Junior Cert geography: post-mortem: Mistakes on the Junior Cert geography papers at both higher and ordinary level could have thrown many students, said ASTI geography spokesman, Mr James Staunton.
The higher-level paper was very long and those pushed for time weren't helped by a mistake in question 15 of section 1.
"The drawing in question 15 was incorrect, the wrong colours were used and students would have wasted time trying to make it out. That's really not good enough," he said.
The use of colour on the higher-level paper was good to see, he said, but it was of "poor quality".
For the ordinary-level students there was no colour at all, which was a bit bemusing as one of the questions directed students to the "pink" shaded area of a map.
"The paper looked like it was thrown together and all the effort had gone into the higher level," Mr Staunton said.
Mr Jackie Brennan, a teacher at Rockbrook Park School, Dublin, was also disappointed with the drab ordinary-level paper. "The presentation of the higher-level paper was wonderful. It was a pity that the ordinary-level paper was not nearly as good, when they've upgraded the higher."
The lack of illustrations at ordinary level is probably due to the use of yellow paper rather than the white used for higher level.
Ordinary-level geography may not have been pretty, but it was fair, Mr Brennan said.
"The quality of the questions was not affected, they were pretty much what the students would have been expecting. The higher-level questions were also very reasonable, particularly the short questions, 19 out of the 20 were quite manageable."
