Leaving Cert Chemistry

ISSU Commentary

Chemistry has a similar structure to other science papers with a section on experiments, short questions, and the majority of the marks going for the long questions.  In both ordinary and higher level papers, section A on experiments held few suprises, and should have been very doable to anyone who had practiced on past papers as questions the questions were similar to previous years and very straightforward.The short questions in section B were probably a little more challenging on the higher level paper than in previous year, with more questions than usual towards the more difficult end of the spectrum, but the questions asked were clear and straightforward.  On the ordinary level paper, the short questions were very accessible and shouldn't have posed much difficulty to students.  The remainder of section B in the higher level paper was quite varied, with most questions holding some more challenging sections, but the standard was very fair for a higher level paper.  On the ordinary level paper, there was a strong focus on questions related to experiments in section B, which would have been of great benefit to those who had revised them well, but may have caused some suprise to see these questions in section B as well as section A.Overall, the chemistry papers were fair on the whole, and students who had revised their experiments well and practiced past papers should have been able to manage the paper.

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