Wide-ranging, relevant and thought-provoking: today’s Leaving Certificate geography paper was true to form with a mix of exciting physical geography topics and engaging social themes.
Covering everything from volcanoes to racial tensions, the exam hit most of the syllabus and left little scope for predictions or last-minute cramming, said Neil Curran, a teacher at St Columba’s College in Stranorlar, Co Donegal.
“The higher paper was a very fair paper that covered most of the important topics on the course. The one thing that stood out was how topical and relevant this paper was. A question on the ethnic and religious issues arising from migration was a sensitive topic to which candidates could respond in a variety of ways depending on their own experiences,” said Mr Curran.
Geography is traditionally a difficult syllabus to narrow down, as most of the areas are touched upon in the exam. However, those following patterns may well have predicted the appearance of some topics, said Jacquiline Sheil of Borris Vocational School.
“Students who tried to pre-empt the paper would have been pleased to see metamorphic rocks and secondary economic activities, which haven’t come up in a while,” she said. Less expected was a question on patterns and processes in the physical environment.
“Students were examined on fluvial adjustments as opposed to the more frequently examined human interaction with fluvial processes,” said Ms Sheils. “The short questions continue to require students to think and apply key geography skills.
“This was a topical paper, covering issues such as disposable income in Irish households, international trade, and the impact of Irish membership of the EU. Tough but fair.”
Michael Doran, a teacher at the Institute of Education, said it was a topical and fair paper, “which a well-prepared student would have had little difficulty with”.
“It succeeded in relating the geography course to the everyday world, with issues such as the European crisis, fossil fuels, ethnic and religious migration and income levels in Ireland all making an appearance on the paper,” he said.
Despite the breadth of the syllabus, geography continues to be one of the most popular elective subjects on the Leaving Cert curriculum. Almost 26,000 students were predicted to sit the exam this year. The subject is slightly more popular with boys than girls, with 14,400 male candidates this year.
The ordinary-level geography paper also covered a lot of ground, as 3,684 students were tasked with picking a site for a school, examining the role of multinational companies in Ireland interpreting graphs on housing statistics.
