**English**....2late?

Fast_Mover

i know most of ye hav btr things to be worrying about but wud appreciate if ye cud help me:
in 5th yr@the mo and its regarding english- i just dont know where to begin, i mean...................for the past yr we have only goten english homework id say 3-4 times and that was 1essay, how i responded to the poetry of heaney, and this thing on the character of hamlet, while it was great not gettin any homework n'all while other classes gettin loads, i has hit me that we have nothing done.

we have "covered" 5-6 poets and what i mean by "covered" is just reading down through each poem and moving on....

regards to hamet that was the first thing we did in 5th yr...he just read through the play!

this might seem odd that im complainin about this but.....we have not gotn 1 test all yr in english+our christmas report result was gotn from that 1essay we did only!

he has not underlined any quotes for us to learn while in another english class the have thououghly went through poets having tests on them, getting homework, learning quotes.-->surely all that will stand to them in the long run....as for me/my class we're screwd not only for our summer english exam but 4da L.C!

correct me if im worng but i wud hav considered english one of the hardest subjects?
feel free to tell me its all in my imagination+2shut up but im honestly worried. i dont want to fail it (...+dont tell me its not possible)

ne1 in same boat as me...or ye all on dry land? ne advise greatfuly recieved!!!
im already doing pass maths+need to count the points in my honours english.

regards all,
Gem

conZ

Exact same position as you - except, I'm in 6th year.

At the start of 5th year he told us that there are two types of English students - those who have talent or flair for English and those who dont. He said that those who haven't got talent, have to work hard at it. He said it himself that there are only about 5 in the class with talent.

Since, he's gave us about 4 essay's at weekends, it takes him two weeks to correct them. We've read through, I mean, covered all our poetry, 7 poets I think - We've done Kavanagh about 5 times over, Dickinson once, Plath once in 4th year, Heaney once, GMH once, the list goes on. He keeps saying he's not going to make predictions, yet he decides to ditch Plath at the start of 6th year and do Dickinson, since Plath came up in the LC last year.

We've watched Macbeth, Silas Marner, Wuthering Heights and On The Waterfront a load of times (my teacher is a film fanatic). He's given us one handout in 2 years - a photocopy from the ''100 best films'' book - there's about a paragraph on On The Waterfront in it. Oh wait, he gave us a handout abuot two weeks ago aswell, but he only made like 8 copies, and only gave it to the girls.

We've read through Macbeth, and done about 10 paragraphs from Silas Marner and Wuthering Heights - he just skips to the good bits.

He's a lazy, fat, stupid bastard in my opinion. He uses his DVD Player in the room about four times a day (he's had it for around 3 years), and he still doesn't know how to work it - I mean, he accidently eject's the DVD.

He knows 20 of the class dont have flair, yet he does nothing to help us.

Your teacher's name wouldn't happen to be Mr. Berry Fast_mover ?

claire h

I'm assuming you have a schools' edition of "Hamlet"? If not, buy one. Read the notes in that. Look at past exam questions. Prepare essays on the main characters and themes and the language/imagery in the play.

Same with poetry. Read the notes in the book. Prepare a general essay on each poet.

www.skoool.ie has English notes. Some of them are good, some of them are utterly woeful. The 2004 syllabus is what they're focussing on now, so the Shakespearean text they have is Macbeth, but you can always use it next year.

And *relax*, it's only fifth year and there's no need to stress out. At the end of the day it's the work you do yourself that matters, not whether a teacher is piling on the homework or not.

Suaimhneach

To the orginial poster. GET GRINDS. I did that from Xmas onwards in Maths instead of September which is what I should of done. If you know your teacher is shyte then your gonna have to move on. I mean, moaning about it helps none. Not that you are moaning! I guess I just did for too long. But I'm almost saved!

Fast_Mover

no conZ that aint my teacher
i know what ur saying with the people with the flair and who dont, theres 5 outta 28 of our class who have that flair, rest of us dont have a clue what going on! we just looking around at each other saying "wat the f****?"

ya start of september im gona get grinds......but i shouldnt have to!

we havt done our novel yet (wel....he hasnt told us anything about it!) i will presume it is 'amongst women' as that is what the other class have FINISHED!

Ya i no i should *relax*, and it is only fifth year and there's no need to stress out but i thought the L.C was a 2yr course, not a year thing!

thanks for yer help anyway....
take care and gud luck!