LEAVING CERT ITALIAN: With just 182 students sitting the paper, Italian is not the most popular Leaving Cert exam. Yet it came in for more praise than perhaps any other modern language exam this year.

"It is very hard to find any faults with the papers at either higher or ordinary level," said Mr Aidan Farrell, who teaches at Scoil Eoin, Athy, Co Kildare.

The aural section ran at quite a fast pace, he noted, but although it was a common-level tape, both higher and ordinary level students did have time to cope with the material. "The tape was a bit quicker than last year but the questions were fine. I think most students should have been able to manage at both levels."

He said question 1 on the higher level paper was very fair. The text concerned a way of hitch-hiking by booking lifts on the Internet and was "well within students capabilities".

The literary texts were manageable, he said, although few students decided to study the literature. The novel questions offered students a very fair choice.

The questions did get a little more testing in section C of the paper. "The written section was possibly the more difficult end of things."

Ordinary level students were also happy with their papers, Mr Farrell said.

"There were no difficulties with the comprehensions and there was a particularly interesting text on a school principal confiscating mobile phones, a nice topical one for students."