LEAVING CERT DESIGN AND COMMUNICATIONS GRAPHICS:THE SECOND examination of the new design and communications graphics course went down well with over 6,000 students.
The subject was introduced in 2007 to replace technical graphics, which was losing candidates and was regarded by teachers as too narrow.
The new course includes modern design methods such as computer-aided design.
“This exam was well laid out and clearly presented,” said John O’Sullivan of Christian Brothers Secondary School in New Ross.
“The higher level paper struck a nice balance in determining the breadth and depth of the students’ knowledge and understanding.”
Over the life of the old technical graphics syllabus, there were concerns that students and teachers had come to focus on a very narrow section of the course. Yesterday’s exam was a much more wide-ranging affair, said teachers.
“The exclusion of a topic like interpenetration will probably have thrown some students, but it has been well flagged that this new course would not depend on the old reliables,” said one ASTI subject convenor.
There were also questions on geometric sculpting and geological geometry. “These questions were expected and students would have been well-prepared,” said O’Sullivan.
“The paper was well balanced and in line with the standard of last year’s paper,” said a teacher from the Institute of Education.
The exam was interesting in its presentation of questions with reference to everyday things such as a camera clamp, F1 racing and football stadiums. In a subject where only one in 10 candidates last year was female, there was a gender-balance consideration with reference to the geometry in a lady’s hat.
About 4,000 students took the paper at higher level.
John O’Sullivan noted that the results for last year saw a significant drop in the number of A grades awarded for the subject.
“A grades were awarded to 13.8 per of students in 2008. That in itself was a drop from a high of 15.2 in 2006. Last year, the figure dropped again, to 12.8 per cent. The students put a lot of work into their assignments. This grade direction is not a pattern that we would like to see continue,” he said.
Yesterday’s exam was worth 60 per cent of the available marks Project work completed during the year makes up the remaining 40 per cent. One-third of students took design and communications graphics at ordinary level. The paper was also well-received.
