Leaving Cert Diary 2025: Maths Paper 1 and Geography finish the first week
Thanks to Kayleigh from Athlone, Co Westmeath and Sarah from Co Louth who are back to write about Maths Ordinary and Higher Level respectively. And to Laura from Galway who sat Geogrpahy earlier in the day.
The Leaving Cert Diary series, with thanks to our friends at the Irish Second-Level Student's Union (ISSU), is all about getting a first-hand account of how the exams went each day.
Read Kayleigh's blog...
The weather might not be the usual Leaving Cert sun but if the papers keep giving us something to be happy over I think that's a trade I'm willing to take. Another lovely paper from the SEC, I'm almost worried there's going to be a catch on Paper 2!
Leaving Cert 2025 has the same accommodations as last year with six 30-mark questions on part A, where you needed to answer five, and four 50-markers, where you needed to answer three. Maths Paper 1 was entirely predictable and certainly provided me and many other students with a lot of security. I am glad to have been able to answer every question and given myself the best chance at good marks.
There were no particularly challenging questions or overly complex wordings in the problems either. Financial maths was the bulk of the questions with series and sequences, algebraic functions, complex numbers, calculus, scientific notation, length area and volume all making their appearances too. There were a lot of tables and graphs featured on the paper that certainly gave students plenty of chances to pick up easy marks.
I am certainly relieved for week one to be over and to have another exam out of the way. I think we're all ready for a little rest from the exhausting cycle of paper after paper this weekend; but not without some cramming thrown in. If the SEC continues to be nice to us I'm sure the rest of the exams will fly just the same as this week has. Fingers crossed!
Sarah's blog kicks off with a maths pun...
Unfortunately the only pie I saw in Maths Paper 1 was two dimensional and inedible. On the better side of Section A, algebra was an enjoyable question one. It gave me the confidence to begin the paper. Integration was nice and simple and even if someone was uncomfortable with this topic they would have gotten a lot of marks from attempting using the log tables provided.
As well as that, logs and indices sneaked into a good few questions. De Moivre's Theorem and the binomial theorem were through the entire paper as a constant. Those who were not familiar with it, might have had no choice but to leave a lot of gaps blank. I luckily spent my morning trying to revise this topic. I attempted all questions for section A. I got the minimum done for section B with 3 questions answered.
Proof by induction at the end stunned me for a few minutes. I was quite confused with the wording and began with some of the steps to help me get my focus back but failed to come up with a conclusion. Many other people I had talked to, found this part challenging. I wonder will the points be reduced for it? On the positive side, sequences and series was a welcoming question In section B but I found myself skipping the rates of change. I got just about three out of the four questions done when the time ran out.
Overall it was a tough paper but there were many chances for every student toshine. Now I have to throw this out of my mind and prepare for the second round. See you Monday!
Read Laura's blog here...
The Geography Leaving Cert exam is finally over, and honestly, it's caused a lot of mixed feelings among students and teachers alike. I found the short questions quite fair, there was a good variety, and nothing too tricky. But it was the essay section where things really changed.
Physical Geography was more or less what we expected, although I was surprised not to see the formation of metamorphic rocks essay, which had been heavily predicted. Still, that section felt manageable.
The real curveball came in Regional Geography. Almost none of the predicted essays came up, and like many students, I felt completely thrown off. My confidence dropped halfway through the paper because I felt like everything I had focused on just didn't show up.
The 20-mark questions were as expected, and weirdly enough, you could skip the sketch map portion almost entirely which is unusual. In Section Four, I answered the Geoecology question. Luckily, it followed some predictions, but a lot of people were expecting a question on brown earth soils, which didn't appear either.
It honestly felt like the paper was made to ignore predictions maybe because the course is going through changes. I know predictions aren't everything, but the total lack of overlap this year really shocked a lot of us.
In the end, it wasn't the hardest paper ever, but it was unpredictable, and that made it stressful. Now it's time to move on, take a breath, and face into the next exams with a fresh mind.
Founded in 2008, the ISSU is the national representative body for school students in the Republic of Ireland. The ISSU is led by students, for students.
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