Thousands of students across the country began the dreaded Leaving Certificate on Wednesday.
A total of 58,342 candidates are entered for the Leaving Certificate and 3,177 candidates are entered for the final year of the Leaving Certificate Applied programme this year.
Due to the Covid-19 crisis, Leaving Cert students were given a choice between sitting the written exams or accepting accredited grades this year.
The vast majority of students, 52,045, opted to both sitting the exams and accepting accredited grades - and will be awarded the highest of the two grades.
Around 90% of students are sitting exams in at least one subject, with almost 40,000 students sitting five or more subjects.
Just 415 students selected to sit the exams only while 5,218 students will be awarded accredited grades only.
For those that decided to take their destiny into their own hands, Wednesday kicked off with English Paper 1.
Here is one snippet of the questions on the Higher Level paper:
TEXT 3 – THIS IS YOUR TIME
TEXT 3 is based on edited extracts from the transcript of a graduation speech delivered in 2018 by American actor, Chadwick Boseman, at Howard University. In this text Mr Boseman reflects on the time he spent at Howard and how it influenced him.
It is a great privilege, graduates, to address you on your day, a day marking one of the most important accomplishments of your life to date. This is a magical place. I remember walking across this yard on what seemed to be a random day, my head down lost in my own world of issues, like many of you do daily. I raised my head and Muhammad Ali was walking towards me.
He raised his fist to a quintessential guard. I was game to play along with him, to act as if I was a worthy opponent. What an honour to be challenged by the greatest of all time for a brief moment. His security let the joke play along for a second before they ushered him away, and I walked away floating like a butterfly, light and ready to take on the world. That is the magic of this place. Almost anything can happen here. Howard University has many names, the Mecca, the Hilltop. It only takes one tour of the physical campus to understand why we call it the Hilltop.
Almost every day I would walk the full length of the hill to Fine Arts where most of my classes were. Throughout ancient times, institutions of learning have been built on top of hills to convey that great struggle is required to achieve degrees of enlightenment. For some of you, the challenge was actually academics. You worked hard. You did your best, but you didn’t make As or Bs, sometimes Cs. That’s okay, you are here on top of the hill. Sometimes your grades don’t give a real indication of what your greatness might be. For others the challenge was financial. You and your family struggled to make ends meet, but you are here. For a lot of you, your hardest struggle was social. You were never as cool and as popular as you wanted to be and it bothered you, but you are here. Most of you graduating here today struggled against one or more of the obstacles I mentioned in order to reach this hill-top. I urge you to invest in the importance of this moment and cherish it. Early in my career I got an audition for a soap-opera on a major network. I was promised more money than I had ever seen before. When I saw the role I was playing – that of a young man in his formative years with a violent streak pulled into the allure of gang involvement – I found myself conflicted.
That’s somebody’s real story. Any role, played honestly, can be empowering, but I was conflicted because this role seemed to be wrapped up in assumptions about us as black folk. Howard had instilled in me a certain amount of pride and for my taste this role didn’t live up to those standards. After filming the first two episodes, I had an opportunity to bring my concerns to the executives of the show. I asked them some questions about the background of my character. Question one: where is my father? The exec answered, “Well, he left when you were younger.” Okay. Question two: in this script, it alluded to my mother not being equipped to operate as a good parent, so why exactly did my little brother and I have to go into foster care? Matter-of-factly, he said, “Well, of course she is on heroin.” I queried whether some of the assumptions around characterisation were stereotypical. That word lingered. I was let go from that job on the next day. My agents told me it might be a while before I got a job acting on screen again. But what do you do when the principles and the standards that were instilled in you here at Howard closed the doors in front of you?
I thought of Ali in the middle of the yard in his elder years, drawing from his victories and his losses. I realised that he was transferring something to me on that day. He was transferring the spirit of the fighter to me. Graduating class hear me well this day. This day when you have reached the hill top and you are deciding on next jobs, next steps, careers, you should rather find purpose than a job or a career. Purpose is an essential element of you. It is the reason you are on the planet at this particular time in history. Remember, the struggles along the way are only meant to shape you for your purpose. I don’t know what your future is, but if you are willing to take the harder way, the one with more failures at first than successes, the one that is ultimately proven to have more meaning, more victory, more glory, then you will not regret it. Now, this is your time. Howard’s legacy is not wrapped up in the money that you will make, but the challenges that you choose to confront. As you commence on your paths, press on with pride and press on with purpose.
QUESTIONS
QUESTION A – 40 Marks
(i) Based on your reading of TEXT 3, explain three insights you gained into how Chadwick Boseman was influenced by his time at Howard University. Support your answer with reference to the text. (10)
(ii) In paragraph 7, Chadwick Boseman observes, “Purpose is an essential element of you.” Give your personal response to this observation by the writer. (10)
(iii) Identify four features of the language of persuasion evident in the above text, and discuss how effectively these features are employed by Chadwick Boseman to craft an emotional and inspiring speech. Support your response with reference to the text. (20)
QUESTION B – 40 Marks
You have decided to apply for the position of editor of your school’s Graduation Yearbook. Each year, the Yearbook has a different theme, chosen by the editor. An article by a celebrity contributor is also included annually. To be considered for the post, you must make a verbal pitch* to the graduation committee members in which you: promote your preferred theme for the 2021 Graduation Yearbook, impress the committee with your ideas for its content, and nominate your ideal celebrity contributor, explaining your choice to the committee members. Write the text for the verbal pitch that you would make. *A spoken promotional presentation
