Leaving Cert: Teacher says many students found today's English exam 'challenging'

A teacher has said many students found the questions challenging in the latest Leaving Cert exam.

Students completed English paper two on Thursday afternoon.

Sue O’Sullivan Casey, from Pobalscoil Inbhear Scèine, Kenmare, Co Kerry, said the Higher Level questions on Shakespeare's King Lear challenged students to consider a variety of elements of the play.

“The questions on Shakespeare’s King Lear were manageable for those who were familiar not just with the King Lear character but minor characters also,” she said.

“The first question allowed students to write about the complex villains of the play. They could have also reflected on King Lear’s actions, too, and those of his daughter Cordelia. The alternative question centred on the staple themes of the play: justice and order.

“Other popular Single Text questions on Anthony Doerr’s ‘All the Light We Cannot See’, Arthur Miller’s ‘The Crucible’ and Mary Shelley’s ‘Frankenstein’ allowed students to explore both character and theme in their chosen texts with plenty of opportunity to offer critical analysis and argument.

“The General Vision and Viewpoint focused on aspects of human nature and the complexities within it. Students would have seen a similar style question in recent papers and should have managed this fine. The Cultural Context question, meanwhile, explored control and power and students would have been pleased to see such a question. However, the question asked students to identify the subtle ways in which divisions were explored. This may have thrown some.

“Whilst inclusion and exclusion were analysed for those students who had studied Theme or Issue. This may have proven difficult for some students if they had not explored this aspect of the texts. However, issues of power and identity would have lent themselves to this idea of inclusion/ exclusion. The Comparative questions once again only required students to base their answer on two texts for the 70-mark question. However, a great many students still answer this question based on three texts to allow for lots of opportunities to contrast and compare. Overall, those students who took their time to stop and carefully consider the keywords of the question and plan their answers would have managed well.

“Lastly, the prescribed poets that appeared on this year’s paper were not overly surprising. As many predicted, the contemporary female American poet Tracy K. Smith appeared much to the relief of a great many students. The shock of the day for many students was the absence of Hopkins. Students would have been frustrated by this, as it eliminated an option that many of them would have had worked hard on.

“Another surprise was the inclusion of not one but three Irish poets; Boland, Kavanagh and Mahon. The unseen poem featured As Far as Turn Back by Pat Boran and was succinct and easy to navigate with the questions that followed testing students’ ability to interpret the poet’s message through their use of language.

“Overall, the paper was fair and balanced with nothing too out of the ordinary. The student who had put in the work over the course of two years would have felt prepared and capable to meet each question diligently.”

Ordinary paper

Ms O’Sullivan Casey said the Ordinary Level questions were accessible and many students would have managed well.

“For students who would have studied Sive by John B. Keane, the questions asked students to consider the text’s key moments, characters and relationships. It also offered some clear, manageable functional writing tasks including the text for a podcast and a debate.

“Other questions on Arthur Miller’s ‘The Crucible’ and Colson Whitehead’s ‘The Underground Railroad’ were challenging but not unfamiliar.

“The Comparative Study saw students study their texts in relation to either Themes, Social Setting or Relationships and the questions today allowed those who knew their texts well to write about key moments that highlighted these modes at work.

“The Studied Poetry saw poems from Boland, Eliot, and Dickinson appear from the traditional poetry course and poems by Sinead Morrissey, Liz Lockhead and Jessica Traynor appear from the alternative poetry course. The Unseen Poetry question featured First Day by Theo Dorgan and the questions gave students an opportunity to demonstrate their ability to identify and comment on the poet’s use of language.

“The paper was fair and straightforward. A student who had prepared consistently over two years would have been ready to handle the questions well.”