POSTMORTEM/going over the paper again Junior Cert history:Problems arising from last year's higher and ordinary level papers appeared to have been resolved as teachers described the exams yesterday as being "fair and wide-ranging".

TUI subject representative and teacher in Ballincollig Community School, Dermot Lucey said he was "fairly pleased" with both papers and had no major problems with them. "Overall, they were a good test for students," Mr Lucey said. "They needed to know their stuff."

A People in History question that occurs in both papers requires students to write both generally and specifically about characters from the past. Mr Lucey felt that the higher-level students were presented with a better choice of people than those sitting the exam at ordinary level.

History is a popular subject choice, with more students sitting that paper than the Irish one at Junior Cert level. The syllabus is under review as the current course, according to Mr Lucey, is "too long and has too much content in it".

A course committee, of which Mr Lucey is a member, has recommended changes but it will be a while before students will see any difference. "It will be 2009 at the earliest," he said. "I wish they'd bring in the changes sooner."

Commenting on the rest of the paper, Mr Lucey praised other questions as "well-worded and fair".

A question about international relations in the 20th century caused uproar last year but there were no complaints this time around. "They seem to have overcome the problem this year,"he said.