It was tutto bene in the Junior Cert Italian exam yesterday. Mr Aidan Farrell, who teaches the language at Scoil Eoin in Athy, Co Kildare, was happy with the paper. The listening comprehension (tape) section was "possibly a bit harder than last year" but otherwise, he said, the paper was fine.

"The only thing about the tape was that the dialogue was a little bit quicker than in recent years," said Mr Farrell. "The pieces were also a bit longer, so you could easily pick up the wrong answer unless you listened very carefully." This would apply in particular to students doing the higher-level paper. Students, he said, would find the tape section "a bit more demanding than last year".

The rest of the higher-level paper was fine. Questions on the tape section at ordinary level were fine. No problems were reported in other sections of the ordinary-level paper.