LEAVING CERT ACCOUNTANCY:THERE WERE some surprises for students of higher level accounting yesterday on a paper described as "interesting" by one teacher; "ambiguous" by another.

"The paper featured a cash-flow statement - we haven't seen this topic on the paper since 1998," said Arthur Russell of Stratford College in Dublin. "A question on control accounts was also unexpected."

Other aspects of the paper were regarded as easier than last year, such as the ratio-analysis question.

"At this level you have to expect a challenging paper but, overall, I think that yesterday's offering was reasonable," said Mr Russell, who also teaches accounting at the Institute of Education in Dublin.

Veronica Edwards of Carrigallen Vocational School in Leitrim commented on the paper's gradual move towards theory in recent years.

"Theory-based questions, which have been appearing more and more frequently, require the students to have a broader knowledge of the syllabus. Yesterday's paper was satisfactory, although there was a number of unexpected features. The question on flexible budgeting was not predicted."

Aine Ní Cheidigh of Ardscoil Rís on Griffith Avenue, Dublin, saw the paper as searching, and in places, ambiguous. "Students had to deal with the correction of errors on four different occasions - in questions 1, 2 and 7."

A number of teachers commented on the difficulty students faced in managing their time.

"In questions 8 and 9 there was no indication of the marks allocated to different parts and, since timing is of great importance in accountancy, it's unfair to leave students with no indication of how to manage their time," said Ms Ní Cheidigh.

More than 7,000 students sat yesterday's accounting paper.

One in five took the ordinary level paper, which was described as "a dream" by Arthur Russell of the Institute of Education.