Leaving Cert Biology:Students might have been "a bit shaky" on seeing the higher level paper initially, but they would have settled into it according to teachers who welcomed both higher and ordinary level papers yesterday.

Biology is a hugely popular subject among students with the vast majority sitting the higher level paper. In fact only English has more higher level students - a remarkable fact when one considers that biology is an elective rather than compulsory subject.

A characteristic of these exams has been the move away from rote learning and biology is no exception.

"There were a few challenging questions in there," said Claire Daly, expert for The Irish Times study guides and teacher in Yeats College, Galway.

"If students understood their work, they were able to work them out."

Short questions on the higher level paper were described as "very nice" by Ms Daly. Many of the questions involved interpreting pictures and diagrams and answering questions about them.

The "genetic cross" question, normally reserved for the long questions, popped up as a short one this year. "That was a little bit unusual but it has happened before," Ms Daly said.

The ordinary level paper presented students with a clear set of short questions that "they either knew or didn't", according to Ms Daly. There were no surprises in section B - the experiment questions at either higher or ordinary level.

Students found the longer questions in section C challenging but fair at both levels. The ordinary level paper was particularly challenging in this area. It just goes to show that although ordinary level students have a shorter syllabus to learn, "they still have to know it well," Ms Daly said.

The higher level section C contained a comprehensive question about immunity. "They've never asked that much about immunity before," Ms Daly said. She commended the questions for testing what the students know and understand rather than what they had learned off by heart.

An ecology question featured the dreaded nitrogen cycle but the questions asked were fair and straightforward.

Diagrams were a feature of some of the questions and students were asked to draw some of the more difficult ones, like the skin which was "fine, but tough enough", Ms Daly said.

"Overall, if you had covered all of the information nothing should have shocked you. This was a good exam for the student who understands biology," Ms Daly said.