Maths and Irish Papers

Fhfm

Does anyone know when the maths and irish papers are coming out ?

siobhanod93

The irish papers are supposed to be out this week to schools and not sure about maths papers....


http://www.examinations.ie/index.php?l=en&mc=ex&sc=ie

icedtea

Teachers have told us Mid October, but with the balls they've made of project maths so far, it's impossible to know....

mcgarry098

Its awful slack that there not out yet,,,. even the teachers arent that sure what the questions will be like for the maths.

spurious

If the teachers want to know what the questions will cover, they have the syllabus. There is way too much emphasis on past papers these days. People end up able to answer questions, but knowing nothing really about their subjects.

When I did the Leaving, Maths was the only paper we saw an example of in advance and we saw 2 past exam papers before we sat the actual exam.

Much better to be prepared for anything that could come up, rather than just the topics that have already appeared in previous years.

eclipsechaser

The new maths course is so vast and the syllabus so unclear that it's practically criminal that there are no sample papers. The idea that the Department would radically change the style of questioning, and not provide examples, is plainly nuts.

If you need any proof of the lack of clarity, you just have to look at the wildly varying interpretations of the syllabus in all the different textbooks that have been published. The top maths teachers in Ireland seem confused. Even the roll-out was stupidly (and unnecessarily) complicated.

Don't get me wrong though. I don't like teaching to exams. I much prefer being able to teach off the course; in and out of the syllabus at will; and give a general knowledge and (hopefully) love of maths to all my students but, realistically, how could we not benefit from practicing with the new style of questioning?

What's happening in Project Maths is fairly scandalous. Tens (or is it hundreds?) of millions of Euro and still no sample papers for this year. Cue mass outcry in April/ May/ June. How have the media managed to ignore it all this time?

spurious wrote: »

If the teachers want to know what the questions will cover, they have the syllabus. There is way too much emphasis on past papers these days. People end up able to answer questions, but knowing nothing really about their subjects.

When I did the Leaving, Maths was the only paper we saw an example of in advance and we saw 2 past exam papers before we sat the actual exam.

Much better to be prepared for anything that could come up, rather than just the topics that have already appeared in previous years.

Anonymo

eclipsechaser wrote: »

The new maths course is so vast and the syllabus so unclear that it's practically criminal that there are no sample papers. The idea that the Department would radically change the style of questioning, and not provide examples, is plainly nuts.

If you need any proof of the lack of clarity, you just have to look at the wildly varying interpretations of the syllabus in all the different textbooks that have been published. The top maths teachers in Ireland seem confused. Even the roll-out was stupidly (and unnecessarily) complicated.

Don't get me wrong though. I don't like teaching to exams. I much prefer being able to teach off the course; in and out of the syllabus at will; and give a general knowledge and (hopefully) love of maths to all my students but, realistically, how could we not benefit from practicing with the new style of questioning?

What's happening in Project Maths is fairly scandalous. Tens (or is it hundreds?) of millions of Euro and still no sample papers for this year. Cue mass outcry in April/ May/ June. How have the media managed to ignore it all this time?

Agree with you that the department should get its act together. It's crazy that the sample paper isn't available. Nonetheless I doubt there could be any drastic changes from last year. Edco and Folens unfortunately appear to be waiting until the official department sample paper is published. However the educate.ie papers are available and have 4 unofficial sample papers. At the very least you will get practice 'with the new style of questioning'.

Best of luck!

AnnaKin

folens have maths ones out now apparently!! my teachers gonna order them

mcgarry098

Anonymo wrote: »

Nonetheless I doubt there could be any drastic changes from last year.
Best of luck!

all of paper two is the new project maths, not just two of the questions like last year so it is a big change!!!

Also we had to get the active maths book along with 2 other books and take parts from each to cover the syllabus. the active maths book is mainly made up of project maths style questions, but really annoyingly a lot of the answers in the back of the book are wrong so you never know if your doing the question right or not. So when you get a q wrong you doubt the book and sort of believe you got it right.

spurious

mcgarry098 wrote: »

really annoyingly a lot of the answers in the back of the book are wrong

That's outrageous. Write to the publishers and ask for your money back, or, at the very least, a corrected copy.

Anonymo

AnnaKin wrote: »

folens have maths ones out now apparently!! my teachers gonna order them

You could do with checking if they have any of their own sample papers included - it'd be a bit of a waste to get the folens exam papers if the educate.ie papers include all the same ones and a few more!

