Leaving Certificate physical education (PE) students faced a less challenging higher-level paper than last year, with fewer time management issues, teachers have said.
“The feedback from students was that the timing was good, and this left them under less pressure than usual,” said Hilary Fitzgerald, a PE teacher at FCJ Bunclody Secondary School in Co Wexford and a member of the ASTI.
“There was a welcome question on Daniel Wiffen, Mona McSharry and Róisín Ní Riain, all of whom won medals at the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic games.”
That said, some of the shorter section A questions were tricky.
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“Students had to think carefully about applying their knowledge to PE,” she said. “It’s a nicer way to do it but might challenge some.”
Brian Gregan, a PE teacher at the Institute of Education, said that if students stuck to the main topics one (skill and technique), two (physiological and psychological development) and six (ethics), they would have done very well.
Gregan said section A, where students had to answer 10 out of 12 short questions, was a nice opener to the exam.
“RAMP warm up, anti-doping, Newton’s Laws, concepts of physical activity and levers all appeared in a manner that students will have expected and so there should be no upsets here,” he said.
However, both Gregan and Fitzgerald agreed there was a distinct challenge as question six on the component of fitness was worded in a way that some would find tricky.
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Fitzgerald added that question four, on biomechanics, was generally one of the areas students were more inclined to struggle with.
“This year, the question was phrased differently; it was much more open and didn’t give students an example to work off. They may be happy with that but some could be thrown a little,” she said.
Gregan said section B required students to read a case study and answer all questions, so they had no choice there.
“Overall, it was a good case study based on swimming and I think the vast majority of students will be pleased as nothing too tricky came up,” he said.
“This section was dominated by ideas of national governing bodies, high-performance sport, periodisation and nutrition. The latter topic was expected after its surprise absence on last year’s exam,” he said.
In section C, the final stretch of the paper, students had to answer three out of five longer questions. “Beginning with question 14, parts (a) to (c) were nice but part (d) was something most students try to avoid,” Gregan said.
“The reason is that the question was based on artistic sports, which are less mainstream among the students than a purposive sport, like football. The rest of the question was made of familiar concepts around stages of learning, principles of effective practice.”
Fitzgerald agreed, saying most students come to this subject from a games background.
“They would be prepared, but it’s a little outside their comfort zone,” she said.
Try this one at home: Leaving Cert PE, Section A, Question Six
Choose one Health Related Fitness (HRF) component and one Performance Related Fitness (PRF) component from the following:
- balance
- coordination
- flexibility
Outline one activity that you could use as a combined approach to training, to improve performance in the two chosen components of fitness. You may use a diagram if you wish.
