Leaving Cert history:"Tough" and "sneaky" were among the comments on yesterday's Leaving Certificate higher-level history paper, which saw students writing up to 20 pages on a range of topics from European marriage patterns to second World War poetry.

This is the second year that the new, expanded history course has been examined, and not all teachers are happy with the way the papers are developing.

"The element of choice was missing today," said Seán Delap of Coláiste Íosagáin in Dublin.

"There was really only one 'sitter' in each section and many other questions were just non-starters. I thought it was a sneaky approach, as if the examiners were trying to catch out the students who hadn't covered the whole course.

"It's very difficult to cover the new course as it is so wide. The students are not machines - there's only so much they can cover."

In a repeat of last year's commentary, teachers complained of unequal treatment of the case studies from section to section.

The new syllabus is anchored to a series of case studies exemplifying different historic periods and themes.

The Irish pursuit of sovereignty is one of the most popular topics and this year the questions were considered fair by most commentators, especially "an accessible question" on the aims and achievements of Patrick Pearse.

However, students remarked that there was little choice on the paper overall because some of the questions were so difficult.

"The questions on Woodrow Wilson and Wilfred Owen were so narrow, I would have had problems writing five pages on them myself," said Mr Delap, who also teaches at the Institute of Education in Dublin.

Another teacher at the Institute described the paper as "unfair".

"This was a really tough exam and if it's designed to cut down on the amount of writing that students have to do, it's not succeeding," she said.

The number of students taking history has risen slightly, to 11,668, since the introduction of the new syllabus. Students complete a research topic early in sixth year which accounts for 20 per cent of their overall mark.

There is also a compulsory document question which tests students' ability to interpret primary sources. Yesterday's document question, which featured the GAA, was universally welcomed as readable and straightforward.

The ordinary-level paper, taken by about 3,000 students, was described as a "vast improvement on last year".