Anonymo

mcgarry098 wrote: »

all of paper two is the new project maths, not just two of the questions like last year so it is a big change!!!

Also we had to get the active maths book along with 2 other books and take parts from each to cover the syllabus. the active maths book is mainly made up of project maths style questions, but really annoyingly a lot of the answers in the back of the book are wrong so you never know if your doing the question right or not. So when you get a q wrong you doubt the book and sort of believe you got it right.

The active maths book is pretty good. I don't think you are correct in claiming that 'a lot of the answers ... are wrong'. This is not consistent with what others have said. Of course a few will be wrong - everybody makes slips and typos will always appear.

Also when I mentioned last years paper, I was talking about the paper 2 project maths paper taken by the 24 pilot schools. This is the paper that they will most likely replicate in terms of format.

mcgarry098

so its not a big change for those 24 pilot schools but for everyone else it is!

And for sure a lot of the active maths answers are wrong,. questions seem to be good but alot of the answers are ultimately wrong. Our teacher rang up the publisher, folens i think but im not sure, and they offered him a job to go through the book and come up with a correct set of answers so there definitely is a problem with the book. you can believe me or not but its true!

Anonymo

mcgarry098 wrote: »

so its not a big change for those 24 pilot schools but for everyone else it is!

And for sure a lot of the active maths answers are wrong,. questions seem to be good but alot of the answers are ultimately wrong. Our teacher rang up the publisher, folens i think but im not sure, and they offered him a job to go through the book and come up with a correct set of answers so there definitely is a problem with the book. you can believe me or not but its true!

Fair enough mcgarry. My point on the exam paper was more to point out that you won't be going into the exam blind to the format. If you work off the project maths papers of last year you should have a good basis.

As for the active maths book, I'm not involved in any way with the book so I have no sway either way - except for the point I already about it's reaction by other people. However, I am confident in saying that (considering the people who produced the book and reactions by other people to it) that it is only a minority of solutions that are incorrect. Nonetheless, whether an answer is right or wrong is not a matter of opinion. If you're sure you have the correct answer and see that the answer at the back of the book is different, then you can use this to test your understanding. Ask your teacher to double check. If it's your answer that is shown to be correct then that should only increase your confidence if anything.

By the way it's common practice for maths books to be republished due to people finding typos in solutions and incorrect solutions here and there. First editions often have such a problem.

whiteandlight

Guys as a pilot school teacher there are quite a few samples out there while you are waiting.
Look at Examinations.ie under 2010, the project Maths paper 2 will be like your exam format. The project Maths paper 2 from 2011 will also be relevant expcept for the Area and Volume questions which will be different. That gives you two sample papers to start with. Also if you click on the 'schools' tab there is a sample paper from 2010 paper 2 there as well. That gives you three. Bear in mind as well that these sample papers are written by the SEC the people who will write your exams so they are the best they are. The ones you buy from publishers will include ones that they make up themselves which may/may not be as good as the SEC.

The NCCA (the people who wrote the syllabus) also designed a paper available here http://projectmaths.ie/exam-papers/default.asp
Again remember that this is not designed by the people who wrote your exams.

Finally if you go to this link http://www.ncca.ie/en/Curriculum_and_Assessment/Post-Primary_Education/Project_Maths/Resources/Resources.html there are sample type questions. Two provisos on these though. There are no solutions available and there are some errors. In addition these were written as questions designed for class use not exam use so they may be too time consuming for exam questions.

Hope that helps. Any questions please feel free to ask and I'll try and help. While you are waiting for your papers though these four should give you some idea of what to expect.

eclipsechaser

Anonymo wrote: »

Agree with you that the department should get its act together. It's crazy that the sample paper isn't available. Nonetheless I doubt there could be any drastic changes from last year. Edco and Folens unfortunately appear to be waiting until the official department sample paper is published. However the educate.ie papers are available and have 4 unofficial sample papers. At the very least you will get practice 'with the new style of questioning'.

Best of luck!

I saw the educate papers (and thanks for mentioning them in case I hadn't) and while they may be perfect, they are written by a private company. So all we're getting is their interpretation of project maths. It's certainly better than nothing but it's a long way off having Department sample papers.

With all the money being thrown at this, it's just staggering to me that they don't have the sample paper out while we're in the school year.