Junior Cert students' concepts of "living and being a good citizen" were put to the test yesterday in the Civic, Social and Political Education (CSPE) paper.

First examined last year, this subject aims to teach students their rights and responsibilities as citizens. The common-level exam accounts for 40 per cent of the total marks for the subject. The other 60 per cent are allotted to a project which was submitted at the end of May.

"Students have to do a good project to get the higher marks. The exam gives you that bit extra and can bring the good students up to an A," said Rois in Farrell, teacher in Old Bawn Community School, Tallaght, Co Dublin. Farrell's students found the paper "easy enough", but thought it was harder than they expected. "I liked the paper in that it gave plenty of scope for their own views, but the marks for each part of the question were not always shown, which was confusing," she said.

Brendan O'Regan of the Association of CSPE Teachers was disappointed there was no question on the environment, whereas there were two substantial questions on the political system.

"There were also no substantial questions on the EU or the UN, which was strange, especially considering Ireland has a seat on the UN Security Council." However, he was pleased with the topical question on asylum-seekers and refugees.