It was a long, difficult afternoon for most higher-level geography students as they juggled Ordnance Survey maps, aerial photographs and technical jargon.
TUI subject representative Mr Derek Dunne said the higher-level paper was challenging to high level students and difficult for the average student. "There was a slight change in the style of questioning," he added. Contemporary topics such as planning and the Celtic Tiger economy were to be welcomed.
Mr Dunne criticised the breaking of question one, the compulsory question, into two parts rather than three. "This contrasted with the fieldwork question, with six parts, where students had a better idea of what was being asked and a had a better chance of scoring well."
ASTI subject representative Mr John Mulcahy said reaction among higher-level students at Bishopstown Community School, Cork, ranged from "a sense of shock to quiet satisfaction to almost gloating". Overall, he said, there were difficulties with terminology and the breakdown of marks.
He was particularly critical of the change in marking in question one. It was a very bad start to the paper, he said. "As a teacher I was very annoyed that no notice was given of the total and sudden change in the marking scheme."
Part of question one asked students "as a geographer" to draw up a feasibility study to consider building a bridge across the Shannon. Other questions also used the same tack.
Mr Mulcahy said the students were simply not planners or geographers; they were students and the language used was alien to them. "Asking students to draw up a feasibility study is fine if they are working in a local authority. It is not for young students in a very stressful situation."
However, he said that if students could find their way past the jargon the questions were relatively straightforward. But he told of one student who left halfway through the exam as she felt she there was no hope, some of the questions were so alien.
In regional geography, he said, there were "a couple of new twists and it was quite tough". A lot of students complained forcibly at the exclusion of Italy. He said it was difficult to understand why students were not given a free choice of country as there was no way they could hope to cover all the countries.
Mr Mulcahy said the ordinary-level paper was fair and balanced although there were a few terms that students at this level may have found difficult.
Mr Dunne said the ordinary-level paper followed the pattern of previous years. There may have been a little confusion with respect to question 15 which required careful reading.
Exam Times received a number of phone calls from parents and higher-level students who were unhappy with their afternoon's experience.
A Dublin mother rang to say her daughter, an A student, and top of her class, had come home from higher-level geography "in floods of tears". Her daughter said the format was different and the questions were really difficult. "I know last year's paper was considered very easy, but no one was expecting something this difficult," she said. She said subjects like climate "hadn't come up for years and aren't in the majority of text books for Leaving". She was also thrown by the question on the Ordnance Survey map.
A student in Co Meath rang to say: "I just can't believe the Department would do this. I have never seen anything like it. A lot of people bank on geography to get points. I paid quite a lot of money going to grinds but there was absolutely no point. There has never been anything like it before. It was a really horrible paper. I am just wondering if other schools found it the same."