Close to 24,000 Leaving Certificate students got to show off their French language skills yesterday morning.

The first of two maths papers for most Junior Certificate students brought an end to the first week of exams.

There were a record number of students entered again for the higher-level Leaving Certificate maths.

It was a full day of Irish for around half the 55,000 Junior Certificate students taking the subject at higher level yesterday.

A teenager with several conditions including dyspraxia and speech and language difficulties has launched a High Court challenge over the State Examination Commission's refusal to provide her with certain assistance her when she sits her Junior Certificate exams.

A failure to budget for a growing number of students sitting exams has been blamed for mounting losses at the State body which oversees the Leaving and Junior Certificate tests.

The final morning of Junior Certificate exams was music to the ears of around 11,000 students taking the subject.

Male Junior Certificate pupils had a busier day as only around one-sixth of those doing woodwork and technical graphics are female.

The higher level Junior Certificate maths paper 2 had a mix of very manageable and some tricky parts, according to Elaine Devlin of the Association of Secondary Teachers Ireland (ASTI).

Junior Cert students taught by ASTI members could lose 10% of their English grade because of a dispute with the Department of Education.

Science and religious education were the Junior Certificate subjects examined on Thursday at schools around the country.

Almost 60,000 students across the country will receive their Junior Certificate results today.

Tens of thousands of Leaving and Junior Certificates completed relatively straightforward German exams yesterday - experts say the papers contained “no massive surprises” and would have suited the majority of students.

Substitution arrangements for teachers doing training and planning for new assessments will be key to a final deal that looks set to resolve the junior cycle reform dispute.

The importance of rest, diet, and parental support have been underlined as close to 120,000 students countdown to the start of Junior and Leaving Certificate exams next Wednesday.

The second week of Leaving Certificate 2014 ended with construction studies papers for more than 8,500 students yesterday evening.

Three years of science education were assessed for 55,000 Junior Certificate students, whose exams filled their morning timetable.

Leaving Certificate students got down to business in the morning and needed some quite specific knowledge on many of the questions.

The Irish exams for Leaving Certificate students were on the morning timetable and featured some expected personalities.

The day started and ended with business studies for Junior Certificate students, and there was just a single exam for those who chose the ordinary level test.

Approach the start of the Leaving Cert and Junior Cert in confidence with this grade-A prep guide by former career guidance teacher Brian Murphy.

Major changes to how Leaving Certificate exams are graded, and cuts to numbers of courses offered by colleges from what was available in 2011, will not take effect for another two to three years — at least a year later than first planned.

The final area of reform promised by Ruairi Quinn was around predictability in Leaving Certificate exams which — along with narrow grade bands mostly sep-arated by just 5% — it had been suggested promotes rote learning and “teaching to the test” in schools instead of focusing on the curriculum.

Education Minister Ruairi Quinn has said that he cannot allow teachers' unions to block proposed changes to the Junior Certificate cycle.

A mix of the old and the new are among the books, plays, and films that young teens can study for the first Junior Cycle Student Award in 2017.