It was a long, long day for students who sat the second Irish paper in the morning and geography in the afternoon. Higher-level students could have spent up to six hours, 40 minutes in the exam halls.

With 31,135 entries, geography is the fifth most popular subject with students, after maths, English, Irish and French. It is perceived as a good bet for points. (See last year's grade curve, below.)

ASTI subject representative Mr John Mulcahy said the geography papers reflected the rapid changes globally in social and economic terms and offered students a good choice. "Any fears that they might have had just evaporated," he said.

He praised the higher-level question about traffic in Sligo. "The Department is trying to get away from book examples and give students real-life problems," he said. He was also complimentary about the quality of the aerial photograph. The oblique view allowed students to see the fronts of the buildings, he said. Mr Mulcahy's only criticism was that there was no heading on the table accompanying question 3(c), the social geography section, at higher level - so students had to guess what grew by 65 per cent in Los Angeles, 153 per cent in Cairo and 90 per cent in Tokyo.

Some students may have been disappointed at the non-appearance of Italy in regional geography, he said, as it had not come up last year and so was tipped to appear this year. TUI subject representative Mr Derek Dunne said the choice in the regional geography was a little restrictive, otherwise it was a fair paper, with questions clear and well laid out.

While overall reaction to the higher-level paper was good, Mr George Smith, a teacher at St Rynagh's College, Banagher, Co Offaly, said he was disappointed with question 5(b), regional geography, which asked students to divide countries into three regions. Ireland was included in the list of options, but he said it comprised two rather than three regions in the new EU terminology.

At ordinary level, Mr Mulcahy said the paper was student friendly and topical, including events in Kosovo, East Timor and Northern Ireland. The language was straightforward and students were happy with the extra 20 minutes. Mr Dunne said the ordinary-level paper offered students plenty of choice.