Sir, - Are there any boundaries to the questions which can be asked by the Department of Education in State exams? I am currently taking my Junior Cert and have been absolutely shocked at what I have been faced with, in particular in the History exam of June 16th. We were tested in everything from our knowledge of aviation to Yasser Arafat and the Six Day War, neither of which figures on the syllabus. Questions four and five in that same paper were equally unreasonable and unfair.
These exams are failing in their main purpose: to test students on what they have worked hard at for the past three years. They give students their only opportunity to show an examiner how much work, time and effort they have put in.
I might as well have stayed at home for the past three years, for all the good it did me on June 16th. I am sure that the grades which will come out of this exam will not reflect the time and effort put in by students and teachers alike. - Yours, etc.,
Mount Mercy College, Cork.