Junior Cert business studies students faced demanding papers yesterday, with some questions more suited to the Leaving Cert. Norah Martyn of the Business Studies Teachers Association said that while she was generally happy with higher-level paper 1, some questions in section A did pose problems.
One part of question 3 asked for the currency in use in Portugal, which caused some confusion. "It's quite an unfair question at a time of change and either Euro or Escudo should be accepted," she said.
Question 9 on DIRT was "more Leaving Cert standard" and this problem occurred again in the afternoon with question 2, part B, and question 5, part A, both using language more usually found at Leaving Cert, she said.
Pat Morris, a teacher at Colaiste Criost Ri in Cork, said the higher-level papers were "a little challenging", but well laid-out. The ordinary-level paper held no great surprises and suited all abilities, he said.
Martyn, however, found Section A on the ordinary level paper very tough. "Question 4 is really a higher-level question."
She also felt it was "unfair" to base question 13 on question 12, which was itself confusing. She said would have preferred if students could have chosen questions in this section.
"The BSTAI continues to request a choice in the short questions," she said.
