Leaving Cert/Technical Drawing: Students of technical drawing applied theory to practise yesterday in a "fair" and "straightforward" paper two.

The three-hour paper was broadly welcomed, although teachers are looking forward to a new syllabus which will comprise one exam instead of the current two.

Yesterday's paper featured questions on roadworks' geometry, roof-building geometry and mining geometry. The mining question is consistently popular among students at both higher and ordinary level. The structure of the questions was applauded for giving each student a fair opportunity to perform at his/her own level.

"It's been a heavy couple of days for the technical drawing students, but overall they were very happy with both papers," said TUI subject expert Mr John O'Sullivan. "As a teacher, I'm delighted that this year's exams have been so well balanced. Students of all abilities have been given a chance to show what they can do."