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Irish Times
2 days ago
- General
- Irish Times
Leaving Cert maths paper 2: Students seeking H1s or H2s find paper particularly challenging
Higher-level maths students who were anxious about their performance in paper one did not find comfort in paper two, but ordinary-level students will be pleased, teachers have said. Aidan Roantree, a maths teacher at the Institute of Education, said that students looking for H1s and H2s will have found the paper particularly challenging, especially towards the end. 'The paper continued the same mixture of the familiar and the quirky, but on a larger scale with more of both,' he said. 'The question setter is consciously creating papers that are unlike previous years by adding novel questions that would have been hard to prepare for,' Mr Roantree said. READ MORE 'Upon opening the paper, students will have felt an initial confidence boost to get them going. Section A's Q1, Q, 2, Q3 offered a reassuring and familiar start to the paper. This will have allowed students to accrue marks before venturing into the trickier sections. 'At Q4, the quirkier aspects of the paper emerged with questions that were evocative of pre-2015 statistics: interquartile ranges, averages, and later stratified sampling in Q10. Section B followed a similar pattern with approachable opening questions followed by mounting difficulty. In particular, Q9's part C was a very challenging probability question which would have tested the abilities of even the highest achievers. 'Indeed this paper contained some of the hardest questions on either paper, so students will leave the exam with a sense of having really pushed themselves,' Mr Roantree said. Niall Duddy, ASTI subject representative for maths and a teacher at Presentation College Athenry in Co Galway, agreed that higher-level paper two was more testing than paper one. 'But students didn't say they couldn't do it, and paper two is traditionally the trickier of the two,' he said. 'On the plus side, it was user-friendly and contained hints here and there, such as where to use sine and cosine. 'The topics were quite focused, except for the trigonometry question which included some algebra; this is part of a recent trend of amalgamating the topics on the papers. 'Questions on statistics and probability would be familiar. Some students didn't like the look of question eight, which included a 3-D problem, but the question itself wasn't unusual. 'Overall, my students felt that while it was trickier, it was doable.' Conversely, on the ordinary-level exam, Jean Kelly, a maths teacher at the Institute of Education, said that students who felt uncertain about their performance on paper one will have been relieved. 'Gone are the questions that jump around topics or hide aspects behind the language of the question,' she said. 'The paper was snappy, cutting right to the point and unified in the topics examined. Question one was focused on statistics, Q2 on trigonometry, Q3 on the circle. This helped students stay focused on the task and feel like they are being helpfully scaffolded as the questions got harder. This feeling of momentum will help them get through the paper and feel much more assured in their performance.' The paper was heavy on statistics, probability and trigonometry, with area and volume having a lesser presence than in previous years, which was likely due to a surprise appearance on paper one, Ms Kelly said. 'While there were enough challenging pieces on the paper to distinguish those striving for the O1, even those who struggle to pass will find themselves in a good position,' she said. 'The paper was often helpful, either through tips or by combining topics into a useful grouping. For example, the appearance of constructions in section B was new, but the helpful pairing of dilations and area and volume helped ease students through the material. 'While paper one needed students to constantly, even anxiously reread the questions, there was a nice snappiness to this paper. Students who had the fundamentals were able to quickly get their marks without fuss and frustration,' said Ms Kelly. Mr Duddy said the ordinary-level topics were laid out clearly and that the paper was user-friendly with lots of helpful hints.
Irish Times
4 days ago
- General
- Irish Times
Leaving Cert maths: Some students left deflated by ‘off-putting' higher-level exam
Many higher-level Leaving Cert maths students were left deflated by paper one, but it had many manageable elements and was less wordy than in previous years, teachers have said. Eoghan O'Leary, a teacher at Hamilton High School in Cork and head of maths at , said students welcomed a return to more maths and less writing. In recent years, teachers and dyslexic students have repeatedly raised the wordiness of the maths paper, saying that it disadvantages them and is unnecessary. 'The paper was dominated by calculus, sequences & series and algebra,' said Mr O'Leary. READ MORE 'Students who hadn't revised sequences were in trouble because they featured in two long questions, so therefore could not be avoided.' Louise Boylan, a maths teacher at the Institute of Education, said that paper had an off-putting appearance, but was approachable. 'Students likely won't feel triumphant as they leave the exam hall, but they shouldn't feel defeated,' she said, adding that there were many novel elements on the paper. 'While there was a lot that was out of the box – logic puzzle style questions, material that hasn't appeared since the course's overhaul – there was much that would be welcome. Algebraic skills, rates of change, differential calculus, and sequence and series would all have fallen into the familiar,' Ms Boylan said. Stephen Begley, subject expert and head of maths at Dundalk Grammar School, said that the paper was more prompted and scaffolded than usual, and didn't appear as dense as it had in the past. 'While the short questions were rather delightful in ways, the long questions were a little light in parts and were heavily scaffolded,' Mr Begley said. 'Beneficial in ways, the examiner was generous throughout in pointing out what methods and techniques students should use to approach a question, for example by indicating to use a certain formula or technique.' This view was echoed by other teachers, including Ms Boylan. 