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Expected topics appear with enough choice to allow candidates play to their strengths
Jamie Dockery, history teacher at Tyndall College, Co Carlow and Studyclix subject expert, said it is an exam which “very much played the ‘greatest hits’.” “Students sitting this year’s exam had the option of completing three essays from any two topics on offer – in other words, were able to focus their revision in way that gave them a chance to be much more successful in this exam than would have been possible pre-Covid.
Perhaps this could be adopted as normal practice going forward,” he said.Mr Dockery said the inclusion of the Sunningdale Agreement as the documents-based question was both expected and welcome considering its upcoming 50-year anniversary. “The two source documents from Robert Fisk and Olivia O’Leary respectively were interesting. They both captured the tempestuousness of the time. These documents and the accompanying questions offered the ‘tuned-in’ student the opportunity to interact with them in interesting ways,” he said. Ms Cashell said many students would have been well-prepared for this question and, thus, well-equipped to tackle the first three questions. “Some might have paused before question 4′s contextualisation, which asked why the Agreement was so ‘divisive’, but ultimately this would have been manageable by adapting prepared material and reworking link sentences to fit the question,” she said,On the Irish history topics, he said most students should have been delighted with the appearance of Charles Stewart Parnell, Edward Carson, the 1913 Strike and Lockout, the Gaelic League and the GAA.Ms Cashell said the broad scope of a question on how Cosgrave and De Valera handled Anglo-Irish relations would really allow the practised student to show off their knowledge. “Those looking to write another essay on the most popular area, sovereignty, might have been stretched to find another question with the same flexibility. The question on the Northern Ireland government and its challenges, or the question on the impact of the Eucharistic Congress and the Irish language, were options but were much less generous in their scope,” she said.Mr Dockery said the “dictatorship and democracy” topic which focuses on European history between 1920 and 1945 featured the familiar Stalin – much to the delight of many. However, the lack of a Hitler-specific question on the paper and the inclusion of a question about France between the wars might have limited some students’ options. “The Jarrow March, a nice straightforward topic was included in an essay question that required candidates to also discuss either J.M. Keynes or Winston Churchill and this may have tripped some students up,” he said. Two of the ‘case studies’ – topics that students study in detail – from the US history section were included: the civil rights movement and the Moon landing. “While the question which asked how the US was affected by McCarthyism, the military-industrial complex and/or the anti-war movement would only have been tackled by the most confident of students, overall there was enough choice within the topic for the prepared student to achieve good marks,” he said. Ms Cashell said the question on the characteristics of fascism, which would have been covered at the beginning of 5th Year in most cases, will have been widely welcomed. “Students who knew the specific examples of fascism could easily refine them into a response for the characteristics in general. Those wishing to focus on specifics were greeted by a very accessible question on Stalin,” she said. “Many students would have anticipated and prepared for this and been relieved. For those looking to stand out from the crowd by taking the road less travelled, there was a rewarding question on France. While not appealing to everyone, if you had prepared that topic you really had a chance to shine,” she said.The ordinary level paper, meanwhile, covered many of the major bases with limited surprises, said Mr Dockery. “Students will be happy to see topics such as the Sunningdale Agreement, Parnell and the Eucharistic Congress included. Interestingly there was a good bit of commonalities between the ordinary level and higher level exam which would have benefited students in mixed ability history classes where both levels are taught together.,” he said. “Intriguingly, prominent women in Irish gistory such as Isabella Tod, Hanna Sheehy-Skeffington and Evie Hone made an appearance at ordinary level, but not in the higher level paper.”
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