IT WAS appropriate that this year's Leaving Certificate should have commenced with a reference to Victor Hugo on the higher level English paper, for it was Hugo who provided what might have seemed the ideal motto for examination candidates. "If we must suffer," he wrote, "let us suffer nobly."
Yet this year's English papers received a positive reaction from teachers and will have given students a good start to the potentially demanding tests they face over the coming weeks.
Ms Fiona de Buis, a TUI subject representative and a teacher at the Vocational School, Waterville, Co Kerry, said there was no great change or problem with Paper 1 at higher level, particularly with the prose passage. "The language was very accessible for them and that's a good thing because they don't feel threatened and uptight about it."
Ms Sheila Parsons, an ASTI subject representative and a teacher at Holy Faith De La Salle in Skerries, Co Dublin, described the essay topics at higher level as a little more restricted than in previous years. "They were a little more practical. They weren't the whimsical ones, the ones that straight away appeal to the imagination.
Ms Mary Freeley, a teacher in Ballyhaunis Community School in Co Mayo, who retires this year after 43 years of teaching, was also critical of the essay titles. "I didn't like them at all," she said, describing them as grim and glum with little scope for humour.
Last year, Ballyhaunis produced the highest scoring pupil in higher level English, Una Butler.
Paper 1 at higher level was described as "very fair" by Ms Liz Crummey, a teacher at St Raphaela's, Stillorgan, Dublin.
"The unprescribed prose passage, which I think wad the students' biggest worry, was easy to read and understand and the questions were fair enough," she said. This year's selection of essay titles was "very varied," she said.
At ordinary level, Ms de Buis said students were "very pleased" with the paper, "particularly the prose passage which they found very accessible and topical. The very racy, immediate prose, particularly at the beginning of the piece, was very inviting."
The topical nature of the piece, which was an extract from Adi Roche's Children of Chernobyl, meant that students felt that they didn't start out at a disadvantage, she said. Ms Parsons felt the ordinary level unprescribed prose was "challenging" and that the subject matter was a little dark for the first day of the examinations. Ms Freeley described the prose piece as "difficult enough" with less than straightforward questions and some difficult terms.
"No doubt tornadoes swept the country as the magic letters `Kinsella' featured," said Mr Pat Hunt a teacher in Loreto College, Bray, Co Wicklow. "The dogs in the street have been barking for Kinsella for months and had he not featured, coronary care units would have been working overtime."
He described the question on troubled consciousness in Kinsella's poetry as "provocative" but capable of allowing good students to shine and average ones to do well. Ms Parsons said the higher level paper overall was "very, very acceptable" but challenging nevertheless, particularly in the Kinsella question.
Ms Crummey said students were "delighted" that Kinsella came up in a "good question". Students would also have found little to trouble them, she said, in a question on Wordsworth's Tintern Abbey, which was accompanied by the relevant section of the poem.
In the drama section, Mr Hunt welcomed the inclusion of a question on Hamlet's popularity. through the ages as a welcome departure, while he described the second Hamlet question, on the "mental chess" games played by Hamlet and Claudius, as "challenging but fair".
Mr Hunt's daughter Sarah, who, sat the higher level paper, said she was "very surprised" at the favourable content of the paper. "I think people were very happy with Kinsella," she said, adding that the fiction question on Mr Knightley's role in Jane Austen's Emma was also a boon.
Ms Freeley felt that, in general, the higher level paper posed few difficulties for students, though the question on Hamlet's continued popularity was too general and the question on the importance of the stage in Tom Stoppard's Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead rather difficult for this level, she said. She also detected a certain pomposity in the wording of the question on Keats and the general question, which might have discouraged some students.
In fact, the greatest problems encountered by students at higher level may well have been those of and tiredness. As Ms de Buis pointed out, most students will be writing for five hours during the day, and higher level students are actually given less time per question than their ordinary level counterparts, increasing the pressure on them while simultaneously giving them less time to think about their answers.
At ordinary level, the appearance of Yeats in the poetry question will have caused students' hearts to leap. Overall, it was described as a "nice paper" by Mr Hunt. Ms de Buis said the questions were good and offered plenty of scope to students.
Once again, the range of texts covered at higher and ordinary level and the range of skills which have to be developed in students was noted by a number of teachers. Teachers have to get across knowledge, inculcate evaluation skills and give them the confidence to be able to react to an unforeseen question," said Ms Parsons, remarking that smaller classes in English would help both ,students and teachers.