The Beliebers among students will have been rejoicing again as their hero made his second appearance in as many weeks on the State examination papers.
After his debut appearance on the Junior Cert Irish paper a week and a half ago, pint-sized pop phenomenon Justin Bieber cropped up again on the Leaving Cert ordinary level Spanish paper this morning.
Whether true fans needed to understand much Spanish to answer questions about their idol is a matter of debate, but the comprehension piece, along with the rest of the paper, was well pitched for ordinary level students, according to Asti representative Máire Ní Chiarba, a teacher in Coláiste an Phiarsaigh, Glanmire, Co Cork.
Other comprehension topics concerned an elderly man who was reunited with his car after forgetting where he parked it two years previously, and the richest dog in the world.
The written expression section in which students had to write an email, as well as a note or a diary entry, was “fine”, Ms Ní Chiarba said.
Reaction of students to the higher level paper was, “extremely positive,” Ms Ní Chiarba said. However there was disappointment in the letter topic given. Students were asked to write to a Spanish newspaper about the role of royalty in today’s world.
“The topic threw them,” Ms Ní Chiarba said. “I didn’t meet any student who actually did the letter.”
Something like that just serves to underline the importance for students of not deciding on which exam questions to do before they see the paper, she added.
The rest of the higher level paper was good, however, Ms Ní Chiarba said. Comprehension extracts included a literary piece by Josep Lorman, a journalistic piece about a killer whale, an article about the problem of people not paying in restaurants, a 12-day traffic jam in China and an article about emigration from Mexico.
“The pieces were fine,” Ní Chiarba said. “Students would have been familiar with the vocabulary of emigration in particular.”
Student reaction on the social networks was fairly positive, although the listening comprehension section came in for some criticism.
“Every student I spoke to found it extremely difficult,” Ms Ní Chiarba agreed. “There was an awful lot of information given, and the questions required a lot of detail in the answers. It seemed as though there was a lot of writing involved [and] I think students found it quite difficult to get everything down on time.”
There was a problem in one of the sections where the paper indicated there would be a pause in the audio but that pause failed to materialise. An error like this would have thrown students, she said.