Leaving Certificate accounting: Yesterday's higher-level accounting paper was straightforward and in keeping with the patterns of recent years, according to students and teachers. However, there were a couple of notable deviations in sections one and three.

Questions on "absorption costing", "variances" and "controllable and uncontrollable costs" may have taken some students by surprise, said Arthur Russell, from the Institute of Education.

"There was also a farm account featured in section one - this should have been interesting for the urban students," said Mr Russell, who also teaches at Stratford College, Rathgar.

The appearance of published accounts in section one was also unexpected.

The ordinary-level paper, taken by around one in five students yesterday, followed the lines predicted by exam analysts.

Some students remarked that a question on "reconciliating the net cashflow" and the "movement of net debt" was a little more difficult than usual for the level.

The Leaving Cert accounting syllabus was reviewed in 1998, with students and teachers reporting satisfaction with its content and with the standard of examination in recent years. However, numbers taking the subject have been falling gradually over the last decade.

Students of Junior Cert business studies, of which there were 34,114 this year, are not required to take accounting as a core subject. Those completing the Junior Cert without a basic knowledge of accounting techniques are unlikely to go on to take the subject for the Leaving Cert, say commentators. There have been calls to make accounting a core topic in Junior Cert business studies.

"If the issue of Junior Certificate accounting was addressed, I think we would see increasing numbers of students for the subject at Leaving Certificate level," said Mr Russell.