Education

Junior Cycle maths: ‘It’s an absolute shame that students had no choices’

Teachers critical of absence of choice on higher level maths paper

Junior Cycle students sat the maths exam on Friday afternoon. Photograph: Eric Luke

Peter McGuire
Fri Jun 10 2022 - 18:25

Teachers have continued to criticise the lack of choice provided to Junior Cert exam students, with maths being the latest subject in the firing line.

“Unlike the Leaving Cert, there is no element of choice in the Junior Cycle maths exam paper, despite the amount of time missed due to Covid by these students,” said Eamonn Toland, founder of TheMathsTutor.ie.

Pauline Nagle, ASTI subject representative and a teacher at Mary Immaculate Secondary School in Lisdoonvarna, Co Clare, said that the ordinary level students she spoke to were happy with their exam, but higher level students did not like their paper.

“We’ve had reduced class time due to new subjects and the disruption of Covid-19, so it is an absolute shame that students had no choices. Teachers really struggled to complete this course and many teachers provided extra lessons outside school time.”

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Ms Nagle was also critical of the State Examinations Commission for not providing any marks on the paper.

“How many marks each question is worth is supposed to be an indicator of how much time students should spend on each paper,” she said. “In addition, there was only one sample paper provided by the State Examinations Commission.”

On the higher level paper, Ms Nagle said that question 11 on graphs was different from what they would normally see, while the last part of question seven was “very awkward.”

Studyclix.ie subject expert Stephen Begley, a maths teacher at Dundalk Grammar School in Co Louth said that the questions on the higher level paper did span the majority of topics on the course and he felt that students would be happy with them although, notably, functions were not examined.

Mr Toland said the paper contained plenty of wordy questions. “There were lots of diagrams to interpret and analyse, with very few questions [featuring] ‘straight-up’ calculations or algebraic manipulations,” he said. “This required good interpretative skills from the students.”

Mr Begley said that ordinary paper was an “absolute delight.”

“No questions were too tasking and the layout of the paper certainly would’ve settled any nerves with number systems, arithmetic, volume & sets gently easing students into the exam.”

Mr Toland felt that the ordinary paper also contained wordy questions.

“Overall, it was accessible for Junior Cycle ordinary level students, albeit with no element of choice,” he said.

TRY THIS AT HOME: JUNIOR CERT MATHS, HIGHER LEVEL

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