'Fair, do-able and straightforward'

THE second paper in Junior Certificate maths caused no complaints from students or teachers.

Elaine Devlin of the ASTI and De la Salle College, Dundalk, Co Louth, described higher level as 'fair'.

The paper introduced some changes from the old style, anticipating the move to the Project Maths course.

She said the old-type question 2 was gone and there was a change in how the geometry and line question was presented.

'Students would have known it was going to happen and it did. I would say it worked well,' Ms Devlin said. She said question 6, on statistics, was 'nice and very do-able'.

Overall, Ms Devlin felt the paper was well presented and said that students were happy with the theorems. Michael Berry of the TUI and Colaiste Dun Iascaigh, Cahir, Co Tipperary, said most higher-level students should have been satisfied.

Mr Berry said the 'a' and 'b' parts of questions 'were exactly the standard that you would expect' and the diagrams were clear. He said some students would have found the 'c' parts of question 3 and question 4 challenging but the rest of the paper was very much to standard.

'Even students who found higher level challenging should have been able to pass this,' he said.

The picture was similar at ordinary level and Christina Kennedy of Seamount College, Kinvara, Co Galway, said 'students were very pleased and had no complaints'.

'It was very fair and very straightforward,' said Ms Kennedy, adding that question 3 on statistics was very easy.

'Students liked the paper despite the fact that they really had to think through the answers,' she said.

- Katherine Donnelly

Irish Independent