'Very difficult' paper challenged even best students

LEAVING CERT IRISH:HIGHER LEVEL Irish students endured a testing afternoon with a "very difficult" paper that challenged even the best students.

“The essays were not the best,” said ASTI subject representative Robbie Cronin, a teacher in the Marian College Ballsbridge. Titles such as, What is in store for Ireland as a Member of the EU, and Decline is in store for the Irish Gaeltachts, may have thrown some students.

TUI subject representative Ruth Morrissey agreed with Mr Cronin’s verdict on some of the titles. “I thought a lot of the titles were very restrictive,” she said.

“Students may not have known enough about the EU in order to write an essay about Ireland’s future.” Morrissey’s students favoured a title about people in the public eye. “That was a better title,” she said. “A lot of them wrote about politicians or Tiger Woods or Michael Jackson.”

There was no let up for students in the first comprehension piece. The extract – which dealt with a retired teacher’s experience of the Camino de Santiago de Compostela – was described as, “unfairly difficult,” by Cronin.

“The passage contained a lot of historical and literary references,” Ms Morrissey said. “The vocabulary was challenging as well.”

Unfortunately no glossary of terms was provided, something which Mr Cronin described as “a great shame”. Students reacted more favourably to the second comprehension piece which was much more accessible according to Ms Morrissey. The piece, which dealt with Senator Ted Kennedy who died last year, still challenged students, however. “Question five, a comaoin mhillteanach, meaning big favour, would have caused a problem,” Cronin said. “Even for me the word comaoin wouldn’t be used a lot.” The lack of a glossary was again criticised.

The paper was more difficult than in previous years, but students who kept a cool head and managed to read the questions thoroughly probably did quite well, according to Ms Morrissey.

The fact that a glossary of terms was not provided in any of the comprehension pieces was, “very unfair,” Mr Cronin said.

Almost 46,000 students sit the Irish exam at Leaving Cert level. Most of these, just over 27,000, opt for the ordinary-level exam. Those students emerged somewhat happier from the exam,although their paper was not without its difficulties.

The essay titles were much better than the ones the higher level student had to face, Mr Cronin said. “ ‘The Magic of Music’, ‘A famous Person I like’ and ‘My favourite Place in Ireland’ were all fine,” he said. The letter, however, might have thrown students banking on that option.

“It was more demanding than other years because not only did they have to describe the work and life in the hotel but, unusually, they had to suggest to their friend to apply for a job there. This would have thrown them,” he added.

The questions in the first comprehension were criticised for being difficult for ordinary level students. “Question five asked students, ‘What do we have to do in the future?’” Mr Cronin said. “The answer to that is ‘We have to repair water pipes, we have to store rainwater in barrels and use it for washing and the toilet’. Is this an appropriate standard for ordinary level?”