A broad choice of questions helped students navigate the long classical studies and Latin papers yesterday.

Brendan Leahy of Belvedere College, Dublin, said his students left the Latin exams tired but happy. "It was a long, demanding paper. The Virgil passage was testing, but overall the students were satisfied."

Micheal Barry, who teaches at St Patrick's College, Cork, said his classical studies students were happy with the range of questions, but said: "This paper is a real marathon".

Fintan McNamara, classical studies teacher at St Paul's Secondary School, Dublin, was pleased with the question on Roman historians, but said the question on Alexander the Great was "quite tough".