr Lusby.

"The questions were a bit of a challenge in the comparative study," agreed Mr Thompson.

The unseen poetry, Those Winter Sundays by Robert Hayden was a "very accessible little piece", according to Mr Lusby, while Philip Larkin, John Donne, Derek Mahon and Adrienne Rich appeared in the poetry section.

This year was the first time that Rich was on the course and she was widely predicted to appear. Larkin and Mahon had not appeared for some years, and while Donne had appeared in past years, he was not unexpected. "Every student would have anticipated at least one or two of those poets," Mr Thompson said.

The prescribed poetry question is subject to huge speculation in the lead up to the higher level exam from year to year.

The poetry course - consisting of eight poets with six poems each, 48 poems in all - is deemed too large by many teachers.

Most study six poets from the eight with their students in the hope that will suffice.

Despite the recent criticism, the new exam structure timetable was widely regarded to be a success.

"It has made a huge difference," said Ms Gormley . "The students were exhausted coming out of the exam this morning, so it was just super to divide the two papers. It gave most students a chance to look over their notes last night, which was really excellent."

"Fair, accessible and pitched at the appropriate level" was the overall verdict on the Leaving Cert English Ordinary Level Paper II.

Students have a choice of nine different texts for the single text question and for the most part, the response was good.

Those who studied How Many Miles to Babylon by Jennifer Johnston were relatively happy with the choice of questions.The Othello question presented some challenges, however.