JUNIOR CERT TECHNICAL GRAPHICS MATERIALS (WOOD):JUNIOR CERT technical graphics students would have been quite happy with what they saw on their exam papers yesterday morning.
Both higher and ordinary level papers were “fair and balanced”, according to teachers, although some questions were slightly more challenging than previous years.
The paper is split into short and long questions and students have a choice within each section. “The papers continued in what has become a well-designed pattern for technical graphics exams,” said John O’Sullivan, ASTI representative. “The short-answer questions started and concluded with straightforward questions which served to settle students and ease them into the longer questions.”
An effort was made at both levels to relate the coursework back to everyday objects. Question 3 at higher level, for example, related to an oil tank, while question 2 at ordinary level was based on a logo for a telephone company.
“The papers were both challenging in parts,” said TUI representative Micheál Martin. “They really showed the value of reading the questions. Sometimes, students will see a part of a question that they deem to be too hard when in fact they can pick up a lot of marks on the rest of the question if only they were to read it properly.”
In the afternoon students sat the written part of the materials technology (wood) exam, having submitted their practical projects at the end of April.
Teacher and subject expert Tony Sheridan runs resource website materialstechnologywood.com. He thought the short-questions part of the higher level exam offered students “a wide choice”. The long questions, however, threw up a recurring problem. Students are required to answer three out of five questions. “Students who have done technical graphics would be delighted with the questions,” Sheridan said. “However, question five was difficult, and if a student had chosen not to do question one, they had no choice in the remaining questions.”