There were no nasty surprises lurking on yesterday afternoon's technical drawing papers.
ASTI subject representative Mr John O'Sullivan said both papers were "pretty much as expected. They were very fair in terms of the types of question but there were some testing parts to the questions to challenge the students at the higher end of the spectrum."
Mr Pat Murphy, a representative of the Association of Materials Technology and Graphics Teachers, said the standard on the higher-level paper continues to be high but it was a fair paper. "It was well balanced with enough variety within the questions to challenge all of the students."
Question 4 would have taken a long time to draw and solve, he noted. Overall, although demanding in workload, the paper should have been well received. The ordinary-level exam was "well balanced and suited to the abilities of the student", said Mr Murphy, who teaches in Wesley College, Dublin.
TUI subject representative Mr Pat O'Dwyer said that the breakdown of plane to solid geometry was slightly different to previous years, with less plane geometry this year. There was quite a lot of work on both papers so students would have needed to choose their questions carefully if they wanted to complete the paper.
At higher level, part (c) of question 1 was very difficult, he added, while there was too much work involved in question 4. He queried the use of a 42 angle in question 5 while he praised question 7 as "lovely. I would like to see a little more of this type of question."
At ordinary level, Mr O'Dwyer, who teaches in Kenmare Vocational School, Co Kerry, criticised part (c) of question 3. It was more suited to a higher-level paper. Students may have found question 5 slightly confusing but the remainder of the paper was "lovely".
Mr Patrick McVicar, ASTI subject representative and principal of Falcarragh Community School, Co Donegal, said both papers were fair to the candidates. At higher level, he also noted the difficulty of question 1(c). In Question 2, both Mr McVicar and Mr O'Dwyer said students may have been unsure as to whether the line DA was vertical. A right angle could have been indicated.