JUNIOR CERT FRENCH:ORDINARY LEVEL students faced an occasionally challenging test of their language skills in yesterday morning's French exam.
The comprehension questions were largely “fine,” according to ASTI representative Beth Cooney. “They were accessible and reasonably clear.” Topics included a cake recipe as well as teenagers and their problems. “Students would have been quite happy with it,” Ms Cooney said.
The written production section of the paper received a more mixed response.
Ms Cooney thought the section provided a reasonable choice for students but others argued that the questions were too restrictive for ordinary level students.
“Some of the questions asked this year were quite specific,” said TUI subject representative Mary Costello. “Some of them I think would have been on the border of ordinary and higher level.”
Students were also asked to write a postcard, but had little wriggle room if they lacked certain vocabulary. “Again, the postcard demanded a lot of specifics,” Ms Costello said. “Generally students would expect to be asked to describe the weather for example, but here they were told to say that the weather was cold. It was just very specific for ordinary level students.”
“As usual the layout of the paper was excellent,” Ms Costello said. “It was very student friendly.”
Apart from Irish, French is by far the most popular language studied at Junior Cert level.
Just over 34,000 students sat yesterday’s exam. Almost 25,000 of those did so at higher level. Those students would have been happier than their ordinary level counterparts according to teachers as the paper was more in line with what is normally expected.
“The comprehensions were nice and age appropriate,” said Ms Costello. “There was a nice piece on cycling in Paris for example. Indeed there was something for everyone with pieces about fashion, judo and film among other topics.”
The aural exam at both levels was praised as being clear, well paced and very manageable. “Students should have been happy with that,” Ms Cooney said.
