MATHS is often viewed as the most difficult of subjects. However, relieved Junior Certificate students were happy with yesterday morning's papers.
With the exception of a few minor quibbles, teachers seemed to agree that the first papers, at foundation, ordinary and higher levels, were a reasonable test of students' knowledge and skills.
All three papers higher, ordinary and foundation were very fair, said Sister Marie McNamara, a maths teacher at St Mary's Secondary School, Nenagh, Co Tipperary.
"The higher paper contained no surprises. It was user friendly and a very good test of students," she said. "If they were familiar with the course they should do very well on that paper. The ordinary paper was a nice, broad paper with plenty of room for everybody," she added.
The foundation level paper also offered students plenty of scope and should have been well within their capabilities, Sister Marie said.
Mr James Reidy, who teaches maths in Castlerea Community School, Co Roscommon, was equally positive about the higher level paper. "It followed the same format as previous years. There were no really tricky questions, though part 10 of the first question might catch a few students out.
"By the time they get to that part, they are often out of breath," he said.
Mr Reidy said that students would also have had to be alert to the last part of question 2, which asked for a percentage rather than a number. "The first two parts of question 3 (solving for x and factorising), the question they love to hate, were straightforward, run of the mill.
"But part 3 (solving the equation) could prove a problem except for those very good students looking for higher marks."
Mr Reidy noted that part (a) (iii) of question 5 was similar to the problematic part 10 of question 1 but said that when students can see it on a graph they might find it a bit easier.
"A few students said that they didn't like the look of the quadratic equation in question 6 and didn't go near the first part. If you could get through it, part 2 and 3 were fine Mr Reidy commented. Overall, students though the paper was tough but do able. It was a good test. It was fairly all right in comparison to previous years.
If you were looking for grades there were weren't too many pit falls. There were no real surprises. It was a good exercise, " he concluded.
Students in Maynooth Post Primary, Co Kildare, were quite happy with their morning's papers, Mr John McKeon, TUI subject representative, commented.
The foundation level paper was fine but he would have like more diagrams to have been used, he said.
"Compared with the elaborate treatment of the English paper yesterday" where full colour inserts were included with the paper we could put more resources into this paper. The philosophy behind the foundation level paper is that it is meant to be friendlier but, in appearance, it was very similar to the ordinary and higher level papers," he said.
The language in one question, which asked students to "verify Pythagoras's theorem" may have prevented some students tackling what was actually a straight forward question, Mr McKeon added.
However, he had no quibbles with the ordinary level paper 1. "I liked the first part of question 2, where students were asked to go looking for a formula," he said. The question asked for the formula for the volume of a cylinder with radius length r and height h and told students to see tables on page 7, if they wished. In previous years, students often used the wrong formula, Mr McKeon said.
The higher level paper was well constructed and students were happy enough, he said. Question 2 was long compared to question 6, but he said that is often the dilemma when choice is offered.
Exam Times received a number of phone calls from parents and students complaining about a discrepancy between the Irish and English versions of one question on the higher level paper. In the English version, each candle (in question 2(b) had a "height of 6 em and base of radius length 2 cm". As gaeilge, "Ta fad 2 cm mbonn gach coinnle acu agus fad 6 cm san airde ag gach ceann diobh." So, the question referred to the length of the base rather than "base of radius length..
One father said it was very distressing for his daughter and that a lot of time was wasted trying to sort out the confusion. Emmet O'Grady, a student in Colaiste Eoin, Stillorgan, Dublin, said that after trying the Irish version of the question a number of times and coming up with an obviously incorrect answer, he switched to the English version.