Leaving Cert and Junior Cycle: live reaction to day two of the exams

• Leaving Cert: Engineering (9.30-12.30pm) and English paper 2 (2-5.20pm)
• Junior Cycle: Irish (9.30-11.30am) and geography (1.30-3.30pm)
• Last-minute Leaving Cert tips: what to know ahead of Englsh paper 2
• Classroom to College newsletter: Sign up to our essential guide on navigating the exams for parents, guardians and students
• Student reaction: “The build-up is so much worse” – Relieved students after day one of the exams

Helen McEntee on her Leaving Cert: ‘Let’s put it this way – I wasn’t aiming for 500 or 600 points’

We’ve been asking public figures for their Leaving Cert memories this week.

Minister for Education Helen McEntee is the latest to share her exam highs and lows. You can read her responses here.

When asked what would she change about the Leaving, she said:

“I would take away some of the pressure at exam time. The fact that I did art and music – which had practicals and coursework – was a great help for me. Having that across the board would take some of the pressure off students.”

Happily, as Minister for Education, she can push ahead with plans to introduce a minimum of 40 per cent on project work, practicals and research across all subjects.

Try this one at home: Junior Cycle Irish (higher level)

How is your command of our national tongue?

This question – ceist 19 – on page 14 of today’s Junior Cycle Irish (higher level) asks candidates to circle the correct word in sentences relating to Irish college.

Do you know the right answers?

Junior Cycle Irish: Relief for students as much-anticipated climate change topic features in ‘fair’ and ‘relatable’ exam

My colleague Peter McGuire has been speaking with Irish teachers. Here’s his report:

Junior Cycle Irish students were happy with a “fair” and “relatable” higher-level paper, teachers have said.

Danielle O’Connell, an Irish teacher with TheTuitionCentre.ie, said that the much anticipated topic of climate change appeared in the reading comprehension section of T2, the paper which is given to students in English-medium schools.

“The biggest change was the úrscéal (novel) and dráma (drama) questions, which appeared as two separate questions this year, having previously been paired together as a choice question for the past three years,” she said.

“This may have thrown some students.”

Stephen Doyle, Studyclix.ie subject expert and a teacher at Moyle Park College in Clondalkin, Dublin 22, said that the topics were relatable for students.

“The reading comprehension, for example, was about climate change and young environmental activists, something that matters to students today.

“Question H on the reading comprehension may have challenged less prepared students but, overall, the listening and reading sections were very manageable.

“The grammar section was also straightforward and not too complicated compared to previous years,” Mr Doyle said.

Ms O’Connell said that students also would have been happy with question six, which included common topics such as sport, a day out in the city, or being at a birthday party. “Students would have been easily able to tackle this question based on their previous learned knowledge of verbs and vocabulary over the past two years,” she said.

One significant change this year saw the drama question paired with a short film question.

“This meant students needed to have both drama and novel prepared, as the novel became a stand-alone question,” said Mr Doyle.

“All the literature sections questioned students on how the events, emotions or images made them feel. Students’ opinions and insights were very important throughout this exam.”

Overall, Mr Doyle said that it was a fair paper which rewarded students who prepared well and should have been manageable for confident students.

“This paper was well-balanced and most students who studied hard would have been able to show their Irish skills well,” he said.

Mr Doyle said that the ordinary level paper was easy to approach and covered the basic language skills students need.

“Short reading questions were about everyday things like cooking class and a visit to a concert and a disco with friend topics that students could understand easily.

“Overall, the paper was well set out and friendly for students, giving them different ways to do well while keeping to the right level for this level,” he said.

First look: Leaving Cert engineering papers

We’ll have reaction to this morning’s Leaving Cert engineering exam shortly. In the meantime, the exam papers are below:

Leaving Cert engineering, higher level

Leaving Cert engineering, ordinary level

First look: Junior Cycle Irish exams

We’ll have reaction from the Junior Cycle Irish exams shortly. In the meantime, you can scroll through the papers themselves, below:

Junior Cycle Irish – higher level

Junior Cycle Irish – ordinary level

Junior Cycle Irish – T1 (for gaelcholáistí or Irish-medium schools) higher level

Junior Cycle ‘short storygate’ controversy rumbles on

We reported yesterday on the fact that many students felt blindsided by the appearance of a question on short stories in the English paper.

We heard stories of some students leaving the question blank or leaving exam halls upset.

Many students told their parents they had never studied any short stories during their three years of the Junior Cycle.

We checked and, yes, short stories do form part of the Junior Cycle English curriculum – but it is the first time a question on them has appeared since these exams began.

The curriculum states that first, second and third year should include a “number of short stories”.

Many teachers, however, feel they are under huge pressure to teach the full curriculum and do not have time to teacher short stories.

Others say the only way to teach them is to “surface teach” the curriculum, rather than studying some texts in greater depth.

Either way, it seems students have been the real casualties. If it is any consolation, the question was worth just 15 out of 180 marks, or 8 per cent. State examiners may adjust the marking scheme, depending on how big an issue it is in the written scripts.

Our Leaving Cert stat of the day: 578

That’s the number of students sitting the first ever Ukrainian exam this year.

It’s one of 16 “non-curricular language” exams available to candidates. These are subjects which aren’t on the curriculum but which students may study themselves.

Since you didn’t ask, the next most popular non-curricular minority language subjects are Romanian (478 candidates), Croatian (121), Latvian (114) and Hungarian (63).

‘I missed the deadline for art colleges .. That was very shoddy on my part’

Looking for college advice? Maybe Arthur Mathews, co-creator of Fr Ted, shouldn’t be your first port of call.

“I should have given a lot more thought to what I planned to do after school. I even managed to miss the deadline for applications to art colleges such as NCAD (National College of Art and Design) and Dún Laoghaire Art College. That was very shoddy on my part,” he says.

He’s also refreshingly candid about his Leaving Cert performance:

“I did better in some subjects than I deserved – I think these were science and biology…” he says.

You can read the full Q&A here.