Straightforward test an ‘easy’ start – with little of the dreaded calculus

STUDENTS taking Maths at ordinary level got off to a good, even “easy” start with Paper 1.

A lot of the paper would not be out of place in a Junior Cert exam, was the view of teacher Eamonn Toland.

“It is a very straightforward paper and any well-prepared student should have had no difficulties, “said Mr Toland, of The Maths Tutor.ie website.

He said it was “so hard to find anything difficult on this paper that it makes us wonder if the examiners were trying to play it safe after various controversies in recent years”.

Real world topics on the paper included forensic science, a tiling pattern, and modelling the profit of a business. Robert Chaney, a subject representative for the Association of Secondary Teachers’ Ireland (ASTI), said many of the students he met afterwards regarded it as “easy”.

Mr Chaney, of CBS Secondary School, Rossa Street, Thurles, said the maths was very straightforward and nothing presented any difficulties.

Jean Kelly, of the Institute of Education, agreed that students would be “really pleased”.

There were no ambiguities, the questions were nice, clear and to the point, and students would have known exactly what to do.

Ms Kelly said students would also have been delighted that “the dreaded calculus was barely asked”.