Teachers declared this years French papers to be tres bon and said they were possibly one of the best sets ever. The higher-level paper was probably one of the most topical of this year's exams, they added.
Subjects like exercising your vote, the dangers of smoking, raves and French football were familiar to students and many would have prepared notes on these areas for their orals.
Catherine Fitzpatrick, ASTI president and French teacher, said the higher-level paper was "fair and student-friendly". She said the first two passages were of suitable length and the questions were "well chosen".
Sean Higgins, a teacher in St Mary's in Drogheda, Co Louth, and chairman of the last French course committee, said: "I would like to give the highest commendation possible to the people who set this paper. It was the fairest paper I have seen yet."
He said questions 1 and 2 in previous years were often very long, but this time they were shortened and the questions made relatively easy. Section 2 (production ecrite) was also fair, with questions about rights and freedoms and about the candidates' experience of family life. "There was a crossover, with a lot of the work done for the orals," he said.
Question 3 in section 2 on rich and poor was a good choice and a cartoon helped students. "You could make what you liked of it - you could treat it as serious or funny," Higgins said.
The ordinary-level paper was equally helpful, said Fitzpatrick and Higgins. It certainly seemed to be au fait with youth culture, even of the faintly naff variety.
Beaming out of page 6 was US singer Britney Spears in a long passage about her life and new album. Fitzpatrick said the questions on Britney were fair and passage number 2, on "chocolat", was similarly straightforward.
"It was clear from the ordinary-level paper that the examiners went out of their way to accommodate students," said Higgins.
With such praise already ringing in their ears, the examiners were exalted further.
The aural tape was clear and "paced very well", Higgins said. In previous years, it was sometimes hard to discern certain words - often the dialects were unfamiliar. "This year it was just about right," said Higgins.
Fitzpatrick agreed, though she said questions on the higher-level paper were "very challenging".
