Junior Certificate maths/higher and ordinary - paper 1: The language of the first Junior Cert higher maths papers was criticised as very difficult for all students, especially for non-nationals.

Phrases such as "derive the expression of" and relatively easy maths problems expressed using involved and elaborate English left many students wondering what they were being asked to do.

"There has been a trend in recent years to introduce more and more language to the Junior Cert maths papers," said ASTI representative Eileen Scanlon.

"Question 2, in particular, was very badly presented for children whose language skills are not strong."

Andy Carolan of the TUI did not find the actual mathematics in the paper problematic and said his students found the paper to be similar to last year.

It was a very long paper, he said.

The ordinary level paper was considered fair for the most part but some students were thrown off by question 16, the graph question.

"A figure in the question was expressed with a minus sign. It comes up like that once in a blue moon but few students would have been expecting it," said Maria Kelly of the ASTI. "I can't complain, it's on the course, but it was unexpected."

Ms Kelly also criticised the language used. "I'm worried about the non-national students in my class, many of whom are excellent at maths . . . I think this puts some good maths students at a disadvantage. There was a lot of reading in today's papers."