Leaving Cert history: verdict: Students who relied on predictions were delighted to see Parnell and Bismarck on yesterday's Higher Level history paper.
The long and detailed history syllabus encourages many students to take chances based on past papers and this year it paid off. Some students were upset not to see the words "Cold War" in Section D but the topic was there, couched in a question on American involvement in Europe.
Mr Donough O'Brien, a teacher at Mullingar Community College, thought the paper was testing, and pointed to an elaborate question on Irish cultural nationalism as an example. He was also surprised to note the near-total exclusion of Northern Ireland from the paper.
"For years it has been Department policy to include at least one question on Northern Ireland because students are not inclined to study it," said Mr McDonough. "It was surprising to see no direct question on the North at all this year." Since 1989, Northern Ireland has come up 11 times.
Mr McDonough also felt that the question on fascism was not quite what students were expecting.
Ordinary-level students should have had no problem yesterday, except for the usual race against time, according to commentators. A new section allowing students to answer on any area of the syllabus, as long as it hasn't appeared elsewhere on the paper, has been welcomed. It was the second year of this option so students had a chance to prepare an essay in advance. This is considered a positive step, as the failure rate at ordinary-level history is relatively high.
The numbers taking history have dropped from a majority in the 1980s to only one in five today. The subject is seen as long and time consuming.
The Department recently granted history students 20 extra minutes to get through the five essay questions. The failure rate at ordinary level is greater than average but the number of As at higher level is actually increasing.
In September this year, students of history will take on a new syllabus, with less emphasis on military history, and more focus on social, economic and cultural history, with more female historical figures and more research.
The exam will also be restructured, demanding less writing from students in an exam that is considered the most physically challenging of all Leaving Cert subjects. The new syllabus will mark the end of 80 years of the current history course.
