This is the second year of the new format business exam. Mr Pat Morris, who teaches at Colaiste Chriost Ri, Cork, said the short-answer section of the higher-level paper was well laid out and straightforward.
The compulsory applied business question, which included enterprise, management and human resource management, was reasonably challenging. The long questions were searching. The inclusion of the role of information (communications) technology in question 4 was topical, said Mr Morris.
He also praised question 6, which was open-ended. Students were asked to analyse the development process of a new product or service of their choice under five headings.
ASTI subject representative Mr Luke Glynn described the higher-level paper as "do-able. Everybody was happy with the applied business question."
At ordinary level, Mr Morris said the layout of the short-answer questions should have helped students. There should have been sufficient choice for everyone.
In the long-answer section, question 2(d) asked students to define business ethics. This was timely. He also praised the inclusion of community enterprise in question 3.
Students who were keeping an eye or ear on the media recently would have been rewarded if they answered the second part of this question which asked students about the approximate percentage rate of inflation in the Republic at present.
Mr Glynn said the ordinary-level paper was demanding but didn't contain any surprises.