Leaving Certificate Essay topics

dudara

I was reading the times and they list the essay-type questions on offer yesterday in the Leaving Cert. I'm absolutely disgusted at the level of topics on offer. In fairness, Roy keane, great as he is, has no place on an Honours english paper and the same goes for cameron diaz. is this the level that honours english students have been reduced to?

I have vague recollections of writing essays on fairly hefty topics back in the day

Leaving Cert higher level:
Write a letter to one of the following indicating what appeals and/or does not appeal to you about the work which that person does:

Roy Keane

Actress Cameron Diaz

Lord of the Rings director, Peter Jackson

A Lion Tamer

A farmer

A company executive

"See you later, Paul," said one of the girls. There was a titter of laughter. Write a short story suggested by these words.

"...my strongest childhood memories..."

Write a personal essay in which you explore some of your earliest memories of childhood.

jill_valentine

Jesus...that just about sums up what wrong with the Leaving Cert. They're making a token effort to reach out to young people, but can you really imagine writing an interesting piece about a letter to Cameron Diaz? If they dole out such boring topics, how can they expect anybody to be interested as they bang out an essay?

whosurpaddy

it does seem just that. a token effort to be cool, and connect with the youguns, which is fine but there are better ways to go about it than having roy keane, cameron diaz, and peter jackson as essay topics. especially on HONOURS english.

simu

That's ridiculous! I hate it when they try and make the LC "relevant" to the students' lives. I knew nothing about celebrities when I was that age and besides, I find it very hard to see how a student is going to come up with anything more than gushing tripe or a clichéd rant about a celebrity.

As for personal essays, is this the sort of thing we should be encouraging? Aren't there enough self-obsessed, whiny bloggers out there already?

What happened to the philosophically-leaning essay titles they used to have in the sweet days of old (i.e. when I did my LC in 1998). I remember writing an essay on the perception of time in different historical peroids in my exam !

And think of the poor post-grad tutors who'll have to spend ages next autumn explaining that this sort of stuff isn't appropriate material for uni-level essays!

dudara

As a post-grad tutor with 4 years of lab-copy and report correcting behind me, the standard of English from the majority of students is absolutely shocking. There are no other words for it.

simu

Yeah, I taught Irish tutorials for a year at uni and may be doing so again this autumn. The standard of grammar varies enormously depending on whether students are from the Gaeltachtaí, from Gaelscoileanna or from English speaking schools and so on but what I found more worrying was that most of their essays were, in terms of content, very dull - it seems to me that few students make an effort to be original or to analyse the topics they write about. They'd rather spout clichés.

BuffyBot

The topic isn't exactly the most important thing in these questions or the students knowledge/lack of knowledge about it, it's what is produced and how they produce it.

Lainey

Originally posted by BuffyBot
The topic isn't exactly the most important thing in these questions or the students knowledge/lack of knowledge about it, it's what is produced and how they produce it.

just what i was thinking.. i thought it was their way of approaching the subject that was important

dudara

well then, give them subjects that actually provoke some thought. I remember my leaving cert essay (1996), being something like "the fog of war" or something similar.

It really seems to me after looking through some papers that the leaving cert english papers have been dumbed down.

jill_valentine

it seems to me that few students make an effort to be original or to analyse the topics they write about. They'd rather spout clichés.

I did my LC last year, and I got an A by producing those f**king cliches. I felt sick about it, but I did it. I had tried to be original for the first 3 years in secondary school, and found myself repeatedly punished for it when I received my test results. I'd go out of my way to be interesting, and suffered for it. English teachers, in my experience, are extremely conservative. Any slight deviation from "Ann slowly chewed the delicious food as she read her interesting paper" style writing resulted in a note to the effect that I had drifted off the designated topic, even if and when I'm sure I hadn't. Regardless of how good my use of the language itself, my interpretation of the title was what I was penalised for. So I gave up and wrote essays that bored me senseless instead....

(

the most important thing in these questions or the students knowledge/lack of knowledge about it, it's what is produced and how they produce it.

