Going into their exams yesterday, Leaving Cert Applied students were sorely disappointed. The Department had promised that they would get the marks they had already accrued by continuous assessment (67 per cent) before they tackled the exams. But this was not to be.

"All my students commented on how unfair this was," said Richard Daly, principal of St Brigid's Post-Primary School, Athy, Co Kildare. Students, though, were extremely pleased with the English and communication exam. They particularly liked the sections on the song, The Cat's Cradle, and an Education & Living article on teenagers working, he said. The social education paper, meanwhile, was "fair and stimulating," and the questions extremely relevant, he added.