Junior Cert Technology: Spatial awareness was the order of the day for yesterday's Junior Certificate students, with a strong emphasis on design in both the morning and afternoon papers.

The 15,760 students taking Materials Technology (Wood) were very pleased with what was considered a decent paper featuring plenty of modern materials to accompany the more traditional woodwork components.

Mr Pat O'Connor, of the TUI, commended the paper's "excellent layout". "Speaking to students after the exam, I found no pattern in the questions they chose to answer. This is a very good sign on an exam paper," he said. The ordinary level paper drew heavily on workshop practice with some minor problems interpreting diagrams in the long question section.

The afternoon paper, Technical Graphics, was "student friendly and straightforward", according to TUI subject expert Mr Michael Martin.

But he remarked there was a question on both the higher and ordinary level papers asking students to shade an object, but without indicating the direction of the light source.