The first examination of the new Leaving Certificate business syllabus was found to be long but manageable.
Ms Mary O'Sullivan, a representative of the Business Studies Teachers' Association of Ireland, said the higher-level paper was "long, challenging, demanding and covered most of the topics on the syllabus". Students would have found parts of some questions testing but it was a reasonable paper, overall.
"It required the application of knowledge, rather than regurgitation. There was a lot of analysis and evaluation. Time management was very important because it was very long," she added.
A business studies teacher from the midlands rang Exam Times to say the paper was far too long. She had three students hoping for A1s. They did not get the paper completed although they had all the information - another 10 or 20 minutes would have allowed them to get the 100 per cent, she said.
Ms O'Sullivan said the short-answer section was student-friendly and brought in new terminology such as total quality management, intrapreneur (where employees working within a company act as entrepreneurs) and videoconferencing.
The applied business question in section 2, which is compulsory, would have appealed to most students although part (b), which asked them to draft a report for the board of directors, would have "thrown some of them". There was a particular format required, so it was also time consuming.
At ordinary level, the paper was very close to the sample paper, she said. "It was well laid out and the questions were straightforward. Again, it used up-to-date phraseology such as S.W.O.T. (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats), and total quality management. Ordinary-level students at Scoil Mhuire Gan Smal, Blarney, Co Cork, were quite happy, said Ms O'Sullivan, but higher-level students would have liked more time.
ASTI subject convenor Mr Pat Morris said both higher and ordinary-level papers were fair but challenging. Again, higher-level students in Colaiste Chriost Ri, Cork, found the paper somewhat long.
"The exam was along expected lines, with a good choice of questions. The paper was very well laid out," said Mr Morris, who is a member of the syllabus committee of the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment.
The ten short questions were very straightforward and the applied business question was "predictable enough". The remaining questions were also along expected lines.