Challenging papers required much thought

THERE was some variation in teacher responses to the first of the Leaving Cert Irish papers, on comprehension and composition.

Ruth Morrissey, a TUI subject representative and teacher at St Michael’s Community College, Kilmihil, Co Clare, described ordinary level as “quite accessible and student friendly”.

Robbie Cronin, an ASTI subject representative, who teaches at Marian College, Ringsend, Dublin, also thought it a “fair” paper, although his students complained about that the aural was “too fast”.

But Clare Grealy, of Dublin’s Institute of Education, thought it “very testing”. She instanced the question about writing to a friend telling them about a new mobile phone which, she said, “would have required a lot of technical vocabulary”.

Ms Morrissey and Mr Cronin also thought the aural was quite challenging for higher level students.

But while Mr Cronin described the written paper as “very positive”, Ms Morrissey said that while the essays were “broad in terms of themes, they were quite specific in terms of what they wanted”.

Ms Grealy agreed that there was a “nice, broad choice of topics” at higher level, but that the wording “was very specific and students would need to have watched this when answering the questions”.

Earlier in the day, Leaving Cert higher level Maths Paper 2 presented a greater challenge than Paper 1, according to ASTI subject representative Robert Chaney, of CBS Thurles, Co Tipperary, but the ordinary level paper was “quite accessible”.