Exam Times 'phones were hopping yesterday, as parent after parent rang in to express outrage at the higher-level Leaving Cert. history paper. One parent phoned to enquire how she would go about registering a formal complaint. Another woman wished to issue a plea to the examiners to mark the paper leniently. Students throughout the State were in tears after the exam, parents said.

Parents were irate, but unwilling to give their names for fear they would embarrass their offspring. "The paper was unfair," said a Dublin mother. "Many people were put in a situation where they were unable to address the questions. None of the expected topics came up."

One distraught mother reported that her son had returned home "devastated". He was a repeat student and last year had obtained a C3 in history, she said. "He is a very level-headed boy, but he was crying when he told me about the exam. He feels he has blighted his position. He's only doing six subjects and if he fails one of them, he will have very little chance of picking up points."

Teachers, too, were concerned that many of the regular topics failed to appear on the paper. The ASTI has also reported that a number of teachers rang to complain about the higher-level history paper, yesterday.

Omissions included Parnell, Bismark, Lemass, Home Rule, Michael Collins. Instead, students were asked about agriculture and the Anglo-Irish literary group. In yesterday's Exam Times, Fr Iggy O'Donovan, Good Counsel, New Ross, Co Wexford, described the exam paper as "tough, technical and mean, in that none of the old reliables appeared". Many parents and teachers rang in to say that they agreed with him. One mother - a third-level teacher - said that the paper had demanded too much of students. Some of the questions were better suited to third-level students, she declared. "Too much was demanded of them by way of sorting out elements they had not previously studied." "Section A was absolutely, apallingly difficult," stressed one irate parent from Mayo. "It was on par with university level. I would like to see some adjustments made in the correcting of sections A and C on the exam scripts." Arthur Griffith, she said, had not appeared on a Leaving Cert. paper for nearly 10 years. "Students left the exam centre in floods of tears, they were so upset. I would beg the examiners, who are correcting the scripts, to show compassion to the students."

A Co Cork mother noted that that only 16 out of 140 students taking Leaving Cert. exams in her daughter's school this year, were sitting history. However, 70 students were taking geography. "Good students don't get the rewards in history," she said. "It's perceived to be impossible to get good grades in the subject." However, Department of Education and Science figures show that the numbers taking Leaving Cert. history have remained static over the last four years. Some 14,552 students have registered to sit the exams this year. "My daughter came home white and pale faced," recalled the Co Cork mother. "History is her favourite subject and she has worked very hard at it.

A Department spokesman said they had not received any complaints about the paper.