The art history and appreciation papers were well received, with teachers praising their wide choice and topicality.
However, several teachers contacted Exam Times to voice concerns about what they claimed was a confusing question in the higher-level paper. A trumpet pictures among "Bronze Age artefacts" featured in question 1 (section 1) was in fact from the Iron Age, they alleged.
The Loughnashade Trumpet was brought from central Europe by the Celts and could not be ascribed to the Bronze Age, the teachers said. Nobody was available from the Department of Education last night to comment on their claim.
Jane Campbell, a teacher in St Joseph's School in Navan, Co Meath, complained that there was no question on a visit to an art gallery, which normally appears on the paper. She was otherwise happy with the "clear and understandable" language and wide choice. Paul White, a teacher in Calasanctius College, Oranmore, Co Galway, said the higher-level paper was student-friendly and wide in scope.
At ordinary level, question 1 on a kerbstone at Newgrange was "a very tall order", he said.