Pluses and minuses in a day of contrasting papers

FOR a change it was higher-level maths students who emerged smiling from their first paper, while ordinary-level candidates were the more concerned.

Brid Griffin, of the TUI and Carlow Institute of Further Education, said she believed every higher-level student 'would have gone home extremely happy'.

'It was very user-friendly and students knew straight away what was being asked of them. It was so straightforward that they were going back over it to see if they had missed something,' she said.

Outdated

Elaine Devlin, of ASTI and De La Salle College, Dundalk, agreed it was a very fair paper but she took issue with the use of term 'arg' in question 3, which she said was a bit outdated.

Aidan Roantree, of the Institute of Education, said although some candidates experienced problems the paper was well received.

It was a less rosy picture at ordinary level. Christina Kennedy, of the ASTI and Seamount College, Kinvara, said weaker students came out saying it was a challenging paper and almost a little too difficult.

Jean Kelly, of the Institute of Education, said while the paper was accessible for most, there were parts 'in both content and structure that may have challenged even the well-prepared candidate'.

- Katherine Donnelly

Irish Independent