Students had to think for themselves and apply their knowledge on this year’s Leaving Cert business papers, teachers have said.
Keith Hannigan, business teacher at the Institute of Education in Dublin, said the higher-level exam was more challenging than in previous years, despite an easy start with the short questions.
The paper was topical, with students asked to figure out what act protected the consumer in relation to Samsung Note Galaxy 7 scandal, when a number if the models caught fire.
However, Mr Hannigan was surprised that there was not a question on ethics relating to the Volkswagen emissions scandal. As expected, Brexit appeared on the paper.
“There were some novel twists in the applied business (ABQ) and long questions, with new angles taken on topics,” said Mr Hannigan.
“There was an EU flavour to this section, which students would have been expecting. Weaker students may have found the ABQ quite challenging but the answers were easy to find within the story.
“The question on facilitators and controllers was new and some students may have found it quite difficult.”
Pádraig Doherty of the Business Studies Teachers Association of Ireland and a teacher at Moyne Community College thought that a question asking students whether they thought Ireland should leave the European Union was particularly interesting because it required students to really think for themselves.
Mr Doherty said that the ordinary level paper would have been challenging for weaker students.
Topics on the paper included tourism and industrial action in the context of the Association of Secondary Teachers Ireland’s strike action last year.
