A sense of exhaustion pervaded the corridors of St Patrick's Girls Secondary School in Cork, as Junior Cert students finished their last exams - classical studies. "Students are expected to cover five topics in two-and-half hours," commented Mr Michael Barry, the ASTI subject representative who teaches at the school. "It's a long and tiring paper at both levels and students have to cover a lot of ground."
At Belvedere College, Dublin, "the higher-level Latin paper was interesting and clear in content," said teacher Mr Joe Thullier. At ordinary level, the paper was "very short and concise". Students were pleased with both papers, he said. In order to pass, they only need 160 marks out of 400. "The clue is to stay until the end and keep writing."