JUNIOR CERT MATHS PAPER 1 HIGHER AND ORDINARY LEVEL:JUNIOR CERT maths students would have been pleased with straightforward papers at higher and ordinary level, according to teachers.
Higher-level students were met with some challenging money questions, according to Asti representative Elaine Devlin, a maths teacher in De La Salle College, Dundalk, Co Louth. “But the algebra was very straightforward,” she said.
“The first arithmetic question looked like an old-style calculator-friendly type of question,” said John Brennan of the Ballinteer Institute in Dublin. “The third part of the question gave trouble as students had to work backwards in order to do it, but it was fine overall.”
Questions four and six were universally described as “lovely” by teachers but the (c) part of question five had the potential to be “a mess,” Mr Brennan said.
“The paper wasn’t without its challenges, but students seemed very happy,” Ms Devlin said.
At Junior Cert level, marginally more students sit the higher level, but this number falls off dramatically in the senior cycle.
The positive reaction to maths also extended to ordinary level students, who emerged satisfied from a paper that was described as “fair and quite easy in parts.”
Asti representative Christina Kennedy, who teaches maths in Seamount College, Kinvara, Co Galway, said, “Some students actually liked the paper. It was very fair and reasonably easy.”
