Junior Cert French - post-mortem: "A very manageable paper overall," said Ms Máire Ní Chíarba, member of the National Committee for Curriculum Assessment and chairwoman of the ASTI education committee.
The higher paper cleverly required students to use past and future tenses, rather than resorting to the easier present tense. The aural tape used at both levels was of excellent quality and the written questions on comprehension were "challenging but fair", she said. A football question in the higher-level paper on Arsenal team manager Arsene Wenger, who is a native of Alsace, certainly got the male students interested, she said.
The ordinary-level paper was a much simpler exam, well within students' reach, she added. A letter they were asked to write could easily be done in the present tense.