)

....when I know I would have written better, and I would have enjoyed myself, if the topic even remotely interested me. A boring essay is evidence of a bad writer, my teacher told me once, as she ordered me yet again to write about the bloody environment...

http://www.iol.ie/~carrollm/pfj/pfjlcert.htm

Just about sums it up...

AdMMM

Originally posted by dudara

It really seems to me after looking through some papers that the leaving cert english papers have been dumbed down.

Its not just the English papers, nearly all subjects have been dumbed down! And they say that this country is getting smarter!?

Celt

The leaving cert is designed to test rote knowledge, not intelligence or imagination.

Piece of **** that it is.

viking

Both of these essays received full marks, not sure of the exact year they were written but definitely before '96.

Waiting

Life is a Tale Told by an Idiot

v

jill_valentine

I'd very much like to have a pint with the writer of the second piece...

simu

Plato thought life just a shadow of the world of "Ideas", of "Forums"

(from the "Life is a story told by an idiot" essay linked to above)

lol! So, Plato would say that the realworld is but a mere shadow of the world of boards.ie!:D

(maybe he meant "forms" there, though).

jill_valentine

l! So, Plato would say that the realworld is but a mere shadow of the world of boards.ie!

Thats Plato for ya, waaaay ahead of his time.

Sleepy

The only interesting means of approaching those letter essays would be to get inside the mind of a stalker and write the piece in that fashion. Probably wouldn't grade too well though...

"See you later, Paul," said one of the girls. There was a titter of laughter. Write a short story suggested by these words.

Definitely the essay I would have chosen. It could be turned into anything you wanted it to be really.

In fairness though, those questions are definitely a few mental gears below the standard in 98 (and that's only 6 years ago).

Deadwing

Originally posted by |.Murderer.|
Its not just the English papers, nearly all subjects have been dumbed down! And they say that this country is getting smarter!?

The country is getting smarter because the tests are getting easier.
The easier the tests, the higher the scores, the more dumbasses pass with flying colours, therefore, wow! our country is producing so many geniuses!!

Mighty_Mouse

Thought the second was good. Definitly A+ material. The first one - was A- max
.

Cant believe the above is an honours English paper. Looks like a pass or Junior Cert paper max. I mean what the **** can someone write about Cameron Diaz. "Cameron was in Something about Mary, the one with Ewan McGregor, has bad skin and .............. um !!!! "

On second thoughts maybe the paper is diffucult!!!

Boring Boring topics. I did mine in 98 and cant remember a thing about it. The aul "cliches" worked a treat though

banquo

i did mine yesterday. its not easy, it just looks real easy. there's almost no way you can prepare for it like in past LC's.

the unseen poem is a perfect example: the question was not 'how does the writer express BLAH, and what techniques does he employ to convey his sense of BLAH', but rather 'did you like the poem? why?', or 'did it make you feel hopeful or not hopeful?' (as was the case yesterday).


i, too, shudder whenever i hear the words 'make relevant'.

---

having said that, the 'Macbeth' question was excellent: it was both broad and specific. it was less a test of smarts than memory - the question existed in about 4 parts and, if you knew the main characters pretty well, the only challenge to the length and depth of your answer was the time limit.

Raz

Originally posted by Mighty_Mouse
what the **** can someone write about Cameron Diaz. "Cameron was in Something about Mary, the one with Ewan McGregor, has bad skin and .............. um !!!! "

The question is about the persons job, not the person themselves. You don't have to know anything about Diaz as long as you can make a stab at something about acting.

what appeals and/or does not appeal to you about the work which that person does:

PrecariousNuts

"See you later, Paul," said one of the girls. There was a titter of laughter. Write a short story suggested by these words.

I did this one from an essay I had learned off. I'm sure I got an A for it. Basicly the girls knock Paul unconscious, trap him in their shed for several months then murder him and turn his body into a meat mix and sell it.

funky penguin

Originally posted by dudara

"See you later, Paul," said one of the girls. There was a titter of laughter. Write a short story suggested by these words.

I would def have done this one. Has the possiblity to be anything you want.

I remember my essay last year was based on a pic of a church from text4. I wrote about a hitman.