Little to surprise in the higher paper

Verdict: Leaving Cert accountancy: Some 7,000 students sat yesterday's Leaving Certificate accounting paper, which was described by teachers as straightforward with a good range and variety of questions.

It was widely agreed that the higher-level paper held few surprises for those students who had studied past papers well.

"For any paper you need to be well prepared, and it was definitely no different for this paper," said Ms Aine Ní Chéadaigh, subject representative with the Association of Secondary Teachers' Ireland. "Any student who was well-prepared would have done okay."

Ms Ní Chéadaigh said a misprint on one of the pages relating to the interpretation of accounts, which required examiners to circulate a correction, may have thrown some students. However, it should not have made a difference for the vast majority of students.

"The questions themselves look absolutely fine, although I would say question nine [about cash budgeting\] was definitely challenging," she said. "But students could have done question eight [on marginal costing\] instead. There were no real surprises."

The theory section of the paper was also regarded as approachable, allowing students a good basis upon which to build up marks.

Mr Arthur Russell of the Institute of Education in Dublin said it was a very fair paper, with few surprises.

Some students might have been surprised that question three, on the revaluation of fixed assets, had appeared again this year. But he said any student who had studied previous years' papers should have had few problems.

"I would go so far as to say the Department has been very generous," he said. "For all Leaving Cert Accounting papers, you have to use the full three hours, so you are working right until the end . . . but it will probably be marked fairly tightly this year."

At ordinary level, Mr Russell welcomed what he called a "very straightforward" paper, which allowed students the opportunity to demonstrate what they knew.

"There were no major surprises at all," he said. "Again, any student who had been working on past papers would have no problems."

Ms Ní Chéadaigh said the paper seemed to be straightforward. However, it was not an easy paper for students at this level, she said. It had some "lovely" questions, but others that were "definitely challenging".