{"id":489001,"date":"2026-06-08T13:09:11","date_gmt":"2026-06-08T13:09:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/489001\/"},"modified":"2026-06-08T13:09:11","modified_gmt":"2026-06-08T13:09:11","slug":"leaving-cert-day-four-maths-paper-two-will-have-pushed-students-comfort-zones-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/489001\/","title":{"rendered":"Leaving Cert day four: Maths paper two \u2018will have pushed students\u2019 comfort zones\u2019 \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Following a mixed reaction<\/a> to the Leaving Certificate maths paper one on Friday, students this morning resumed their exams with the second maths paper at 9.30am. Irish paper one follows this afternoon, beginning at 2pm. <\/p>\n

Key reads<\/p>\n

Niamh Towey – 44 minutes ago<\/p>\n

Ordinary level paper \u2018fair, modern and thoughtfully designed,\u2019 teacher says<\/p>\n

Meanwhile maths paper two at ordinary level was a \u201cfair, modern and thoughtfully designed paper that rewarded understanding over memorisation,\u201d maths teacher Jean Kelly said. <\/p>\n

The paper allowed students to \u201cengage with their lives through a mathematical lens,\u201d Kelly, a teacher at the Institute of Education, said. <\/p>\n

The paper felt like a bridge between project maths – which emphasises real-world applications of maths – and the upcoming papers that future students will face under new Leaving Cert reforms, which emphasise modelling, reasoning and real-life problem-solving. <\/p>\n

While some scenarios seemed novel the maths were short, snappy, without lengthy procedural problems, she said. <\/p>\n

Students would have \u201cinitially found the contexts unfamiliar but those that stayed, sat there, stayed calm and used their maths will have found themselves rewarded,\u201d Kelly said. <\/p>\n

Topics were blended together throughout the paper, meaning students needed to move naturally between topics in every question.<\/p>\n

For example in Section B there was a question that used gaming as a way to examine a mixture of line and circle, appearing together for the first time as a long question.<\/p>\n

\u201cElsewhere a question on a reality TV show contest mixed trigonometry, sectors and the trapezoidal rule while statistics was covered via the guise of music festivals. <\/p>\n

\u201cStudents needed to follow the story to find the maths,\u201d Kelly said. <\/p>\n

Maths paper two \u2018more survivable\u2019 than paper one<\/p>\n

Video analysis on the higher level paper from Maths teacher Aidan Roantree at the Institute of Education is here. <\/p>\n

He says it was \u201cmore survivable than paper one\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cStudents entering today\u2019s exam will have been anxious after Friday\u2019s paper but will leave feeling that they performed better. They were not given a free ride as most questions involved some sting, and not always in the tail,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

In section A, the short questions started on familiar ground, but began to get more challenging with a question on coordinate geometry.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis question\u2019s difficulty is not apparent at first glance and will only reveal its sting once students have gotten into it,\u201d Roantree said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis became a trend for other questions too as the familiar starts gave way to novel challenges. \u201d<\/p>\n

In section B, Roantree said that the introductory sections of question seven, on trigonometry, were approachable. <\/p>\n

\u201cBut the move into counting techniques in the final stretch will have pushed students\u2019 comfort zones. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe single most approachable question in this section was question eight, a mix of correlation with minor elements of trigonometry and probability.\u201d<\/p>\n

No matter which three questions out of four a student chose, at least two will have had a tricky part, said Roantree. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe challenges themselves were not minor but in the scheme of the exam as a whole they constituted a minor portion. This is perhaps most notable in questions nine and ten. The former begins with a reassuringly structured task but ramps up to the trapezoidal rule in a manner that will catch many out. <\/p>\n

\u201cSimilarly, question 10\u2019s (a) and (b) parts will be familiar but (c) novel and one of the least approachable questions on the paper. But in spite of these, students\u2019 reactions to the Section B questions will likely have been favourable both now and on reflection. <\/p>\n

\u201cStudents will feel better about this paper when compared to paper one, but that does not diminish the reality of the challenges presented here,\u201d Roantree said.<\/p>\n

The Leaving Certificate maths papers have now been published on the State Examinations Commission website. <\/p>\n

Higher Level paper two is here<\/a><\/p>\n

Ordinary Level paper two is here<\/a><\/p>\n

We will have paper reviews ready shortly.<\/p>\n

Niamh Towey – 2 hours ago<\/p>\n

And incase you missed it, here\u2019s Jen\u2019s Conversations with Parents podcast on how to deal with Leaving Cert stress:<\/p>\n

\"\"Leaving Cert stress? A psychologist, a guidance councillor and a parent share their advice<\/p>\n

