The Leaving Cert higher-level physics paper had some tricky and wordy parts, but there was enough choice for students to swerve more difficult questions, teachers have said.
Teresa Considine, ASTI subject representative and a teacher at St Flannan’s College in Ennis, Co Clare, said there was a little bit more than usual on the paper, and some of the questions required a lot of reading.
“Otherwise, it was generally nice and very fair,” she said.
“Section A, where students answer three out of five experimental questions, had no major issues. But question six in section B was quite long and some students may not have realised how much time it required.”
RM Block
Pat Doyle, a physics teacher at the Institute of Education, said that the exam opened with a selection of questions that students would find very fair.
“There was nothing here that would strike them as being overly novel or challenging, particularly if they revised the previous exams,” he said.
“Where challenges did appear, they were mitigated by choice.”
Shaun Holly, head of physics at TheTuitionCentre.ie, agreed that section A was very fair.
“Section B, however, was very ‘busy’ and students who may have decided to leave out certain areas of the physics syllabus might have struggled,” he said.
“Sound was a popular theme throughout section B. It appeared in question seven and accounted for a full question nine. Continuing with the sound theme, the Doppler effect also returned in Q14 (b) as a half question, but the intonation of ‘angular’ velocity may have thrown some students,” Holly said.
Considine singled out question 12 on radioactivity and question 9 on sound as “lovely” questions, but said that the maths in question seven, on mechanics, was “tricky”.
Doyle said that each question in section B had a twist.
“Question six is normally very popular with students but they will be challenged a bit more than in previous years,” he said. “For example, part c asked them to ‘describe an experiment to demonstrate Archimedes’ principle, requiring them to think a little bit more laterally about the material. Those hoping to quickly rattle off a definition will have to really parse through the question to get full marks.”
Question eight was on the topic of light but, to conclude it, students had to describe an experiment for transverse waves.
“There are two experiments in this area of the course on waves but only one applies here and so if a student missed ‘transverse’, 16 per cent of that question could be instantly unavailable,” said Doyle.
“Question 11 was a mixed bag of topics and exam candidates were required to derive a formula, with the debut appearance of Fleming’s left-hand rule off-putting for some.”
[ Leaving Cert chemistry a ‘fair but testing exam’ with ‘familiar topics’Opens in new window ]
On the ordinary-level paper, Considine said that it had plenty of choice and some nice topics, including an electricity question.
“Like the higher-level paper, however, there was a lot of English and reading, which may have put some students off,” she said.
