LEAVING CERT GEOGRAPHY - HIGHER AND ORDINARY:IT IS the third most popular elective subject after biology and French, and Leaving Certificate geography did not disappoint the 25,509 students sitting the paper at higher and ordinary level yesterday.

The higher paper was described as topical and user-friendly. “The new syllabus, which was examined today for the fourth time, was designed to make geography vital and relevant,” said Jimmy Staunton of Sligo Grammar School.

“The exams are serving this purpose well. There were plenty of topical and meaningful questions on the paper that students could connect to current issues.”

Topics on yesterday’s higher paper included the mobility of multinational companies between economies and the relationship between fossil fuels and the environment. On the day of the European elections, there was also a question on the effect of European enlargement on Ireland.

Teacher Tom Hunt described the higher paper as “satisfactory, standard, topical”. “A number of topics that have not been examined before came up today, specifically isostatic processes. This was expected, so students would have been pleased to see it.”

Geography-watchers noted that all aspects of the four-year-old syllabus have now been examined. The new syllabus is much wider in content than its predecessor, featuring topics such as social and economic geography.

There was a concern expressed about the regional section, which was a little more difficult than in previous years, according to commentators. Physical geography was also regarded by some teachers as challenging.

“Overall this was a very fair paper with an excellent choice of questions,” said Michael Doran of the Institute of Education in Dublin. “The questions were clear and could be easily understood. A well-prepared candidate would have had little problem with this exam.”

Doran also noted that the physical geography section provided the key topics on which candidates would have focused, such as landform development, although some candidates may have been surprised to see that some unrelated topics were examined within a single question, he said.

Candidates that were banking on the characteristics of biomes in geoecology would have been disappointed, as this was the first year that this aspect of the syllabus was not examined, said one teacher.

“As always, this was an accessible and user-friendly paper,” said Tom Hunt added.

The ordinary-level paper was described as “visually attractive” with plenty of colourful stimuli to inspire students.

“This was a clear and well-laid out paper for ordinary-level candidates,” Doran said. “There was a good balance of questions.”

Staunton said the style was similar to previous years. “There was one difficult question on physical geography, which included plate tectonics. This would have challenged some ordinary-level students.”

About 4,000 students took the ordinary-level geography paper.

Earlier in the year, students completed a practical project based on their local environment with marks equal to 20 per cent of the total.