Leaving Cert students faced some unpredictable questions that required careful handling in their accounting exam, according to one teacher.

“The paper was challenging and was a good test of higher-level candidates. The questions available would have suited students who chose carefully. Some questions had pieces that would require careful handling, as questions were not predictable,” said John O’Sullivan, an accounting teacher at Ashton School in Cork City and TUI subject rep.

“It would have rewarded the higher-level candidate who had prepared properly and studied all aspects of the course.”

Challenging

Question two in the higher-level exam on depreciation could have been particularly challenging. “It was not like previous depreciation questions and could have been a poor choice for some,” he said.

According to Mr O’Sullivan, the ordinary-level paper was “approachable overall, and the choice of questions should have facilitated the ordinary-level candidates to do well”. “It’s a very practical subject by its nature. It’s predominantly a practical exam. A strong theoretical component was also tested very well today,” he said.

Tricky questions

Arthur Russell

, an accounting teacher at the Institute of Education, said higher-level accounting was “a fair, well-balanced paper, with one or two tricky questions which required students to think on their feet. Anyone who had limited their topics might have been caught out.”

He said students might have been surprised by question six as it had appeared on last year’s paper.

There was an almost even gender balance among the 6,672 students who took the Leaving Cert accounting exam, with 49.9 per cent female and 50.1 per cent male candidates.

More than 80 per cent of students took the higher-level exam.