JUNIOR CERTIFICATE MUSIC:STUDENTS WERE met by a fair music exam with a few tricky surprises yesterday, according to teachers.
Mairéad Maguire of the PostPrimary Music Teachers’ Association said that, while higher level students may have been thrown by two unexpected changes to the format, the paper was well received.
In question one, students were asked to give two examples of a ‘lied’, a German word meaning song, which is generally used among English speakers as a term for a European romantic song. The word lied had not previously been used on an exam paper.
In question two, only part of the score was printed, whereas students would normally expect the entire score to accompany the question. “This was quite unexpected, but the question itself was very doable,” said Maria Morgan, Teachers’ Union of Ireland music representative.
A question on Irish music collectors was left open for students, while another on dictation was very straightforward. Questions nine and 10 of the higher level paper were also quite predictable and should have posed little difficulty for any wellprepared student.
The ordinary level paper was “fair, reasonable, and well suited to students,” said Ms Morgan.