LEAVING CERTIFICATE: ENGLISH PAPER 1 HIGHER LEVEL:THE COMPULSORY Leaving Certificate heatwave was matched by an equally pleasant English paper yesterday, as over 34,000 higher-level students reported questions that ranged from "delightful" to "inspiring".
The one cloud on the horizon was the length of Paper 1, which left some students struggling to finish, say teachers.
Alan Thompson of the Abbey Vocational School in Donegal described the paper as “robust, requiring substantial engagement with the tasks required”.
However, he felt that the overall subject matter of the paper was interesting for the age group.
Higher-level students kicked off the Leaving Cert with a straight debate on the ethics of zoos. Two passages, one written by Veronica Chrisp, head of marketing at Dublin Zoo, the other by Bernie Wright of the Alliance for Animal Rights, argued the merit of zoos.
Students were asked to pick a side. “I picked the argument by the woman from Dublin Zoo,” said one Mayo student. “Nine hundred thousand visitors a year can’t be wrong.”
Further comprehension questions examined life in the Australian outback and the notion of making decisions.
The essays were particularly well received – students with an essay subject in mind before they entered the exam hall should have had no problem finding a home for their idea in a “wide-ranging and accommodating” selection of composition titles.
“Everyone in Laurel Hill Coláiste was happy with the paper,” said Limerick teacher Anne Gormley. “The Leaving Cert students were delighted with the compositions and the broad range of topics suited them very well. Besides, the paper was very suited for young people, giving them a chance to write on areas that are of interest to their own lives and experiences.”
Essay topics included a personal essay on daydreaming, a short story in which the central character is faced with an important decision, a magazine article on memories of school and a newspaper article on some of today’s public figures, “exploring the qualities that make them worthy of respect”.
Students were also asked to write a persuasive speech in defence of science and technology, or a short story in which a photograph is part of the plot.
In a deviation from the usual format, students were tasked with writing a script for an advertisement. “This would have posed a challenge for students, as there was a number of aspects involved – dialogue, persuasion and scriptwriting. They won’t have seen anything like that before but for the stronger students it was an opportunity to shine,” said one teacher.
The short stories, as expected, continued the more specific guidelines from last year, and were “imaginative but challenging”.
“This was an excellent paper, offering intelligent, stimulating reading material and visuals, and a wide range of challenging and interesting writing tasks,” said Jim Lusby of the Institute of Education in Dublin.
