Leaving Cert biologyMore than half of all Leaving Certificate students sat yesterday's biology paper, which was described as "very comprehensive" and "demanding".

Teachers maintained that any students who had covered the course properly shouldn't have had a problem, but some students complained about the amount of material covered across the paper, and even within questions.

The biology syllabus is notoriously long and despite a recent review, students and teachers report difficulties covering the course. Despite this, biology continues to be the most popular science subject on the Leaving Certificate syllabus. The majority of biology students are female.

Susan Silke, a teacher at the Institute of Education in Dublin, said that the paper was straightforward and should not have presented any problems for students who had studied the entire syllabus.

Questions on the benefits of breastfeeding and the function of the placenta were considered to be unusually specific.

"The layout of today's paper was a little different than last year and there was a very broad variety of topics covered, with a lot of close detail," said Ms Silke. "There were interesting challenges within many of the questions, but students had plenty of choice."

Tim O'Meara, of the TUI, considered yesterday's biology paper to be demanding, not least because of its scope. "There were three separate questions on ecology, which was a bit much," he commented.

Question nine, about simple keys for identifying animals and plants, may have confused some students, who would be familiar with using keys but not drawing them. Overall, however, for a well-prepared student, today's paper shouldn't have presented a major problem.

Lilly Cronin, ASTI subject expert and a biology teacher at Mercy Mounthawk School in Tralee, applauded a "student friendly" paper, but acknowledged that the successful student would have needed a lot of preparation.

"The questions, in the short section in particular, demanded very precise responses. As the paper went on, students were continuously drawn to produce very specific information, which is good."

The ordinary-level paper, taken by one in four biology students yesterday, threw up a number of surprises.

"There were a couple of topics that I was surprised to see on an ordinary-level paper, such as the structure of the stem and the correction of long-sightedness," said Susan Silke. "These were challenging topics for this level."

Tim O'Meara agreed that the ordinary-level paper was unexpectedly testing. "This was a tricky paper for the cohort. While there was nothing new on it, some of the phrasing and imagery may have caused confusion."

Students were given a photograph of a yeast cell, instead of a line drawing, and the quality of the photo was considered poor.

Lilly Cronin suggested that the inclusion of an experiment on germination may not have delighted many students, who tend to steer clear of plant biology in favour of human biology. She welcomed the relevant and topical nature of both papers, which featured subjects such as genetic engineering, waste management in Ireland and antibiotic resistance.