Technical drawing students and teachers were generally happy with the papers, but one question at higher level raised more than a few hackles.
Pat O'Dwyer from Kenmare Vocational School, Co Kerry, said his students were unhappy with question 4 - a pentagonal prism which took up almost a quarter of a page.
He said it involved very steep angles and many pupils found it difficult to handle and timeconsuming. It was also difficult to accommodate on their answer sheet.
Conleth Cryan of The High School, Rathgar, Co Dublin, agreed and said it took a long time to set up. O'Dwyer and Cryan said it took some students more than an hour, which for a three-hour paper was a serious commitment.
John O'Sullivan, ASTI subject representative and a teacher in CBS Mountgarrett, New Ross, Co Wexford, said it was "quite demanding", even for higher level.
O'Dwyer said his students used some colourful language about the difficulty of this element. Under exam conditions, it was hard because students were asked for a "cut-out" of the prism, which took a long time, he said.
O'Sullivan welcomed the rest of the paper and said the diagrams were well presented. Question 2, on two triangles, was one "where you either did very well or got caught".
Question 6 on the centre of curvature was tough. "That question required the student to get a specific property," O'Sullivan said. Cryan said most of his students did themselves justice.
Question 7 on a regular tetrahedron has not appeared often and threw many students, O'Dwyer said. "They are used to working with tetrahedrons, but manipulating it the way the paper wanted was quite hard."
Of the ordinary-level paper, O'Sullivan said it was well-designed and most questions were "fair, but challenging". He said question 5 (the elevation and plan of a solid) was "very demanding" in terms of visualisation.
O'Dwyer thought the paper was testing. Question 2 was unpopular with students, he said, because it involved ratios and the manipulation of areas. "Both parts were difficult, though if you got the first part wrong at least you could still pick up marks in the second part."
Question 4 (a) used a sloping line, which was unnecessary for this level, he said, while question 5 was familiar but used an "awkward solid".