BOTH higher and ordinary level accountancy papers were manageable, user friendly and fair to the student, according to Mr Joe Keating, ASTI subject representative and a teacher in Cabinteely Community School in Dublin.
Ms Sheila Conneely, spokesperson for the Business Studies Teachers Association of Ireland and a teacher in Seamount College, Kinvara, Co Galway, described elements of the higher level paper as "quite testing" and was pleased with the ordinary level paper.
Ms Conneely said that the adjustments for question I were testing. "That's where the As will come in," she said. Question 5 was difficult: rather than asking students to do the accounts themselves, it gave them the accounts and essentially asked them to work back, she said.
Mr Keating voiced concern over the inclusion of preliminary expenses in question 5. Some teachers were not in agreement with this treatment, he said. The business in question was already operating, whereas preliminary expenses concern starting up.
According to Mr Keating, some students found questions 6 and 7 on the higher level paper to be long. "However, they were balanced by questions 5 and 8," he said.
Question 8 was also unusual, Ms Conneely said, since it involved working backwards and filling in blanks, "quite testing for a 65 mark question".
For the first time in 15 years, there was no question on partnership, which is 20 per cent of the higher level course. It is being removed from the new syllabus for next year, Mr Keating said the Department would appear to have anticipated this move.
Mr Keating said he had no quibbles with a fair ordinary level paper and students should have had no problems with it.