THIS year's Leaving Cert history and appreciation of art papers were a riot of colour compared to the selection of pale blues and pinks of previous years.

At ordinary level, students received a reproduction of a page from the Book of Kells in addition to the popular National Gallery painting The Goose Girl by W J Leech. Higher-level students could take home a miniature of The Battle of San Romano and, slightly less attractively, a photograph of a stretch of motorway (with lay-by).

"We really didn't know what to expect from the illustrations or how the illustrations would be used," Ms Helen Comiskey, a TUI subject representative and a teacher in the Community College, Dunshaughlin, Co Meath, said. "In some cases they just illustrated the question - but the student who knows his or her work would be able to write in greater detail having the reference."

Ms Naomi Cassidy, an ASTI subject representative and a teacher in Santa Sabena, Sutton, Co Dublin, said she thought the illustrations were "a great help to students" and described the higher-level paper as "good, with a good range of choices".

At higher level some of the questions were "quite difficult", Ms Comiskey said. One focused on Kathy Prendergast, a winner at the Venice Biennale in 1995 for her sculpture and drawings. "I wouldn't have access to visual material or exhibitions of her work," Ms Comiskey said. "It's difficult to get material on someone so new and she's not in the books yet."

Question 2(a) in the Irish section asked students to discuss how the coming of Christianity to Ireland in the 5th century affected Irish art and architecture. Students would have to include detail on manuscripts, metalwork, high crosses and monasteries, Ms Comiskey said.

In the European art section, Ms Comiskey noted that Paolo Ucello was not one of the major artists covered on the course; however, one of the few pictures by Ucello which students would have seen was The Battle of San Romano. The question asked students to contrast Ucello's use of perspective with other Renaissance artists.

Question 9 was "the kindest question of all, although probing" Ms Comiskey said, since it was a totally open question asking students to discuss a fantasy or nightmare painting; a painting of an interior; a painting of royalty or aristocracy; or an allegory or mythical painting, with reference to other works by the artist.

Ordinary-level students received the more difficult paper, given the students who would be answering it, Ms Comiskey said. In particular, both teachers pointed out that there was nothing on the ordinary paper on the Renaissance apart from Donatello, which meant that there was basically no painting on the paper from Giotto (14th century) to Jan Steen (17th century). "European art was possibly the hardest section on either paper, for that reason," Ms Comiskey said.

Ms Cassidy noted that the questions in the European section were out of chronological order, which could have thrown students.

Ms Cassidy said the question in the Irish section on the Book of Kells should have contained more scope for the students to write on the materials used and those who had made the book, in order to get more information out of the ordinary-level student.

A question on modern industrial development in the general appreciation section was difficult for ordinary-level students, even with the accompanying illustration, Ms Comiskey said.

"Overall, both papers were as expected to a certain degree, but with probing questions and a few pointedly difficult ones at both higher and ordinary levels," Ms Comiskey said.

Students also sat life-sketching yesterday, though once again the poses required of the models raised some problems. One in particular involved the model posing with one leg on a chair, Ms Comiskey said, an uncomfortable position at best.