Leaving Certificate maths: paper 2 - higher level

John Downes

Students sitting yesterday's Leaving Certificate maths paper 2 at higher level were faced with a large amount of problem-solving, meaning many were writing for the full 2½ hours of the exam.

The paper, which is often viewed by students as more difficult than paper 1, was welcomed by some teachers who said it offered students an opportunity to redress the balance after an "awkward" first paper last Thursday.

However, others said this depended on which questions students chose to answer and pointed to trigonometry as being particularly challenging. This meant some students could have faced two difficult papers overall.

Thomas O'Connor of St Paul's community college in Waterford, the TUI subject representative, said paper 2 was "very nice" for students. Sections such as question eight, which in previous years had caused difficulties, were particularly straightforward.

"Students who took the time to draw a diagram would have found these a big help in the questions on co-ordinate geometry," he added. "But to get the paper completed in 2½ hours would have been a challenge in itself. I think most students would have been happy enough coming out of that paper."

Eileen Scanlon, ASTI subject representative from Salerno secondary school in Galway, said while there were some "lovely bits", sections of questions four and five involving trigonometry were difficult. While she had no objection to questions having challenging section Cs, presenting students with tough section Bs made it difficult to encourage them to study trigonometry.