LEAVING CERT BIOLOGY: ALL LEVELSYESTERDAY'S HIGHER and ordinary-level biology papers were described as fair but challenging, although there were some aspects of the higher-level paper that might have caused upset for students.
ASTI representative and biolgy teacher Lily Cronin said that the paper was straightforward but challenging, mixing old favourites with some original questions on areas like myxomatosis.
"Everything that came up is on the syllabus, but I felt that some aspects of it were quite challenging.
"The short questions in section A could have been tough for some students, but there were some diagrams there to guide them," she added.
Ms Cronin said she thought the question on the cell cycle in this section was a bit vague and was suited to the stronger Leaving Cert students.
The question in section B on ecology got a good reaction from students, but there was quite a lot of writing to do.
"It would have been an area students covered in their field trip and they would have been comfortable with it, but there seemed to be a lot of writing in it and maybe it wasn't the best way to examine practical biology."
One section which Ms Cronin thought might have caused confusion for students was in the 14th question.
"The question asks student to give an account of the role of both ATP and NADP in photosynthesis. Students may have been thrown by this as they normally deal with NADP+ instead of NADP," she said.
"Overall, it was a challenging paper that covered a lot from the syllabus," she added, "but with some nice questions on myxomatosis and ecology which was a refreshing change."
Claire Flately, biology teacher in St Paul's Secondary School in Greenhills, Dublin, said that students were pleased with the higher-level paper, but that the emphasis was on human biology rather than plant biology.
"Some students may have struggled if they had covered a lot in plant biology.
"An awful lot of the emphasis was on human biology. However, students are pleased with it overall as it covered areas like microbiology, cell division, genetics and ecology," Ms Flately said.
Some students remarked on the clarity of the questioning and language in comparison to other years.
"One girl commented on how much clearer the questions were. She said she knew what was being asked, she just might not have had all the answers, whereas in other years, students didn't always understand what was being asked of them."
The ordinary-level biology paper was well laid out and fair, according to Ms Cronin.
"The short questions in the first section were clear and there were good diagrams.
I couldn't see any problems with the second section on experiments and it presented nothing they wouldn't have prepared. There was a nice question on ecology with an emphasis on pollution which was quite topical."
Ms Cronin thought that question 14 was a bit long for students, covering the flower, the eye and the human breathing system, but there was choice of two from the three options.
"All in all it was a fair paper, but there could have been more diagrams to help students recall what they needed.
"In particular, in the 12th question, there is a section on photosynthesis and it might have been useful to have a diagram here to refresh students' memories as it would have been some time since they did that in class," said Ms Cronin.
