The second day of the Leaving Cert exams has seen students sit through the second English paper this afternoon, while Junior Cert students ploughed their way through two Irish papers today.
English teacher and Studyclix.ie expert teacher, Lorraine Tuffy, noted that Poet Paul Durcan made his Leaving cert debut while Yeats was absent on the centenary of the Rising.
Ms Tuffy, who is a teacher at Jesus and Mary Secondary School, Enniscrone, Co. Sligo, said: “Students and teachers would have been more than happy with today’s English paper two at both higher and ordinary level. As widely predicted Dickinson and Bishop appeared in the poetry section with Paul Durcan making his debut on the leaving cert.
I'll never forget the sigh of relief by everyone in our exam centre after opening English Paper 2 -Thanks Paul Durcan x #leavingcert
— Máirín McGrath (@MawMcGrath) June 9, 2016
“Many students will have been surprised by the absence of Yeats in the poetry section considering it being the centenary of the Rising.
“The unseen poem on the higher paper by polish poet Czeslaw Milosz focused on the timelessness of the written word. A skilfully crafted piece, ‘And Yet the Books’ is rich in poetic technique and would have provided lots for students to decipher.
Just get rid of the unseen poetry on paper 2.. just an annoying little thing that everyone only half does after doing 3 essays #leavingcert
— Dylan Myles (@DylanFins11) June 9, 2016
“The King Lear questions didn’t throw up any great surprises with the character and the theme question offering very approachable options. Most students would have been well prepared to write on the themes of Love, Tragedy and Heroism that appeared.”
Leaving Certificate student, Ruby O’Connor, from Jesus and Mary Secondary School, Enniscrone, Co Sligo, was pleasantly surprised by the paper.
She said: “I was expecting it to be a lot more obscure and was surprised at how straightforward the questions were.
“I wasn’t thrown off by Yeats not appearing as I had figured it would be too obvious to put him on the paper in the centenary of the Rising.”
When Bishop and Durcan both came up on paper 2 #leavingcert #leavingcert2016 pic.twitter.com/MtjXbxJYTD
— LikeThis (@Rachel_OkayThen) June 9, 2016
Oisín McCaffrey, from the same school, was equally pleased with today’s exam.
He said: “Today went really well for me. I found the King Lear question was very fair and approachable.
“I did the comparative question on cultural context and that focused on who in Society holds all the Power”.
Which poet did you do in Paper 2 #leavingcert ?
— Leaving Cert 2016 (@LeavingCert16) June 9, 2016
Studyclix.ie founder Luke Saunders said there were no real surprises in today’s junior cert Irish papers.
He said: “Some students complained that some of the Ulster accents used in the listening comprehension section were unlike anything they had practiced.”
Well Irish paper 2 might as well have been in Latin 😂 #juniorcert #juniorcert2016
— Maebh {exams} (@Nialls_Unicorn0) June 9, 2016
thought i was doing well until i saw irish paper two, it all goes downhill from here #juniorcert
— kayla (@tmihansen) June 9, 2016
