FAIR but tough was the verdict of teachers commenting on yesterday afternoon's Leaving Cert construction studies papers.
Mr Cathal Gallagher, a teacher at Falcarragh Community School, Co Donegal, and TUI subject representative, said the ordinary-level paper was very fair" and well presented. There was a nice selection of questions, he said, and they were all manageable.
He welcomed questions 8 and 9, in particular, because they gave students a chance to write about their projects. "They would be very familiar with their own projects and these gave them an opportunity to talk about them."
The better student would have been quite happy" with the higher-level paper but others found it tough enough", he said.
He praised the "wide selection of questions and the choices within some of those questions", in particular numbers 7 and 10 - "a welcome development that gives students a better chance".
Nr Michael Cross, of Abbeyfeale Vocational School, Co Limerick, a spokesman for the Association of Materials Technology and Graphics Teachers, said the higher-level paper was "quite good", though he felt some of the questions were "worded a little bit ambiguously, question 4 in "particular". This may have lead to confusion or to students skipping the question altogether. He also felt that there was a number of questions on the paper pertaining to heat. Although these were good questions, he said this did not reflect the range of the course.
The ordinary-level paper was "a better paper than last year" and "students should have been quite happy with it"' he said.