It\u2019s said when someone in the house is sitting the Leaving Cert, the whole house is sitting the Leaving Cert. And with the State exams almost upon that\u2019s a lot of people feeling the stress.But fear not because Conversations with Parents is bringing you a special episode with an expert panel to help parents and students navigate the whole experience in the least frazzled way possible. Yes, we\u2019ve made our panel publicly relive their own Leaving Cert trauma for the heck of it.Jen talks about LC survival with guidance counsellor and founder of Find My College Course, Donnchadh O\u2019Mahony, psychologist Malie Coyne\u00a0and former Leaving Cert student Conor Pope, who is now experiencing the fabled exams as a parent for the first time.<\/p>\n

Niamh Towey – 2 hours ago<\/p>\n

Advice on parenting at exam time<\/p>\n

Jen Hogan spoke to child and adolescent psychotherapist Colman Noctor about parenting at exam time.<\/p>\n

His his eldest son is sitting the Junior Cycle exams, and he admits to being a little \u201capprehensive\u201d about the whole thing. \u201cNot in terms of the outcome. I genuinely don\u2019t really care for the grades,\u201d he explains.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhenever I go in to a parent-teacher meeting, I don\u2019t care what they\u2019re doing in terms of maths, English and Irish. It\u2019s who are they playing with? Are they enjoying themselves? Do they look happy? Do they have friends? And so when it comes to this stuff, I would much prefer him to have a few pals, looking forward to Transition Year.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe context of all of that stuff helps me not to lose sight that this is a tiny part of the education process and the whole journey. From my knowledge of what a balanced human being looks like, I don\u2019t in any way overestimate the academic achievement. I\u2019ve seen too many academic high-flyers who are miserable and anxious and sad and lonely.\u201d<\/p>\n

You can read the full piece here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Niamh Towey – 3 hours ago<\/p>\n

Some lovely photogrphs here from Ardscoil R\u00eds Secondary School on Griffith Avenue in Dublin 9. Our photographer Tom Honan visited after maths paper one on Friday evening. <\/p>\n

\"RuadhánRuadh\u00e1n \u00d3\u2019Meachair, Alan Murphy and Daragh Worthington from Ardscoil R\u00eds Secondary School on Griffith Avenue. Photograph: Tom Honan\/The Irish Times \"JosephJoseph McLoughlin, Christopher Hackett and Daniel Munteanrom from Ardscoil R\u00eds Secondary School on Griffith Avenue. Photograph: Tom Honan\/The Irish Times \"JosephJoseph McLoughlin, Christopher Hackett and Daniel Munteanrom from Ardscoil R\u00eds Secondary School on Griffith Avenue. Photograph: Tom Honan\/The Irish Times <\/p>\n

Niamh Towey – 3 hours ago<\/p>\n

Last-minute tips ahead of the Leaving Cert Irish exams<\/p>\n

Hugh Gallagher, author and Irish teacher at Stepaside Educate Together Secondary School, spoke to Jen Hogan ahead of today and tomorrow\u2019s exams.<\/p>\n

He said it\u2019s better to stick to simple, accurate sentences when writing answers, as opposed to more complex ones, where mistakes can occur.<\/p>\n

Students also shouldn\u2019t be afraid of a long question in the listening comprehension, and when it comes to the reading comprehension, Gallagher advises students to underline the question words.<\/p>\n

\u201cWho, what, where, when, why. And then go to the piece and highlight the sentence with those words. Check back then before you write your final answer to make sure that you\u2019re only including the information that was asked for.\u201d<\/p>\n

You can read the full piece here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Niamh Towey – 3 hours ago<\/p>\n

Leaving Certificate students are sitting maths paper two right now, with the exam due to end at 12 noon.<\/p>\n

There were mixed reviews on Friday\u2019s maths paper one at higher level, with quite a few of you getting in touch over the weekend to say how difficult it was.<\/p>\n

Of particular concern was a question relating to the tuning of a piano, which certainly put my head in a spin just reading it.<\/p>\n

Niall Duddy, ASTI subject representative and a teacher at Presentation College Athenry, said this question struck a bum note. \u201cI don\u2019t want to make a song and dance about it, but students had trouble tuning into the question,\u201d he told Peter McGuire.<\/p>\n

You can read Peter\u2019s full paper review here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Hopefully today\u2019s paper will leave students feeling more calm. Peter will have a full review once the exam ends this afternoon. <\/p>\n

This evening we move on to Irish paper one, between 2pm and 4.20pm. We will have a paper review for this, too.<\/p>\n

Please get in touch with any thoughts by email, niamh.towey@irishtimes.com. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Following a mixed reaction to the Leaving Certificate maths paper one on Friday, students this morning resumed their…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":489002,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[43491,42,45841,3184,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-489001","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-cao","tag-headlines","tag-junior-cert","tag-leaving-certificate","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/489001","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=489001"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/489001\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/489002"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=489001"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=489001"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=489001"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}