LEAVING CERT MATHS ORDINARY LEVEL:IT WAS A good start. Paper one of Leaving Cert ordinary level maths did not ruffle too many feathers yesterday morning, teachers said.

“Students that I have spoken to were relieved that there were no major surprises,” said Mark Lynch of the Institute of Education.

“The general reaction was very good,” said John Brennan of the Ballinteer Institute. The algebra question was described as “lovely.” “It was probably easier than previous years,” Mr Brennan said.

Series and sequences was also, “quite nice,” according to the TUI subject representative Imelda Moloney, although other teachers thought it was a bit long.

Question one caused a slight concern. “I thought the last part was far too abstract for weaker students,” Mr Brennan said. “It was a bit of a washout in fact, which is a bad idea for a first question.”

Part (c) in a maths exam question is normally expected to be more challenging than the rest of the paper, so overall these issues did not seem to upset students.

Another slight challenge arose in question three. “There could have been more English in that question, and the last part would have been a no-no for weaker students,” said Mr Brennan. “But overall it was a very fair question.”

There were some harder sections. “The last part of question six would have challenged even the best candidates,” Mr Lynch said.

ASTI subject representative Eileen Scanlon said: “There needs to be challenging elements in the paper. If the ordinary level is too easy and there are too many A1s, students will be discouraged from trying the higher level paper.”

Indeed almost 40,000 students were expected to sit the ordinary level paper yesterday, almost four times the number who did higher level. Ordinary level maths is in fact the single biggest exam of the Leaving Cert.

Teachers are hoping that the planned introduction of the new Project Maths might go some way towards remedying this situation.

However, most students left the exam happy yesterday. Most agreed that while there were slightly difficult parts to questions, students had plenty of opportunities to avoid them.

“If students had done any work at all I think they would have been happy,” Mr Brennan said. “Ex-higher level students would have walked it.”

“It was difficult for the mathematically challenged,” Ms Scanlon added, “but overall this was a very nice and predictable paper for those who had their work done.”