Can you calculate the curved surface of a closed cylindrical metal can? This question gave Junior Cert students doing ordinary-level maths a bit of a shock yesterday morning. But life is full of all sorts of unanticipated hitches. Apart from this surprise, the consensus on the paper was that it was "fair" and "fine but testing enough".
The "curved surface" question was "unexpected", according to Ms Eileen Scanlon, ASTI subject representative and a teacher at Salerno Secondary School in Galway. "It could have put children off," she said. And the question on statistics was "testing" also. Overall it was "a difficult paper" and students would have found it "testing enough", she said.
"For those who had difficulty with maths it would be quite testing but it's hard enough to get a paper that suits the wide range of ability," she said.
Mr John Evans, a teacher at Mount Temple Comprehensive School in Dublin, said that the paper is "apparently designed to control the number of A grades at this level" because, he explained, if you get an A at this level, you should be doing higher.
Mr Thomas O'Connor, TUI subject representative and a teacher at St Paul's Community College in Waterford, said the paper was "quite nice in general" and "well-pitched". He felt "there was plenty there for the weaker students".
He said the foundation-level exam was fine but "there was a lot of writing and a lot of reading". Many of the students who sit this exam "have problems with English and a lot of them would be half way through and get tired".
It was "too wordy", said Mr Cammie Gallagher, chairman of the Maths Teachers' Association in Galway and a teacher at St Jarlath's College in Tuam. "Students at this level don't want too many words. The aim of this level is to bring the kids through numeracy skills. And they have to answer all the questions; they should get a bit of choice."
Ms Veronica Kerin, a teacher at Mount Tenple, said: "These students need plenty of diagrams and tables to assist them in showing the examiner what they can do." Yesterday's higher-level paper was "quite testing" and more difficult than last year's, said Mr O'Connor. Ms Kerin said the paper was "difficult", overall. The questions were too long and became too difficult too quickly with little evidence of a "gradient of difficulty approach", she said. Mr John McKeon, TUI subject representative and a teacher at Maynooth Post Primary School, Co Kildare, said the paper was fair and well constructed but question 4(b) was "trickier than usual". Ms Maria Kelly, a teacher at Bishopstown Community School in Cork also picked this question out as being difficult. Students who generally like statistics "didn't like the (b) part of the question", she said. Mr Evans, who is also a former chairman of the Maths Senior Cycle Syllabus Committee, said the morning's higher level paper was "a fair, testing paper".
