Junior Cert maths: post-mortem: The foundation-level Junior Cert offered an innovation that, maths teachers say, should also be introduced on the ordinary- and higher-level papers.
Foundation-level students were given four pages of formulae to accompany their paper. This replaced the old log tables used since the foundation of the State - and probably even before that.
"I would give something similar to everyone on all levels. The learning of maths shouldn't be about memorising formulas," said Dr Aidan Seery, teacher at the Institute of Education.
The higher Junior Cert maths paper featured straightforward geometry and was easier than feared, closely following the sample paper.
Question 6 on statistics was the favourite, while most complaints were caused by Question 5 on trigonometry, even though - according to Mr Jim Healy of Terenure College - the problem worked out easily enough.
This is the first year that ordinary- and higher-level Junior Cert students have not been offered a choice of questions, making trigonometry unavoidable, so there was a psychological aspect to consider.
Dr Seery agreed that "a lot of the students were smarting under the restriction. Otherwise, the paper was very accessible".
At ordinary level, "a surprisingly large number of students left the exam very early", Mr Healy observed.
"I'm not sure what this is saying to us but it seems very wasteful to leave early, especially when a number of them seemed to struggle with a fairly straightforward paper."
As at higher level, trigonometry caused most complaints, although students who dared to try it did well. A lot just turned their noses up and didn't even read the question well enough, Mr Healy said.
Dr Seery commented: "The new format is very good, but I wonder whether the size of the 16-page book was a bit daunting. In general, it's a positive thing but will take a bit of getting used to."
Another innovation was that Question 4 asked students for their reasons for answering the problem in a particular way, which Dr Seery described as "a welcome change".
The same sort of question appeared in higher-level maths last week.
This seems to indicate that the curriculum is heading towards encouraging students to think about maths, rather than just parrot formulae.