Challenging exam for majority of students

Leaving Cert maths: Paper II - ordinary level: The vast majority of Leaving Certificate students sitting maths paper two yesterday did so at ordinary level, and faced a paper which was widely acknowledged as challenging yet "along the same lines" as previous years.

There was also praise for the fact that two questions on geometry asked students to draw a diagram. This means they will receive specific marks for doing so, with some teachers also pointing out that this helps them to visualise - and hence solve - the problem in question.

Last year, almost 40,000 students took the ordinary level maths exam.

And according to TUI representative Thomas O'Connor of St Paul's Community College in Waterford, even weaker or borderline students would have found "quite a lot" they could do in yesterday's paper.

"The questions were graduated well," he said. "Usually paper two is more difficult. But I think this year they are trying to redress that balance and have things more on a par, and I think they have succeeded very well."

"I think students would have been happy for both papers, they were certainly the kind of test where the students who had put the work into it would certainly get the reward."

Aidan Roantree, a teacher at the Institute of Education in Dublin, said yesterday's paper had "very few surprises." He agreed that the inclusion of diagrams in the geometry sections was welcome, but said he believed the standard expected at ordinary level remains too high.

Maria Kelly, ASTI subject representative from Bishopstown Community School in Cork said that, as was the case with the ordinary level Junior Cert paper, question one would have given students a lot of confidence to tackle the rest of the paper.

"Overall it went well, there were a few difficult parts - a few of the part c's were tricky," she said. "But overall I'm much happier today, and students are much happier with paper two than with paper one."

Jim Healy of the TUI, a teacher at Terenure College in Dublin, added that it was a "well put-together, well thought-out and well-proofed paper".