Junior Cert technical graphics: A higher-level paper that gave students a real opportunity to display their knowledge was roundly welcomed by students and teachers alike.

At ordinary level, students who kept calm and were not put off by some complicated-looking questions found that the paper held no surprises at all.

John O'Sullivan, the ASTI's subject representative and teacher in the Christian Brothers' Secondary School in New Ross described both papers as fair.

He noted there was a real effort to make the higher-level paper student friendly by basing questions around everyday objects such as a house, a mobile phone and a toaster. Papers like this will have "positive implications for the subject in future years", Mr O'Sullivan said.

There was good news regardless of a student's level, as, according to Mr O'Sullivan, "the questions presented could be reasonably attempted by students across the ability spectrum".

Technical graphics exams used to come in for quite a bit of criticism for presenting students with a difficult task at the start of each question. Those days, according to Mr O'Sullivan have thankfully "been resigned to history".

No surprises for ordinary-level students but they did have to keep focused as question 2 appeared more complex than it actually was. Aside from that, Mr O'Sullivan described the paper as "fair and very much in line with what the students had been expecting".