It’s day five of the State exams with Leaving Cert students facing Irish paper two this morning, followed by biology in the afternoon .
Yesterday’s Irish paper one left students generally relieved, but not all expected topics appeared .
Follow our updates here with paper reviews to follow later.
Key reads
Last-minute advice ahead of the Irish exams
Ten tips for parents supporting an exam student this month
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Niamh Towey -
5 days ago
That’s it for today’s live Leaving Cert coverage.
I will be back here tomorrow morning for French and history.
If we missed anything, please get in touch by email: niamh.towey@irishtimes.com .
Niamh Towey -
5 days ago
State Examinations Commission apologises for error
The State Examinations Commission (SEC) has apologised for an error in today’s Leaving Certificate higher-level biology paper and says it will be taken into account in the marking scheme.
Question 16 (a), a genetics question, contained a mislabelling error in diagram B, the SEC said.
The four daughter cells in diagram B each had “2n”, when this should have been “n”.
A total of 36,946 candidates were entered to sit today’s Leaving Certificate biology examinations.
The exam is marked out of 400 marks. Question 16 (a) is worth a total of 30 marks and comprises five parts, (i) – (v).
The mislabelling of this diagram may have impacted candidates’ responses to parts (i) and (ii), worth a maximum of six marks each or 3 per cent of the examination total, the SEC said in a statement.
“The State Examinations Commission acknowledges that this error may have been a cause of confusion for some candidates. The SEC operates within the core principle that candidates cannot be disadvantaged due to an error on an examination paper.
“The SEC apologises to candidates impacted by this issue, noting that the impact on candidates’ answering will be fully taken into account by the chief examiner when finalising the marking scheme for this examination.
The marking scheme will, as usual, be published along with those in all other subjects after the issue of results in mid-August. Candidates will have the option of appealing their results," a spokeswoman for the SEC said.
Niamh Towey -
5 days ago
Mistake in biology paper
While there has been a broadly positive reaction from students and teachers alike to this year’s biology papers, students will have been caught out by a significant mistake on the paper.
In question 16, students were asked about meiosis, with daughter cells labelled in an accompanying diagram as “2n”, when the examiner should have labelled them as simply “n”.
Emma Ronan, a biology and chemistry teacher at St Mary’s Secondary School, New Ross, Co Wexford, said this mistake was not flagged to students in her exam centre.
“Having spoken to my own, it definitely impacted their performance in that question,” she said.
When mistakes of this nature happen, the State Examinations Commission (SEC) adjusts the marking scheme to ensure no student is disadvantaged, but it nonetheless is likely to have unsettled and confused students.
The SEC has been contacted for comment.
Niamh Towey -
5 days ago
The biology papers are now online:
Higher level A&B is here , and C is here
Ordinary level A&B is here , and C is here
Niamh Towey -
5 days ago
Leaving Cert biology offers students plenty of choice, but next year’s cohort won’t be so lucky
Peter McGuire has his full paper review here:
There has been a broadly positive reaction from students and teachers alike to this year’s biology papers.
Emma Ronan, a biology and chemistry teacher at St Mary’s Secondary School, New Ross, Co Wexford, said the paper rewarded students who had engaged consistently with the course and who had developed a broad understanding of the subject.
“Overall, I felt this year’s higher-level biology paper was fair and accessible,” Ronan said.
“There was substantial choice throughout the paper. Students who wished to avoid particular areas such as plant biology or genetics could largely do so without being disadvantaged, allowing them to play to their strengths while still demonstrating a broad understanding of the course.”
Declan Cathcart, a biology teacher at TheTuitionCentre.ie, said that students with strong knowledge of definitions, labelled diagrams and core biological processes were well rewarded.
“Questions were generally clear and direct, although success still depended on genuine understanding rather than simple recall of isolated facts,” he said.
The significant coverage of units one and two stood out for Ronan.
“By my analysis, approximately 84.5 per cent of the paper could be answered using material from these two units alone,” she said.
“Students who had focused on developing a strong understanding of the foundational concepts in these units were therefore very well placed before even attempting questions from unit three.”
Ronan said that short questions contained a good balance of topics and were generally app…
Read the full article at The Irish Times →
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