There was mixed reaction among teachers to the accounting papers. At ordinary level, ASTI subject representative Mr Joe Keating said the first appearance of a tabular question since the introduction of the new syllabus three years ago may taken some students and teachers by surprise. Question 6 was very long, with two 60-mark questions squeezed into a 100-marks slot.

Ms Dolores O'Flynn, TUI subject representative, said that although the tabular question was a surprise, it was straightforward. Students were finished in "good time".

The higher-level paper "was a long paper requiring a lot of concentration". Question 1 "was very fair and straightforward - a better choice in this section than the two 60-marks questions". In section 2, "all three questions were well constructed and along the lines of previous years", Ms O'Flynn said.

Ms Sheila Conneely, a representative of the Business Studies Teachers Association of Ireland, said the first question, on final accounts, was long and testing. But those who tackled it should have done well.

The other questions in section 1 - the service firm, published accounts and creditors control agreement - were fine, she said. Suspense accounts had not appeared in section 2 before, but the question was fine. Ms Conneely said, overall, the people who had done their work would be happy with yesterday's papers.

But Mr Keating said some higher-level students may have been very upset at question 3, which had come up in the past as a 100 marks question and only accounted for 60 marks yesterday. Question 8(a) was not for the faint hearted and many students would not have seen a similar question. Students may have been confused by the debenture interest in question 5 while a knowledge of tax law was required for question 6, where students had to decide whether a covenant to a charitable organisation was tax deductible.