Dumbing down...or Smartening up: the Leaving Cert at 100!

What with sample papers for the new LC Physics due soon, I thought it would be interesting to have a quick scan back over the physics exams that students have faced since the first of the leaving cert exams in 1925....and of course it's also a way to mark the centenary year for the leaving cert (which hasn't really got all that much attention if you ask me).

Rather than breaking down each paper and comparing 100 papers in depth for their treatment of the whole subject, I decided to just look at questions on one topic (light) to see how they changed as I jumped forward in 10 year increments.

I accessed the papers at this great site, where all STEM papers since 1925 have been archived.

So from 1925, (a 2 hour exam, no choice of questions, sat on the 24th of June) we had this.

Q 1 strikes me as poorly expressed, though I suppose I can see what they were getting at.....

By 1935, students were being asked to answer 6 questions from 12, which seems quite generous. But the exam took place on a Saturday!

I'd have struggled with the diagram in q.1, I'm not sure what they are describing in q.2 - and I could only come up with one answer in q.3....but maybe that's just me.

In 1945, as the second world war came to an end, it was still 6 questions from 12, and I found this on light. I'd have been OK on q. 6 and 7, I think. But I'm intrigued by by q.8(f)

In 1955, we had 6 questions from 10, spread across 3 sections (sat over 2 hours on a Saturday morning again)

This would never be asked without a diagram now - but I think the phrasing is pretty clear, and certainly more clear than the earlier exams.

1965 saw 6 questions from 10, with loads of internal choice within questions. It was 2.5 hours long (on Thursday afternoon)

Still no diagrams, but pretty clearly expressed and familiar enough. But am I right in wondering if the questions would vary greatly in length and complexity while all being of equal value?

1975 had 6 questions from 10 - but now it was over 2 hrs 45 mins. Still no diagrams, but the questions seem clear enough.

The compound microscope was asked about - a topic I always enjoyed, but which is long gone

1985 had 6 questions from 10 - and it was a 3 hour exam.

This question linked light with sound - which doesn't seem to have featured much in previous years

I'm sure 1995 will be more familiar to many reading this....and featured our first diagram!

In a complicated system, students answered a set of Multiple choice short questions, 2 experimental questions and 3 longer questions, over 3 hours.

And I am sure most people reading this far will already be familiar with our more recent papers, from 2005 and 2015: Answer 3 from 4 questions on experiments, and 5 from 8 longer questions over 3 hours. Plenty of diagrams.

from 2015 - where it was hard to find more than this half -question (outside of the experimental section).

Overall - on this one topic - I would think that the challenge offered to students now is comparable to that offered over most of the last century. There may be less material - but the questions tend to be more penetrating.

And soon we'll get a glimpse of what the future will hold.....