'Later in the paper, question seven's wall of text will have caused some to pause, but once that was parsed, the underlying sequences and series were familiar,' she said. Overall, Ms Boylan said it was a challenging paper for everyone sitting it as the question setter continues the trend of drawing from all corners of the course. 'As such there was material examined on the paper that simply wasn't present in past exams and some students will rightly feel that they were pushed beyond their comfort zone. However, with much that will earn them marks, they shouldn't focus solely on the negative – the marking will reflect the challenge,' she said. Mr O'Leary said that some students were concerned that, with some students finding it too easy, there was concern that it would be harshly marked. 'I hope there will be fairness there,' Mr O'Leary said. On the ordinary level paper, Mr Begley said that it was a fair paper spanning the usual suspects of financial maths, complex numbers, algebra, calculus, functions, patterns and area. 'While parts were certainly not without challenge, the short questions in section A were quite nice and students could play to their strengths answering any five of the six,' he said. 'Those who prepared using past papers would have benefitted from the familiarity of question styles from years gone by. 'The long questions in Section B had students answer any three of the four. The topics covered here were functions, differentiation, financial maths, number patterns and area. 'Topic wise it followed suit with previous exams and students were well prompted and guided in parts. Overall, a good start to the ordinary level maths exams and all eyes will be on paper two on Monday, for which I advise students to take a look at their statistics, trigonometry, coordinate geometry of the line and circle and probability over the weekend, as these are always the main players,' Mr Begley said. Try this one at home: Leaving Cert maths, higher level, Q6(a) Write down, in descending powers of 𝑝𝑝, the first 3 terms in the binomial expansion of: (2𝑝𝑝 +3)7 Give each term in its simplest form. For example, the first term should be of the form ap 7, where a is a constant.
Irish Times
6 days ago
- Health
- Irish Times
Leaving Cert home economics: ‘Practical, topical, no curveballs'
The Leaving Cert higher level home economics paper received a thumbs-up from teachers who sad students will be relieved with an exam which featured plenty of 'nice' questions. Megan Friel, Home Economics teacher at Mercy College, Sligo and Studyclix subject expert, said the paper was 'very practical, topical, student-friendly and contained no curve balls'. Alice Quinn, home economics teacher at The Institute of Education, also said that clear nature of the questions allowed students with a solid grasp of material to get straight to the point. 'The appearance of predicted materials will help offset some of the more niche questions,' she said. READ MORE Ms Friel said section B Q1 – which is compulsory – focused on the impact of food choices and eating habits of adults in Ireland. 'This was very relevant to students and gave them the opportunity to display their in-depth knowledge of the course,' she said. 'The properties didn't appear in Section A which is unusual, but students will be delighted, and the main nutrient on Section B Q1 was lipids. This hasn't been asked since 2018. The core question was also straightforward. Students are very comfortable answering questions about food commodities.' Ms Quinn said students will have been cheered by the 'array of nice, clear short questions to start the paper'. 'There was no ambiguity in what was being asked, more so than previous years, and so students could launch straight into answering,' she said. 'The first question was a nice recall of nutrients: functions of carbohydrates, deficiency diseases – the real fundamentals of the subject,' she said. 'The fish question may have thrown some as many could have overlooked the differences in cold vs hot smoking in their revision, but with other options available they won't have lost momentum.' Students will also have been pleased to see Family Resource Management as the question setter kept with recent trends in papers. 'Even though the questions were comparatively niche, this will have suited most students as the precision of the questions let those with a solid grasp get straight to the point and earn marks,' she said. Over on Section B, she said students were again greeted with a 'nice entry point'. 'The pie chart was a nice way to access the data and the questions offered lots of scope. Students did need to read the question carefully to fully grasp it, but at the core was the baseline elements of that they should be familiar with,' Ms Quinn said. 'Many will be thrilled to see the predicted appearance of lipids and the sometimes tricky question (e) replaced with a familiar take on factors of choice and eating habits of adult.' Question 2 was quite broad and spanned chapter lines but would have made a lot of sense to those who reflected on the interconnected ideas and key words of the syllabus, Ms Quinn said. 'In particular, those who anticipated the return of cheese (not seen since 2017) will be pleased,' she said. She said Q3 was an unexpected aspect of an expected topic – food hygiene – so those who really covered the topic in detail would have been best suited to tackle it. Overall, students familiar with the past papers and the fundamentals of the subject will have been able accrue marks effectively and efficiently. The occasional question on more niche aspects of the course will have surprised some but given others the chance to distinguish themselves. Ms Friel, meanwhile, sad the ordinary level paper included questions that were 'very student-friendly and accessible.' Section B Q1 featured a very user-friendly chart on soup, while students will be relieved that Section B Q2 followed the same format as previous years. 'Overall this was a very fair paper which will likely have brought a smile to the faces of students and teachers alike,' she said.
