The last hurrah for the old chemistry syllabus was a resoundingly happy one, with students encountering few problems at either higher or ordinary level.
The new Leaving Cert chemistry syllabus will be examined for the first time next year and while the old format was never a big hit with students, this year's higher-level paper was "decent", Gerard Nugent, a teacher in Youghal CBS, said.
"Any student who had gone through past exam papers would have been pleased. It was very predictable."
Question 2 concentrated strongly on procedural details, Nugent said. "This allowed the students who are particularly good at figures to do well" and was one of the easier questions that could have been asked, he said.
Question 3 on organic preparations was "a textbook question" and question 4 was "pretty standard", he said.
"Overall it was a very decent, student-friendly paper," Nugent said.
Gerard O'Donoghue, teaching in Colaiste Clement Naofa in Limerick, said his students were also very pleased with the higher-level paper.
"They had no problems. It was along the lines of previous years with plenty of choice and scope for the students."
The ordinary-level paper was also "very fair", O'Donoghue said.
"The presentation was very clear and the questions were broken into many parts to guide the students towards the answers."