Afternoon slot criticised by teacher union rep

Accounting students were tired but happy leaving the exam halls yesterday.

The exam would be far better suited to the morning, said Ms Dolores O'Flynn, TUI subject representative. For the past two years, accounting has been held in the morning but it reverted to the afternoon yesterday.

Timing apart, Ms O'Flynn, a teacher in Carrigallen Vocational School, Co Leitrim, said both higher and ordinary-level papers were fine.

At ordinary level, she noted that students who did the very long question on incomplete records would only rewarded by a total of 60 marks. This usually appears in section 2 where it would have merited 100 marks.

She praised question 6 which used the relevant example of a guest house. Question 9, the budgeting question was "quite difficult for ordinary-level students, however they had a choice between questions 8 and 9".

At higher level, Ms O'Flynn said she was pleased with the inclusion of a farm account in the financial section and flexible budgeting in section 3.

Ms Sheila Conneely, a representative of the Business Studies Teachers' Association of Ireland, said higher-level students at Seamount College, Kinvara, Co Galway, were pleased with the paper. "It was a fair paper and students who had put in the work should have done well," she added.

"Last year was such a tough higher-level paper the Department must have decide to make this year's more manageable," said Ms Conneely. The ordinary-level paper was fair, she added.

ASTI subject representative Mr Joseph Keating said the standard and scope of the questions on the higher-level paper was fine. Students might have had problems with time in the first section.

There was some ambiguity in question 5 (a) part (4) where the phrase "present pay-out rate" could have referred to the 1998 rate or the projected rate, he said.

Ordinary-level students should have had few problems with a paper which offered a good choice and where the standard was fair, said Mr Keating, who teaches in Cabinteely Community School, Dublin.