[ Examwatch 2024: Reaction to all the big Leaving Cert and Junior Cycle exams ]
Labour disputes, European elections and interest rates have all featured in topical papers in the higher level Leaving Cert business exams, which have been well received by well-prepared students, teachers said.
Vincent Murray, a teacher at CBC Cork, said the newspaper was student-friendly.
“The exams had a wide range of questions and lots of choice,” said Murray, who is subject representative for the Association of Secondary Teachers in Ireland (ASTI).
“There were a lot of questions about topics in the news, which I think piqued the students' interest as it linked well with what they learned in class. This paper showed them how important it is to keep up to date with the news.”
Leaving Cert Business, Advanced Level, Part 1:
Leaving Cert Business, Advanced Level, Parts 2 and 3:
Keith Hannigan, business administration teacher at the Institute of Education, said the exam covered familiar material but asked students to think on their feet.
“Students will be aware of the majority of questions from past exams and will be pleased with questions that take a more desirable approach to the topics,” Hannigan said.
“This was a good question for someone who really focused on their preparation and practiced the past papers thoroughly to understand the key concepts of the course.
“But occasionally new questions would be asked and students would have to think on their feet and change their plans for how they were going to tackle later sections,” he said.
Naomi Keenan, subject expert at Studyclix.ie and teacher at De La Salle College, Dundalk, said students would be pleased with their “lovely” papers.
“Students were again helped this year by the fact that additional questions were given in the exam as a COVID-19 precaution, meaning they only had to answer four out of eight questions,” Keenan said.
But there were some challenges.
“The first question asked students to name one way they thought the small claims process could be improved,” Keenan said. “This was a difficult question even for the best students.”
All three teachers stated that students would have been well-received by applied business questions that asked students to apply their business knowledge to a case study about a care home company.
“Many students were apprehensive about the Applied Business Questions (ABQs) but will have been reassured by the approach taken by the question writers,” Hannigan said.
“Question A (about entrepreneurial skills) has been asked 12 times so far and is one of the most common questions.”
Keenan said some students may have difficulty earning full marks in the portion of the question that asks for a definition of the term “contract.”
“Some students may struggle with part (c) where they are asked to assess their managerial skills,” Mr Keenan said.
“Some students may not be able to tell the difference between management skills and management activities. This summer, graders may find that a significant number of students are basing their answers on management activities rather than skills.”
Normal level
Murray said the standard-level exam was student-friendly with plenty of multiple choice, with questions on corporate tax, industrial relations, consumer and using apps like Revolut.
“For students who had studied past exam papers and were well prepared, there were no shocking surprises,” Keenan said.
“Students would have expected a lot of these topics to come up, and there were short questions to answer 10 out of 15, the usual true/false questions, matching questions, circle the correct option etc., which should not have been too challenging for students.
“In the written section, students had to answer four out of nine questions, each of which was a typical question that had appeared in previous exams and contained nothing new or difficult for students who had solved previous exam questions.”
Leaving Cert Business, Standard Level, Part 1:
Leaving Cert Business, Standard Level, Part 2:
Try this at home:
– Leaving Certificate Business, Advanced Level
Q3 C (ii) Explain which of the following European Union policies are important to Ireland.
Common Agricultural Policy, EU Social Policy, EU Competition Policy