Junior Cert: Materials technology: Taken by nearly 16,000 students, the increasing popularity of Materials Technology is due to the expansion of the course beyond woodwork.
Mr Kieran Christie, teacher at St Attracta's Community School in Tubbercurry, Co Sligo, said that the course teaches spatial thinking and is "educationally viable in its own right".
Students were generally happy with yesterday's well-pitched papers at both higher and ordinary levels, although there was a difficult question or two.
The higher-level paper was generally regarded as fair, without tricky surprises. However, Section B of the paper began with an unduly time-consuming first question. Students would have had about 25 minutes to answer each question, which was not enough for Question 1, said Mr Christie.
Question 4 (one of five) on the ordinary-level paper would have been too demanding for many students, who would have had no experience of lathing and veneering. This question belonged on the higher paper, Mr Christie commented.