It was a long day for students sitting the Leaving Cert music exams, with the listening section in the morning and the composition paper in the afternoon.

The listening tests at higher and ordinary level were "quite fair in comparison to recent years", Kathryn Fitzgerald, a teacher in Loreto Abbey, Dalkey, Co Dublin, said. There were, however, "some awkward parts", she added.

"We were surprised Bach came up a second year running," she said. She felt students might have been confused by the terminology in question 3 on Bohemian Rhapsody and said the question was "overloaded with musical features".

The ordinary listening had an "over-emphasis on aural recognition of cadences", but other than that it was a "fine paper" and she praised the quality and timing of the tapes.

Arthur Sealey, a teacher in Walton's New School of Music, Dublin, said his students were also surprised by the re-emergence of Bach on the listening exam. The question on filling in the missing melody would have been "challenging to some students" but he said all his students were "delighted" with the appearance of the group Afro Celt Sound System in the Irish music question. Sealey also complemented the sound quality of the listening exam.

The afternoon paper on music composition was a welcome change from previous years, Fitzgerald said. "It was a lot nicer than last year," she said, "but there were some awkward progressions".

Sealey said his students were "surprised and delighted all round" that the major key came up. It was a very easy paper, he said, but he was concerned that easy papers could "jeopardise the integrity of the assessment process". However, he was "delighted more student were taking music".