Questions asked 'just as expected'

LEAVING Certificate chemistry higher-level students needed to be 'focused and in the zone for the full three hours' of their exam yesterday if they wanted to maximise their grades.

That was the view of teacher Camille King of the TUI and Colaiste Naomh Cormac, Kilcormac, Co Offaly, who described it as a challenging paper.

'There was a lot of working out in some of the questions,' she said.

Tara Lyons, of the Institute of Education in Dublin, said accuracy and precision were key to the paper.

She found nothing unexpected in section A, the experiments, although question 3 was long.

In section B there was the usual emphasis on organic chemistry.'Hess's law appeared again in question 6, rewarding candidates that had worked on past papers,' she said. 'Question 7 featured a chemical equation that many candidates may not have been familiar with, although the related questions were approachable.'

Question 9 included the only 'three-step synthesis' mentioned in the syllabus, which was the first time this aspect of the course has appeared in the exam.

Ms Lyons also said there were some challenging elements on the ordinary level paper, while Ms King thought the format and questions were very much as expected.

She liked the use of diagrams, which acted as an aid to candidates.

- Katherine Donnelly

Irish Independent