LEAVING CERT PHYSICS HIGHER AND ORDINARY LEVEL:AN IMAGINATIVE approach in yesterday's higher-level physics exam was warmly welcomed by students and teachers alike.

While the paper ran along predicted lines, it also introduced some topical and “real world” elements in questions while examining students on basic principles of physics.

Section A which examines students on the experiments they have covered was met with widespread approval.

Teachers’ Union of Ireland representative Michael Gillespie said: “It was very much like previous years but probably a bit more straightforward overall.”

If students had done the practical element of the physics course there was plenty of scope for them in that section, according to Ger Curtin of the Association of Secondary Teachers Ireland.

The second part of the exam paper requires students to do five questions out of eight. This section was welcomed for the way it managed to ask questions about physics principles in the context of their everyday use.

Pat Doyle, physics teacher at the Institute of Education in Dublin said: “Some of the questions related to common, everyday items such as solar cells and smoke detectors.”

While there was a danger that the inclusion of these elements might have thrown some candidates, if students remained calm and observed what was being asked they would have been fine, according to Mr Doyle.

Question nine, for example, tested students’ knowledge of capacitors by asking a question about their use in cardiac defibrillators.

“It was a nice way to relate the use of capacitor to the real world,” Mr Gillespie said.

Further questions about renewable energies, Ireland’s role in great moments in physics and the Large Hadron Collider were also welcomed.

The paper was by no means easy. “Most questions had a sting in the tail,” Mr Curtin said,

At ordinary level, students were treated to a paper that lacked the imaginative questioning of its higher-level counterpart, but won praise for the layout and breakdown of its questions.

“Everything was well broken down,” Mr Gillespie said. “If students couldn’t do a particular part, it wasn’t the end of the world because they could pick up more marks in other sections of the same question.”

Students who had studied past papers and were familiar with their practical work would have been fine, according to teachers.