JUNIOR CERT TECHNICAL GRAPHICS AND MATERIALS TECHNOLOGY HIGHER AND ORDINARY LEVEL:JUNIOR CERT students sat down yesterday morning and afternoon to well-pitched papers that gave them plenty of scope to show what they knew, according to teachers.
Students sitting the technical graphics exam in the morning should have been fine, according to TUI subject representative Micheál Martin. The higher level paper was challenging in parts, he said, but “students just needed to take a minute to read the paper”.
“The papers were well laid out and the questions posed engaged the students in applying their knowledge and understanding of the course content to a variety of interesting artefacts,” said ASTI representative John O’Sullivan.
At higher level, Mr Martin said question 7 of the short questions was challenging. “It would have put students thinking.”
The longer questions, section B, were “fair enough.” Students may have been slightly caught by a challenging question 6, according to Mr O’Sullivan but “there was sufficient choice in the section”.
The ordinary level paper was “very much in line with the past number of years”, Mr Martin said.
Materials technology (wood) was the afternoon exam. Well prepared higher-level students would have had few problems, said TUI representative Michael Leyden.
Question 2, which asked students to design a storage unit, gave students an opportunity to showcase their knowledge, he said.
The ordinary level paper was “well pitched”, Mr Leyden added.