IT WAS smiles all round as students of Castlerea Community School, Co Roscommon, said Auf Wiedersehen to their Junior Cert German. Students in Pobal Scoil Neasain, Baldoyle, Dublin, and Greendale Community School, Kilbarrack, Dublin, were equally pleased with yesterday morning's papers.
However, there were somewhat mixed views on the aural tape. It was judged a little fast by students of Castlerea Community School, according to their teacher, Ms Jacqueline Kenny.
As with the other modern languages, both ordinary and higher level students listen to the same tape but answer different sets of questions. Ms Kenny said that the questions for both levels were fine.
Ms Eileen Brennan, a representative of the German Teachers' Association and a teacher in Greendale Community School, said that the tape was very clear and well paced. Her students expressed satisfaction with the aural, she added. Ms Mary Jennings, who teaches German in Pobal Scoil Neasain, agreed that the tape and questions were reasonable.
However, she said, some students thought that the questions in section A higher level, were unusual. This section featured an extract from a tape made by German students and questions were mainly about various aspects of the German students' home town.
Both ordinary and higher level written papers consist of reading comprehension and written expression sections. Ms Jennings described the ordinary level written paper as predictable and accessible. Ms Kenny said that some ordinary level students found the comprehension passage in section G, Niki deckt den Tisch, quite difficult, but the rest of the paper was manageable.
In the written expression, students had to prepare to make a telephone call to their exchange partner in Germany, as well as writing a letter to their German pen friend describing where they live, and filling in a dialogue about feeling ill with a sore throat and a temperature.
At higher level, exchange visits were also to the fore with students being asked to reply to a letter from an exchange partner in Germany. Ms Kenny praised the choice of letter. She said that the questions asked were clear and there were no surprises. The postcard was also fine but some students had a little difficulty with the German vocabulary needed to hire bicycles.
The passage, Dos Pausenbrot, or "break time", in Section G of the reading comprehension was in the present tense, which made it easier for students to understand. But, she said, the theme bullying was a little difficult for some students as it was an area that they had not really prepared. This was most difficult question on the higher level paper Ms Kenny said.
All of the students in Greendale Community College took the higher level paper this year. Their teacher, Ms Brennar said that the reading comprehension section was challenging but, for the most part, manageable. "The written (expression) section was fair and the subjects were broad enough to include the various backgrounds and interests of most students. I feel that the exam, in general, reflected well on a representative range of elements of the syllabus she said.
Ms Brennan cited the letter in the French exam, held earlier this week, that demanded a knowledge" of farm animals She said that the topic was not fair to students in and area such as Kilbarrack, so she was pleased with the topics on the written section of yesterday's German paper.