A number of parents rang Exam Times to say that their children were distraught leaving the exam halls after the higher-level biology paper. ASTI representative Ms Lily Cronin said biology is a broad subject so it is difficult to prepare students for very specific parts of the syllabus. Parts of the questions on yesterday's paper were specific and may have challenged some students beyond their capabilities. The questions themselves were very long but some of the answers required were quite short.
Problems may have arisen because various topics were interwoven into the questions in bits and pieces so students may not have felt that they got a "good bite" at any one particular topic.
"I would say that students would have found it challenging and taxing but the questions were on the syllabus," Ms Cronin said. The short-answer questions in part one were fine, she said. In part 2, the long-answer section, the extract from a microbiology book quoted in question 12 may have put some students off. However, the questions themselves were not that difficult, she added.
Mr Tim O'Meara, TUI subject representative, said the higher-level paper was difficult. "There was a bigger emphasis on interpretation, comprehension and application of biological knowledge than there has been in the past few years," he added. Some students would have had difficulty in interpreting some of the questions.
He agreed with Ms Cronin's analysis of the short-answer questions. "They were reasonable with the exception of question 4, which deviated from normal." In the long-answer section question 8, the genetics question, and question 9, based on practical work, were fine.
Part (c) of question 10 which dealt with the injection of insulin was difficult, he noted; however, Ms Cronin said, students would have found this question topical. The phraseology in question 11 was unusual but if students tackled it they would not have found it relatively easy to answer. "I think the biggest difficulties would have been experienced by students who were borderline between higher level and ordinary level," he added.
Ms Paula Hewison, ASTI subject representative and a teacher in De La Salle College, Waterford, said the broadness of the syllabus was reflected in the paper. The more difficult aspects of the syllabus came to the fore and students may have been disappointed in the non-appearance of some of the regular questions. She also noted that numerous aspects of the syllabus were examined within individual questions.
The ordinary-level paper was "good", according to Mr O'Meara. The questions were phrased in a straight-forward manner with good instructions as to what was required. His only quibble was with question 2 in the first section where most students would have been familiar with a much simpler experiment. Ms Cronin agreed that the ordinary-level paper was fine.
Ms Hewison commended the language in the ordinary-level paper as "plain and understandable". She said there was a good balance between animal and plant biology.
Sample question
Leaving Cert ordinary-level biology
Q13 (a) (i) Give two reasons that food preservation is important;
(ii) State three methods by which food may be preserved, and explain how each method is effective;
(iii) Name two foods which are rich in protein. Describe a test which can be carried out to show the presence of protein in a food;
(b) (i) Explain the term photosynthesis;
(ii) In flowering plants, photosynthesis occurs mainly in the leaves. Draw a large labelled diagram of a vertical section through a leaf;
(iii) Describe four ways in which the structure of a leaf is adapted to perform photosynthesis.
