Sir, - Your EL supplement (May 30th) fired the starting gun for your annual "Points Race". Daithi Mac Sithigh wants to know who came up with the idea of the exam. The Department of Education instituted the exam, the newspapers invented The Exam. The Irish Times is in large part responsible for inventing and sustaining the very pressure it bemoans. Such a story as "The Final Countdown" is of no help or reassurance to readers and students. - Yours, etc.,
Ralph Benson, Portobello, Dublin 8.