Students who spent time over past honours papers get their rewards

Junior Certificate maths: verdictThere was a sense of déjà vu for Junior Cert students taking honours maths Paper 1 yesterday as a similar exam to last year unfolded before their eyes.

Those who had taken plenty of time over past papers were rewarded. Some questions were described as too easy, and may even have been confusing as a result, said De La Salle Waterford teacher Ms Frances Moynihan.

"The inclusion of a question on prime factors in Section 2 caused consternation in some quarters - not because it was a hard question, though. In fact, it was very easy. In all likelihood, teachers will not have touched upon it since second year, and students would not have expected to see prime factors on the honours paper."

This is the second year of the new format Junior Cert maths exam - since last year students have not been offered a choice of questions at either higher or ordinary level. However, this did not pose a problem as most of the questions were fair, according to Mr John McKeown, of the TUI.

He was surprised to note two problem-solving questions on the paper this year, where normally there would only have been one. This style of question was time consuming and quite advanced for Junior Cert level.

The Junior Cert ordinary level paper was "surprisingly unchallenging", according to skoool.ie subject expert Mr Jim Healy, of Terenure.

Students at Marino College, Fairview, described the paper as clear, providing scope for those of all abilities.