It's a little lonely being among the last of the Leaving Cert languages, but the Italian exam put on a good show.

As with the Junior Cert Italian, the aural section was the real crowd pleaser. "The tape quality was very good and clear, the material was nicely paced and the questions were fine," Aidan Farrell, teacher at Scoil Eoin, Athy, Co Kildare, said. "All my students were very happy with it, at both higher and ordinary level."

Farrell said the reading comprehensions in the ordinary-level written section were "not as obvious as usual, but students should still have been able to get them".

The higher-level reading section was "tricky enough", but the questions were fair. The section on the novel offered a good choice, of questions, Farrell said. "It would not be beyond the scope of a good honours students to do very well in this paper."