Leaving Cert: Engineering: A "painless" paper crowned an enjoyable year for Leaving Certificate engineering students yesterday. The students had already completed half of their assessment earlier in the year with each class designing and building their own amphibious vehicle.

"We are delighted that the Department chose such an accessible project for engineering students this year," said ASTI subject expert Mr Kenny Donagher. "We are trying to encourage more students to take engineering, and this year was a great help."

The paper opened with a compulsory short question section followed by a question on a special topic - the centrifugal pump. "The special topic question can be very demanding but this year it was fine," said Mr Donagher.

Mr Willie Culkeen of the TUI felt that some of the short questions in the first section were quite trying, but he and his students were pleased with the rest. "After a few tricky questions in the first section the exam was true to form," he said. There were 5,102 students entered to sit yesterday's paper including 241 girls.