Leaving Cert business papers 'nice' while Junior Cert German was 'approachable exam'
The higher and ordinary Leaving Certificate business papers were "nice", while the Junior Certificate German paper was an "approachable exam", according to teachers.
Commenting, Studyclix subject expert and business teacher, Claire O’Brien of Colaiste Muire, Crosshaven, Cork, said: “Overall, the Higher Level paper looked to be a nice paper; students in our school said that they were happy with the paper but found some of the short questions tough.
"There were a lot of short questions focused on units 6 and 7, including questions on Inflation, Taxation, European Union, Global Business and International Trade. This highlights that global current topics are always related to the Business course and exam.
“The Applied Business Question this year was on units 2, 3 and 4, so there was no surprise that part A asked about entrepreneurial skills and characteristics.
"Part B asked about the management activity of control, asking students to evaluate, meaning they need to share their opinions with relevant business knowledge. Some students can find this difficult.
"Part C was about the functions of Human Resource Management, which is a nice question, but students would have had to be careful to relate the functions to the text about Inis Bia."
O'Brien said in the long questions there was, again, a link to current affairs, with the European Union and International Trade being reflected on.
"This question brought in Global Marketing, which allowed students to connect between units and highlight their global knowledge, again linking to the real world," she said.
"There was a nice mix of the units throughout the long questions that helped students to have more choices on the paper. Questions from Contract Law, Employment Equality, Government's effects on businesses, Unfair Dismissal Act, Management Skills (Communication and Management), Insurance, Change, Business Expansion and Marketing.
"There were a few mathematical questions, with a calculation on pay and the break-even chart. This again would have helped with students’ choice as it gave a break from the theory questions.”
On the ordinary level Leaving Certificate business exam, O'Brien said it had a "nice mix" of short questions using a lot of different techniques, like ticking the box, giving definitions, labelling diagrams, and matching the terms.
"Again, we see real life example coming into the ordinary level paper’s long questions, with the high-ticket prices for Oasis to Apple’s €13 million tax bill ruled by the European Union.
"Overall, seems to have been a nice paper with a range of questions to cover all the units."
Junior Certificate German exam
Commenting on the Junior Certificate German exam, which was common level, Studyclix subject expert and German teacher Geraldine Dwyer said it was "pleasant" and covered a range of topics.
Dwyer, who teaches German at St Mary's Secondary School, Macroom, Co Cork, said the paper covered a range of topics in the Reading Comprehensions, such as signs, compound nouns, celebration and food, holidays, travel, and German school tradition.
"The exam included different question formats, such as match up, multiple choice and questions to be answered in English," she said.
"The comprehensions to be answered in English required considerable detail and a good range of vocabulary. The written section was like the format in past papers, as it contained a fact file and blog.
"The blog covered a range of topics and gave an opportunity to use knowledge on various topics, such as siblings, weekend, pet, pocket money, school, school trip, languages and Christmas Holidays in the past tense. In all, the exam had a good variety of topics and was an approachable exam.”
