HL agricultural science seemily there making it a harder paper!!

nicolejessie

new man over it is seemily making it harder because to many people are getting a's in it:(

Mayoegian

Ag. Science has a low A rate. Not too many get A's in it...

orlabobs

What??!! who's this guy? what do you know??!!

Mr Cawley

nicolejessie wrote: »

new man over it is seemily making it harder because to many people are getting a's in it:(

Sources please:cool:

Liveit

nicolejessie wrote: »

new man over it is seemily making it harder because to many people are getting a's in it:(

Troll im guessing :rolleyes:

nicolejessie

Mr Cawley wrote: »

Sources please:cool:

the examiner who corrected our projects told my teacher

orlabobs

nicolejessie wrote: »

the examiner who corrected our projects told my teacher

change how? like in what way?

Mayoegian

Liveit wrote: »

Troll im guessing :rolleyes:

I don't think he's a troll-just misinformed.

nicolejessie

orlabobs wrote: »

change how? like in what way?

suposed to be making it harder dought if there will be to much change we would of have to be notified

UpTheSlashers

My teachers cousin bought a dog off a guy who said that he saw some guy sneaking into the department with some sort of gadget to make th writing invisible so everyone will fail ag science

wonderfulname

nicolejessie wrote: »

new man over it is seemily making it harder because to many people are getting a's in it:(

this doesnt affect us, our paper was written months ago, before the projects were anywhere near completion.

although i have heard something to this effect, but more modernize it rather than toughen it up, and in all fairness it is a bit ancient.

nicolejessie

wonderfulname wrote: »

this doesnt affect us, our paper was written months ago, before the projects were anywhere near completion.

although i have heard something to this effect, but more modernize it rather than toughen it up, and in all fairness it is a bit ancient.

well our examiner was reli mean aswell tried to take stupid marks of our class


agree wid ya there it is a bit ancient

wonderfulname

nicolejessie wrote: »

well our examiner was reli mean aswell

examiners for language orals can be just as mean. i really think its just in the pipeline and we're fine.

yesno1234

6% of Higher level Agricultural Science students got an A1 which is lower than in chemistry and physics. So how are too many people getting A's in the subject.

!!!

There's actually a new guy setting the paper this year, he's a biology teacher (or something biology anyway), I'm screwed...

wonderfulname

!!! wrote: »

There's actually a new guy setting the paper this year, he's a biology teacher (or something biology anyway), I'm screwed...

biology? oh dear..

UpTheSlashers

Rainbowtrout might have some info on this, I can't see there being any changes for this years exams though

ForTheLoveOf_Fi

yes i heard it was supposedly having more of a biology slant to it than usual..

maisiedaisy

The guy who is setting the paper this year set it last year too...the changeover happened last year so we should be ok

bearcub

I've heard that they're trying to move biology away from just regurgitating definitions and methods and put some interpretation into it, and make it more relevent , specifically with ecology going towards comprehension.

perhaps they're going to try something similar with ag. to make it less archaic.

wonderfulname

maisiedaisy wrote: »

The guy who is setting the paper this year set it last year too...the changeover happened last year so we should be ok

Phew last year was lovely!

I've heard that they're trying to move biology away from just regurgitating definitions and methods and put some interpretation into it, and make it more relevent , specifically with ecology going towards comprehension.

perhaps they're going to try something similar with ag. to make it less archaic.

Ag is far less like that anyway, its what i like about it. The other science subjects are a case of learn everything by rote, you don't even have to understand what your writing. In ag even if you don't remember the correct terms or phrases if you understand what your saying and can explain yourself then its ok.

GVNDNN

Last years paper was the nicest in a long time , so hopefully he makes it similar...

I have to agree with the comment above, i prefer it than Biology where you can express it without having to learn it off by heart

lc2010

wonderfulname wrote: »

Ag is far less like that anyway, its what i like about it. The other science subjects are a case of learn everything by rote, you don't even have to understand what your writing. In ag even if you don't remember the correct terms or phrases if you understand what your saying and can explain yourself then its ok.

Yeah well like lets face it ag is hardly hard to understand!!!:p:)

!!!

maisiedaisy wrote: »

The guy who is setting the paper this year set it last year too...the changeover happened last year so we should be ok

Nope, not true

There is a new guy... biology orientated.

wonderfulname

!!! wrote: »

Nope, not true

There is a new guy... biology orientated.

Aw crap... I nearly would have preferred blissful ignorance this is going to work me up so much come the week after next..

bearcub

i would've thought ag. would be trying to stear away from the biology side, its already a bit dodgey how closely they are linked. specifically microbiology and genetics. well certainly too dodgey for trinners

Fete

wonderfulname wrote: »

although i have heard something to this effect, but more modernize it rather than toughen it up, and in all fairness it is a bit ancient.

SOunds like this would make it easier if anything.

ForTheLoveOf_Fi wrote: »

yes i heard it was supposedly having more of a biology slant to it than usual..

That would suit me

toto14

our project examiner told a few people he was interviewing that genetics was going to be a big topic for this year...so maybe it is more biology based

rainbowtrout

UpTheSlashers wrote: »

Rainbowtrout might have some info on this, I can't see there being any changes for this years exams though

We as examiners are not told what will be on the paper or who sets it. So I have no idea where ideas such as 'the examiner told our teacher that it's going to be harder this year' comes from. That applies to any subject.

The reality is the SEC try to keep the grade range, percentage of As/Bs/Cs etc fairly uniform from year to year in each subject. If after an exam it was found to be too hard or too easy the marking scheme is adjusted accordingly. This is not done on a whim. The SEC don't just sit down and listen to the feedback on 906 on 2Fm of the type 'Maths Paper 2 was brutal, I couldn't do any of the calculus questions' They will take a sample set of papers and apply the marking scheme and see how things are panning out before making a decision on marks etc.

But aside from all that you do get papers that are considered easy or hard and the scheme is adjusted to suit. This is to allow for the fact that students are graded against the same standard every year.

Eg: there were a lot of complaints after the change in English Paper 2 last year.... there wasn't a major change in the grades despite the change in paper which probably threw a few people off.


But getting back to Ag Science. The clue is in the name Agricultural Science. It is not just about farming, it is classed as a laboratory science which accounts for the large proportion of biology type questions on the paper. The other clue is that 45/100 marks for the project are for the experiments which would be more science than agriculture. Obviously if you are also doing Biology for LC this is a huge bonus as there is a considerable overlap. Papers are set based on what is on the syllabus. Syllabi for all subjects can be found on examinations.ie I think. They are not based on textbooks. Textbooks are merely a publishers interpretation of the syllabus, which is why they vary, they don't all have the same info, why teachers give extra notes and why 'but it wasn't in my book, it's not fair putting it on the exam paper' is not an acceptable answer.

The paper will not be made harder or easier. It will be set to cover all areas of the course. Chief Examiners Reports are made available on the examinations.ie website every year for all subjects (not every subject is published every year). They highlight the strengths and weaknesses in answers given and questions attempted.


The layout of a paper will not be ever changed without prior notice. So you can expect a Q1 to be 10 short questions, Q2 to be soil, Q3 to have two options, Q4 to be experiments, Q7 to be genetics and Q9 to be scientific explanations as per usual.

rainbowtrout

toto14 wrote: »

our project examiner told a few people he was interviewing that genetics was going to be a big topic for this year...so maybe it is more biology based

Genetics is on it every year. It's always question 7.

Fad

After rainbowtrout's excellent reply this thread is over.

/locked