What sort of difficulty are you hoping for?

straight_As

Which would ye prefer? A hard paper that lets you show your knowledge and makes your grade stand out or a more student-friendly paper that is doable for everybody but in which it is more difficult to differentiate someone who has done a lot of study from someone who hasn't done so much?

I'm kinda 50-50 tbh. In subjects like maths, applied maths and physics I think I'd rather a tough exam cos I feel as though I've worked hard for them.

For all the languages, easy as possible please!

What do ye think?

**Timbuk2**

Well people tend to be happy after an easy paper but the marking is very hard. For example, there was one year in HL Maths where you had to apply the perpendicular distance formula. Too many people were doing well on the question, so the mean mean examiner decided to dock 7 marks (out of 10) for forgetting to put the modulus (absolute value) signs on the formula.

In a hard paper, especially in some subjects like Applied Maths, they may throw marks at you for nothing. However, those that do Applied Maths know that a hard paper means making mistakes. And if you make a mistake in Applied Maths, it can make your further questions very difficult to solve, and in some cases, impossible. Therefore, a good student may not be able to achieve his full potential on a hard paper due to time constraints, and therefore he would not get as much marks as he would on an easy paper, possibly due to time constraints or just 'giving up' because it's not working out.

I hope that makes sense - it's not a very coherent post

kev9100

So long as the paper is fair, I don't mind. It's when they make mistakes in the paper, like in Biology last year, I get pissed off.

ihavequestions

kev9100 wrote: »

So long as the paper is fair, I don't mind. It's when they make mistakes in the paper, like in Biology last year, I get pissed off.

True. I'm a repeat and that mistake cost me 10 points......im almost positive :P I never got my paper rechecked because I was 6marks away from going up to a A1. I knew I was in with going up 3 marks from a Q in the SQs but also knew that I had the right answer for the predator question or whatever it was. Since everyone in my year who had an answer similar to mine myself and my teacher concluded that it would be pointless sending my paper to be rechecked as there was no way they could award me the extra 3 marks for the predator Q. How wrong we were! Of course, they rechecked the papers when the mistake in the marking scheme was pointed out, but only for the papers that were within 3 marks of the next grade

Anywaaays.... I would like a difficult paper in Bio :cool: , home Ec, pass maths and possibly english ! Easy spanish paper please!! And easy construction.... dont have a clue whats going on there! Not decided about physics.... I just hope they dont make the calculations harder... i do pass maths !!!

zam

ihavequestions wrote: »

True. I'm a repeat and that mistake cost me 10 points......im almost positive :P I never got my paper rechecked because I was 6marks away from going up to a A1. I knew I was in with going up 3 marks from a Q in the SQs but also knew that I had the right answer for the predator question or whatever it was. Since everyone in my year who had an answer similar to mine myself and my teacher concluded that it would be pointless sending my paper to be rechecked as there was no way they could award me the extra 3 marks for the predator Q. How wrong we were! Of course, they rechecked the papers when the mistake in the marking scheme was pointed out, but only for the papers that were within 3 marks of the next grade

Anywaaays.... I would like a difficult paper in Bio :cool: , home Ec, pass maths and possibly english ! Easy spanish paper please!! And easy construction.... dont have a clue whats going on there! Not decided about physics.... I just hope they dont make the calculations harder... i do pass maths !!!

what was the "mistake" in biology last year?

unknown13

The DOE / SEC are going to set out a standard paper and if you put in the work in, you will find it easy and if you don't do the work, you will find it difficult.

ihavequestions

the mistake was that the marking scheme for the predator q was far too narrow and they werent accepting students answers that were still correct in their own right! they changed the marking scheme in like oct or nov and > good few students got offered their first choices then,including a girl who is repeating with me.she didn't take it though, starting in nov would be pointless like you would have missed loads of work,not to mention freshers week! the whole thing was a joke! us leaving certs 09 had a hard time of it, what with that and the whole english paper 2 disaster!lets hope it will go a lot smoother this year!

Ruski

I'd rather a paper which is of a fair standard. Though knowing the past exams, there are obviously going to be curveballs to separate the men from the boys.

Seloth

Biology is the worst for marking..such as accepting Organisms soem eyars and not toehrs and such...bloody ricidulouse..and some of the true definitions for the marking schemes arent in the books.

Doyler92

Just give me a paper which contains the questions in which I know the answers for and that will do me.

DancingQueen:)

I'm going to go for in the middle :cool: As mentioned if we get an easy paper they'll mark it harder and if we get a hard paper I might not be able to get through it sane! So some sort of middle although in saying that I think some of the papers last year like French were great so i'm hoping they don't make it too hard this year.

zam

I find the biology marking schemes pretty reasonable - WAY more reasonable than chemistry anyway which is pretty rigid.
What was the predator definition they wanted, does anyone know?

jumpguy

zam wrote: »

I find the biology marking schemes pretty reasonable - WAY more reasonable than chemistry anyway which is pretty rigid.
What was the predator definition they wanted, does anyone know?

The normal one is "hunt down and kill/catch prey". I don't see what the fuss was about...it was the same definition as in all marking schemes, but I won't complain, it's easier on us.

vicksterchick

Doyler92 wrote: »

Just give me a paper which contains the questions in which I know the answers for and that will do me.

Same here. To be honest, the Leaving Cert is the one thing standing between me and college, and I just want to get my points and get out of school. I'm not looking to impress any examiners.

Then again, that's just my own personal situation.