The 22 students who sat Italian papers in Scoil Eoin CBS, Athy, Co Kildare, were happy with yesterday's papers.

Their teacher, Mr Aidan Farrell, said, the papers were, overall, as expected. At higher level, the journalistic comprehension dealt with drugs, a topic most students would have prepared. The questions on the literary comprehension, an extract from Tornare a scuola by Primo Levi, were fine, he said, as were questions on the prescribed novel.

The aural tape was nicely paced with a "nice steady rate of dialogue", Mr Farrell said. Ordinary-level comprehensions ranged from precautions swimmers should observe before entering the water to "webbies" who surf in the virtual world. There were no problems with the ordinary-level listening comprehension. There were 214 entries for Leaving Cert Italian.

Students of Greek sat a "very good but challenging higher-level paper". Mr Daniel O'Connor of John Scottus School, Dublin, said the four students who sat the exam found it fair.

Any student who had seen Fiona Shaw as Medea in the Abbey's current production would have had "plenty to comment on" in question 4(B)(ii) which asked about a play by Euripides. In question 1, the English to Greek composition contained difficult constructions but was not unfair, while the comprehension was difficult, Mr O'Connor said. The extracts and questions on the prescribed translation were very clear and presented a fair challenge.