STUDENTS were pleased with yesterday's combined physics and chemistry papers. Mr John Murphy, TUI subject representative, said that, unusually, ordinary level students found the chemistry section easier than the physics.

The papers were as expected. They were very fair if a little testing, added Mr Murphy, who teaches in Scoil Ui Chonaill, Cahirciveen, Co Kerry.

Mr Donald O'Byrne, who teaches in St. Nessan's Community College, Limerick, also described the higher level paper as very fair. In the chemistry section, he noted that oxidation numbers, which appeared in question 7(e), were not on the syllabus. But, they were just one part of a 15 part question, in which students had to answer 11 parts.

The ordinary level paper was "fairly testing", he said. It also contained one minor error, he noted, the structural formulae were incorrect in question 11(v). A Department of Education spokesman said that any errors would be taken into consideration in the marking process.