YESTERDAY WAS the final day of the Junior Cert exams, and it was worth the wait for students of classical studies, as they finished their exams with what were universally agreed to be, “very nice papers”. ASTI subject representative Jim O’Dea picked out questions on Mycenaean life and Pompeii as being particularly student friendly.

Students were invited to submit sketches as part of their answer which was “a very welcome development”, said O’Dea.

Sections A and B in the higher and ordinary level papers are the same in this subject. Section C however differs depending on the level. At ordinary level, this section won praise for the layout and digestibility of the questions. “The questions were nice but they were well broken down,” O’Dea said. “There was no question worth 32 marks, for example, so if a student got stuck on one part they would only have lost a maximum of eight marks. It’s good to see that at ordinary level.” The vast majority of the 400-plus students doing the Latin exam take the higher level paper. It was challenging in places according to O’Dea. “Some of the unseen text, the second one in particular, was quite difficult,” O’Dea said. A question on Cicero also drew criticism for being too specific. However, some nice questions, particularly one on gladiators, went a way towards making up for the difficulty of other questions. “It balanced out in the end,” O’Dea said.