Leaving Cert: Engineering Higher Level

The sun broke through the mid-afternoon haze to momentarily shine on Leaving Cert students as they emerged from the exam hall at MacDara Community College in Templeogue on Thursday.

Luckily for those sitting Higher Level Engineering at the south-west Dublin college, the 2016 paper was not as unpredictable as the Irish weather can be and the students were generally happy with how the morning went.

Inside the hall, the focus had been on the use of expanded polystyrene in cycling helmets, rapid prototyping techniques and the various stages of dendritic growth during the process of metal solidification.

As the students gathered outside, there was little talk of the sun that beamed down on them as they flicked through the 12-page paper and discussed how they got on in the exam.

Luke Casey said the paper "wasn't actually that bad."

Taking the textbook approach to sitting a Leaving Cert exam he said he started off by first scanning through the paper, highlighting the questions he was going to answer while all the time thinking about the answers he was going to give.

His favourite part of the exam was the prescribed topic on 3D printing.

“It was easy enough to remember,” he said.

Emily Cullen was also happy with how it went.

“I thought it was easier than the mocks, but I worked hard for it so I hope I did well. I’m pretty happy!”

The paper held no surprises for her “It’s very structured - so you know what’s going to come up.” Her favourite part of the paper was the special topic, for which she was well prepared.

An upbeat Jonathan Kelly said “It wasn’t as bad as I thought it was going to be. but it was still tough. The bits I studied came up, thank God. Plastics wasn’t that bad but the special topic was okay. It was a good question (on) rapid prototyping, 3D printing and all of that. It was okay, it was nice.”

“The questions were tough, (there was) nothing really unexpected there. Eight (exams) left. That’s all I’m looking at. Eight left and then the summer!”

Jack Clarke said the paper contained a few hard questions.

“There was one (surprise) with manufacture processes. I looked at that questions and I hadn’t a clue how to do it so I just didn’t do it.”

“There was a question about plastics ... I really liked that question because it was easy for me.” Overall he said it was “a good exam.”

Eoghan Lynch said “There were only one or two questions that were kind of difficult but the rest of it was easy enough.”

Luke Manley said he had more than enough time to finish the paper but stayed in the hall "and ended up checking over it a few times."

As with the others, the examination questions held no real surprises for him.

“They are on the same topic every year but they did ask about the inventor of the rapid prototyping process in the first question as well as asking us (about it) in the second part.”

“It’s not that it’s unusual, it’s just kind of stood out because it was like ‘hang on,

that’s from the other part!”

Ciarán O'Callaghan, chair of the engineering and technology teachers' association and a teacher at Inver College in Monaghan, said the paper was very topical and relevant to young people, and that his students were all happy with it.

“There were no curveballs, and a good mix of traditional and modern technologies, with heat treatments and the engineering behind the go-kart cropping up

Back in Templeogue, when asked what his favourite part of the exam, Luke Manley echoed the sentiments of many a student across Ireland.

“Favourite part of an exam? When I’m done and when I’ve left!”

Postmortems over, the students headed home or back indoors to give their notes a final look-over ahead of English Paper II.