There was plenty of reading in store for 7,747 students who sat yesterday's Junior Certificate Spanish exam, although most reported satisfaction with the paper.

"Despite a challenging question on a Celtic music festival in Spain, students were happy with the higher level exam," said Máire Ní Chiarba, who teaches at Coláiste an Phiarsaigh in Glanmire, Co Cork.

Straightforward
A reading comprehension on the subject of the zoo in Madrid contained some quite difficult vocabulary and featured unusual animals, but the questions were straightforward, teachers said.

In a written expression section students were asked to write messages on specific subjects – a message about the queen of England visiting Ireland threw some students.

Almost 8,000 students took metalwork yesterday and were pleased with a “modern” paper that challenged students to apply many facets of the syllabus.

Donal Cremin, ASTI subject representative and teacher at Rathmore Community School in Kerry, said it was a "lovely paper".

Thinking skills
"Students were asked to design a rear bumper and a rear door for a modern jeep which they had already worked on as part of their project earlier in the year.

“Their thinking skills were challenged.”

There was also an exercise to compare the design of a modern motorbike with a vintage model.

“Digital media systems also featured in this relevant paper, set in a modern context with traditional roots,” said Mr Cremin.

Yesterday’s paper accounted for 25 per cent of the overall mark for metalwork.

Some 1,600 students took the ordinary level metalwork paper which was described as “visually stimulating” and provided an “appropriate challenge”.