Claire

First day done and dusted and what a relief that is!After the success of English paper one I was (believe it or not) looking forward to home ec.  It's one of my favourite subjects and one I'd like to continue studying next year. I felt like I put a lot of work into it so I was ready to give it my best shot!The short questions were not as bad as expected, one or two caught me out alright but other than that I'm happy.  It's interesting to note however that the short questions were different to usual.  Not much came up about the macronutriets, nothing even about protein which was predicted! To be honest that's not usual at all.I am appalled at the compulsory part one they gave us. It was nothing at all like I have ever seen previously. The graph It was confusing and hard to make head or tails of. The questions following it were very vague and random! I didn't get an opportunity to show my knowledge of the nutrients which has always been the case and I must say I'm dissapointed.The other long questions again were not as predicted.  One or two parts of a question may have been expected but HACCP, sensory analysis, an appliance did not show up. Again I was disappointed!The questions I must say were very vague and it was hard to grasp what the examiner was looking for. You have tonnes to say and not an inkling of what they want!The elective I studied was number three.  The non conpulsary parts were expected and I knew those well so I was happy. The part one on the other hand was too vague. It's a huge topic in the course and the question simply did not specify what they wanted. It was very frustrating!!Overall I am disappointed with the home ec paper, I'm left wondering if a home ec teacher even set the paper?I gave it my best shot though and I'm glad it's over and I can move on through my list of exams!Roll on summer!

ISSU Commentary

Day one is always a tough day for students doing Home Economics and English as there's a lot of writing to be done - thankfully anyone who doesn't do Engineering will have the morning off tomorrow - a welcome chance to recover before English Paper 2!In both higher and ordinary papers, section A (short answer questions) was generally fair with one or two tricky questions, but pretty standard overall so hopefully this helped students settle into their stride for the remainder of the exam.In the Higher Level Paper, the compulsory question in section B was on food-based dietary guidelines.  Most of the questions relating to this really focused on students' ability to understand and use information put forward as against dictate paragraphs of learnt off facts which may have been difficult for students as it can be pretty tough to know how much to write to give a sufficient answer but hopefully everyone managed it to the best of their ability.  The rest of section B had a strong focus on food with a further 2 questions so anyone who had it studied well was well covered, and we were very enthused to see a topical question on the Rights of the Child in the Family ahead of the Children's Rights Referendum which we are anticipating!  The topical nature of the paper continued in section C where there was a question about unemployment for those who did the social studies option.In section B of the Ordinary Paper there were questions on recent nutritional surveys as well as carbohydrates, family law as well as the nutritional needs of adolescents - a gentle reminder to students to look after their nutritional needs during the exams perhaps?  Section C was in line with previous years and topical issues appeared again under various options - including social change and planning regulations.Hopefully everyone got on well and get a good rest in before their next exam.

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