Examwatch 2024: Reflections on the latest Junior Cycle and Leaving Cert exams
Educators have voiced their opinions about the recent higher-level chemistry paper, stating that it presented a balanced challenge with plenty of options for pupils and didn’t hold many unforeseen elements. Enda Dowd, a chemistry instructor at Dublin’s Institute of Education, commented that the structure of the questions didn’t stray far from the norm.
Students who took the time to go through older papers would have had a clear understanding of what to expect and would probably be pleased with their performance. According to Dowd, the paper’s language was user-friendly, and students who were well-prepared would have had no trouble responding to eight well-crafted questions out of an eleven-question selection.
Covering a wide assortment of subjects from the curriculum, the exam offered students enough diversity in topics to choose from. Mary Mullaghy, an ASTI subject representative and a teacher at Kells’ Eureka Secondary School in Co Meath, expressed that students who had put in sufficient effort would have had the chance to excel.
The paper provided a comprehensive assessment of students’ knowledge, comprehension, and analytical abilities. It incorporated a lot of queries pertaining to practical lab work, placing particular importance on observational and analytical skills. Mullaghy noted that the paper exhaustively tested the basics of chemistry and featured frequent references to real-world applications of the subject.
Dowd revealed that the paper did have a couple of unexpected areas, but none that were unjust. Specifically, he noticed the absence of questions on steam distillation of clove oil and oxidation of phenylmethanol, topics that students might have anticipated. A surprise question on the recrystallisation of benzoic acid did appear, however, something similar to what had been asked in 2022.
Dowd stressed the need for students to have a broad understanding of all the experiments instead of simply predicting what may come out as they might be caught off guard. The yearly challenging question eight on organic chemistry this time around required a simpler description of the free radical substitution mechanism.
Dowd noted that students less comfortable with maths might have faced a few challenges in parts of question nine, which needed them to work out changes in pH and concentrations of monobasic acids. As a result, they might have chosen to skip it.
Both Dowd and Mullaghy agreed that it was nice to see that the overall design and question style of the exam papers were consistent with previous years.
Ms Mullaghy touched upon the work of prominent scientists like Laurence Bragg, Dorothy Hodgkin and Marie and Pierre Curie during her talk. She praised the extensive coverage of organic chemistry, serving as the foundation for the pharmachemical industry that is crucial for the Irish economy.
On the topic of the standard level paper, she observed that it posed more of a challenge this time around. Unfamiliar terms such as ‘multistriatin’, an organic compound expelled by female elm bark beetles when discovering nourishing food, surprised some. Yet, those who diligently prepared and had thorough knowledge of the course likely found sufficient choices in the exam.
As a member of the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment’s (NCCA) chemistry development team, Ms Mullaghy expressed anticipation for advancements in the new chemistry curriculum guidelines. She articulated her expectation for the NCCA to include a compulsory experiment list in the new chemistry programme. This demand has been echoed by a staggering 97% of educators surveyed by the Irish Science Teachers’ Association (ISTA).
She warned against the destructive consequences of ambiguity in programme specifications, verified by a decrease in student enrolment for the updated agricultural science curriculum.
Ms Mullaghy also proposed an exercise relevant to the higher level Leaving Certificate in chemistry. The issue in question revolves around water hardness induced by certain soluble metal ions. The task requires identification of the chemical formulas of the two primary metal ions causing hardness in water, establishing an anion that typically combines with these metal ions when temporary hardness is evident, and another anion that typically dissolves with these metal ions in the context of permanent hardness.