Choices and topicality make it a fair French paper for most Leaving Certs

For 27,000 Leaving Certificate students, French papers were the morning fare and there were no nasty surprises.

Eimear Holly, a spokeswoman for the Association of Secondary Teachers Ireland (Asti), said the higher-level comprehensions were manageable. She thought the written section offered a lot of choice and topics were relevant to students’ interests and issues prepared for their oral exams.

However, she thought a compulsory question about animal rights was very specific and challenging. Ms Holly thought some students might have avoided the diary entry, which required very specific vocabulary.