Junior Cert: higher level maths:A challenging paper awaited students of higher level maths yesterday as those wavering between pass and honours faced a daunting test of their mettle.

"The good students loved it and really enjoyed the opportunity to show off all they had learned during the last two years," said Maria Kelly of the TUI.

However, she sent out a plea to the examiners to make section A more straightforward from now on. "The challenge for the people who set the paper is to provide a good test for the strong students, which they did, while giving weaker students the opportunity to get the honour or pass they need," she said.

"It was a tough day for some of those students. Hopefully this will be taken care of when it comes to the marking."

Question 2b, on compound interest, was regarded by some students as "tricky", but the general response was positive.

Teacher Alan Monnelly described all three of yesterday's Junior Cert maths papers as fair tests of students' skills. He especially welcomed the increasing demand for students to explain their methods.

"It's extremely important for the pupils to write out and explain methods they use. This way they can't just throw down an answer - they have to verify the method they have used. Pupils benefit from this approach - if they know they will be asked to justify their methods, they will aim higher during the year."

Overall, the paper corresponded faithfully to the syllabus, said one teacher. "For any pupil who kept up with what went on during the year, yesterday should have been fine," he said.

The Paper II exam takes place on Monday.