Despite some criticisms, this year's ordinary level maths paper got a general thumbs-up in Galway city.
Students at St Joseph's College in Nuns Island (a boys' school better known as "the Bish") were all smiles as they spilled out into the midday sun dressed in surf shorts to exchange views on the second maths paper.
Gerard Hogan, of Menlo, and Daryl Hanley, of Annaghdown, deemed the line and circle questions good and the statistics question easy but both picked out the vector section as the most problematic.
Cian McComb, of Castlegar, felt that the co-ordinate geometry section took a long time to complete but his prediction that he would get an A2 between both papers means this year's exam obviously suited him.
Séamus Gavin, from Moycullen, dropped down from the honours class a few months ago when they started doing the section on integration.
"I thought I wouldn't be able to stick it but this wasn't much easier because there are things that are different like Simpson's rule. I'd hope for a B or a C, I'll probably do commerce or corporate law so I'm not relying on maths," he said.
Teacher Tom O'Malley said overall both papers were well received. He described yesterday's line and circle questions as "nice", while the volume question was deemed "lovely".
"There was huge controversy in the past two years over how difficult the ordinary paper was," said Mr O'Malley. "They may have been well able to answer the question but the terminology threw them off. This year was simple and straightforward and I'd say that was deliberate."
"The Bish" is unusual in that more than half the 159 students do honours maths, while the national average choosing to do the higher level is about 10 per cent.
Pádraic McDonagh, from Ballybane, felt the "c" questions in the honours paper were "really hard, harder than last year", while the option section of question 8 was totally unlike anything they had ever done in class.
Yet he believes he will achieve an A2 overall, which is essential to his college choice of actuarial studies.
Eoin Cashman, from Salthill, agreed that the "c" questions and all four option choices were difficult.
