The volume of work in technical drawing paper 2 (building applications) was such that students would have to be physically fit to finish it, said TUI subject representative Mr Pat O'Dwyer.
The most popular questions were question 1 on perspective, question 2 on roof geometry (tricky, he said), question 4 on the translation of surfaces and question 7 on road work.
Mr Pat Murphy, who represents the Association of Materials Technology and Graphics Teachers, said there were no surprises in the paper - it followed a similar format to previous years.
Students would have had to select their questions carefully. For example, Mr Murphy agreed the roof-geometry question was quite difficult.
At ordinary level, Mr Murphy, who teaches at Wesley College, Dublin, said there was a good choice of appropriate questions. Students who took the engineering option had a difficult second paper, according to Mr Padraig Kirk, national chairman of the Engineering and Technology Teachers Association. Question 3(b), the single line isometric drawing of a pipework system, was a new and spatially challenging question, said Mr Kirk, who teaches in O'Fiaich College, Dundalk, Co Louth.
