A rocky start for some, a breeze for others - reaction to Leaving Cert Irish paper 1 at both higher and ordinary level seemed to have depended on your point of view.
Teachers' views were decidedly mixed. Some thought the ordinary level paper was the more difficult of the two levels. Others were of the opposite opinion after the exam this afternoon.
The higher level paper was "not a good start," according to Clare Grealy of the Institute of Education. The essay title presented to the candidates were, she said, "uninteresting, unimaginative and in a several cases, unreasonable".
An essay title, 'The dilemma in the health service - My solution for it', split opinion. "This type of essay required knowledge of the health service," Ms Grealy said. "Even through English, this essay would challenge students to have an insight into something that they probably have not encountered directly."
Asti representative, Robbie Cronin, however, described the paper as, "fair."
"The essays offered variety, although there was no sign of the much expected essay on the Olympics or the importance of sport," he said.
The other essay topics including crime, Ireland as a welcoming and open country, as well as the speech about whether you are asked to speak to students and teachers about your years in school, were praised by Mr Cronin.
"All this choice, with one to do shows plenty of choice," he said."The ordinary level students felt harder done by than those at higher level."
Ms Grealy, however, found her ordinary level students were very pleased with what they found before them. "One of the essay titles asked students to write about, 'A wonderful holiday I had'," she said. "This overlapped with a letter subject; about a holiday with your family in Australia which students could also choose to write about."
Today's exam consisted of an aural exam followed by a written composition section. This was the first year that this type of paper - one that had the aural exam and the essay titles on the one paper - was presented to candidates.
"The aural component of the exam seemed to be ok," said Ms Grealy. "However, students would have been distracted, as they would have had an opportunity to review the essay titles before the aural commenced."
During the aural section, Mr Cronin felt that ordinary level students could have been thrown by the use of the word taighde (survey) in a question rather than the more obvious suirbhé in a number of questions. "Not knowing that word will have perhaps led to panic," Mr Cronin said.
Higher level questions were asked in student-friendly way, Mr Cronin added, with the subject mater topical but students finding the voices on the CD to be quite fast.