Niall Duddy, ASTI subject representative and a teacher at Presentation College, Athenry, Co Galway, said on Monday that it was a tale of two higher-level Leaving Certificate maths papers.
“They weren’t deliriously happy coming out of paper two, but much happier than they were after paper one,” he said.
Aidan Roantree, a maths teacher at the Institute of Education, said that the paper was challenging, but more approachable than the first, while Eoghan O’Leary, maths teacher with TheTuitionCentre.ie, said that paper two offered more opportunities for students to demonstrate what they knew.
Paper two had some stings in the tail, particularly in question 3 (c), where students answered questions on a cuboid inside a sphere. “But even here, there was a hint for students and, overall, the paper was more user-friendly,” Duddy said.
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The paper was dominated by statistics and trigonometry, teachers said. “In section A, the short questions started on familiar ground, but began to get more challenging with a question on coordinate geometry,” said Roantree.
“This question’s difficulty is not apparent at first glance and will only reveal its sting once students have gotten into it. This became a trend for other questions too as the familiar starts to give way to novel challenges.
“The single most approachable question in this section was question eight, a mix of correlation with minor elements of trigonometry and probability.”
No matter which three questions out of four a student chose, at least two will have had a tricky part, said Roantree.
O’Leary agreed that each question became trickier as students progressed through them. “One of the most anticipated topics, trigonometric identities, appeared as expected,” he said. “Unfortunately for students, it was arguably the most difficult of the eight identities on the syllabus, making it a challenge even for many strong candidates. Similarly, the short question on the circle, traditionally one of the most popular choices, proved more difficult than many students expected.”
The longer questions combined different areas of the course, with one question bringing together statistics, probability and trigonometry. “Students who were comfortable making connections between topics were likely to benefit. Others found this challenging. As one student commented afterwards, ‘topics being very mixed up is quite confusing – it felt like we were the ones making the questions and then trying to answer them’.”
On the ordinary-level paper, Duddy said that student reaction was positive and that the paper was topical and relatable, with questions on reality TV and music festivals.
Jean Kelly, a maths teacher at the Institute of Education, said that the ordinary-level paper was fair, modern and thoughtfully designed. “The ethos of this paper was to let students engage with their lives through a mathematical lens, and there was very little geometry, which students will love,” said Kelly. “It was less about doing maths and more about using the maths. While some scenarios seemed novel, the maths were short, snappy, without lengthy procedural problems.
“In Section B, students could see glimpses of their own lives, as the exam reached into varied contexts. There was a question that used gaming as a way to examine a mixture of line and circle, appearing together for the first time as a long question.
This blending of topics was a theme throughout, so students needed to move naturally between topics in every question, said Kelly.
“A question on a reality TV show contest mixed trigonometry, sectors and the trapezoidal rule while statistics was covered via the guise of music festivals. Students needed to follow the story to find the maths.”
