They were fairly happy with everything apart from some difficult words such as wedding, girlfriend and stew. These may have tripped up some in the higher-level Spanish exam. Ms Ann Harrow, president of the Spanish Teachers' Association and a teacher at St Michael's College, Ballsbridge, Dublin, said that the tape was "reasonably nice" for both levels, "except for the very last word, caldo," which means stew. In the final section of the paper, students had to read a letter - here very few students knew what la novia, (the girlfriend) meant. Only some knew that casarse meant to get married, while la boda (the wedding) was another stumbling block.
Mr Donncha O Laoire, principal of Scoil Mhuire in Ballingeary, Co Cork, said: "The big problem is to understand the letter. Students who didn't understand all the words would have been in real trouble." He felt that these words were a bit difficult for Junior Cert students.
Reference on the higher-level paper to a man who wrote threatening letters to President Clinton, murdered his mother and then committed suicide, was "a bit disturbing. You could have somebody doing exams who would have had a brush with suicide. The examiners needn't have put it in."