Some 650 students sat the relatively new Environmental and Social Studies exam yesterday afternoon. They were "pretty happy" with the exams in both the higher and ordinary levels, said Ms Ann Marie Gorman, a teacher at Killinarden Community School, Tallaght, Dublin.
The layout in both was "definitely very good", she said. The higher-level paper was straightforward and the layout and illustrations were fine also. There were no surprises and it was very much on the style of last year's paper, she said.
The ordinary level "was much more accessible and the quality of the illustrations was much improved on last year's paper". She praised sections in particular on the types of early Irish settlements and Brazil in the 20th century. The illustrations were clearer and excellent and the questions were straightforward.
The true or false questions on World War 1 and World War II was "excellent" also, she said. The only criticism she had concerned the use of cartoons in the section on the Developed and Developing Worlds. The abstract drawings did not help students in their answering, she said. Overall it was a very fair paper.