Orals

Faerie

We've been preparing lots of abstract topics for our orals and the teachers are giving the impression that we will definately get asked a few abstract questions. Yet a couple of friends of mine did their leaving last year and neither got asked any abstract questions and they both did honours and one got an A1 in Irish and a B1 in french and the other got a B1 in both. Do you think we will get asked abstract questions?

abercrombie

what do you mean by abstract?

Garret

if you know your basics in french very well adn have your document well prepared then you're grand

there might be a few questions that are a development on what you talked about ie if you're talking about GAA you might be asked about the opening of Croker to rugby and football
but thats just so they can tell who is A1 standard

other than that sort of thing if you talk long enough on the basics your grand

Irish has more of a tendancy to go into these issues but you just make sure that you are in total control and that you guide the conversation to where you want

Faerie

abercrombie wrote:

what do you mean by abstract?

Alcohal, drug problems, crime, environment etc. Sorry I didn't specify, I'm just used to the teachers saying abstract!

willowmegs

in spanish we've covered a tiny bit on smoking, drugs and alcohol. and in irish we've covered a bit of the same and rules of the school

Attractive Nun

In my mock French oral, the examiner had abstract topics coming out of her arse - and I wasn't even that good. I know that was only the mocks, but I would have thought the abstract topics were basically a certainty in both French and Irish.

GretchenWieners

In my pre I got asked on 3 abstract topics, national lottery, social problems and school rules. actually social problems was almost immediately asked.
as for french i brought them all up myself....whoops!

deisedolly

GretchenWieners wrote:

i brought them all up myself....whoops!

Yeah thats something I'm bound to do in Irish on Monday!
I'm gonna try keep on keep on talking about all the easy stuff: family, television, job, computers and all my hobbies and hope that time will be up by the time I'm finished with all that!
Tá mé shítting a brick!

BrenC

Theres usually a very big flow, like you can direct your conversation to what topics you like, they usually ask you about your family hobbies etc, just mention some hobbies that you are prepared to go into deeply and they'll almost always go for them, its just like a normal conversation. I was the first person in my school to do my language(italian) in the orals and the time flies by really. Don't worry and good luck!

GretchenWieners

My sis did Italian a few years ago and the guy had kidneystones and collapsed in the middle of the oral of the girl before her! She had 2 do 2 orals on like the Tursday and Friday, hell or what!

willowmegs

Im coming down with a cold Irish Oral on thursday - bugger!

Faith

They'll generally only ask you abstract topics if they think you can handle it.

Be careful what you tell them though. I made the mistake in my VERY FIRST SENTENCE of telling the examiner that I wanted to study Genetics in Edinburgh. This lead to him asking me all about genetics- things I can't even explain in english, let alone in irish. Anybody know how to say "inherited genetic trait" in irish? And then it moved onto a discussion of why I wanted to go to Edinburgh which lead to drugs, alcohol, violence and irish culture.

The whole thing was horrifying. But it still helped me get a decent grade!

d4gurl

For those who speak Deutsch

Ich bin ein bisschen nervos uber die Mundlich prufung. Meine geshreibness deutsch ist besser als meine gesprochness deutsch! Ich hasse die bildergeschicten! Ich bin tot fur ihnen! Hilfe mir bitte!
basically I hate the follow on questions of d picture sequences!der so long!

caesar

d4gurl wrote:

For those who speak Deutsch

Ich bin ein bisschen nervos uber die Mundlich prufung. Meine geshreibness deutsch ist besser als meine gesprochness deutsch! Ich hasse die bildergeschicten! Ich bin tot fur ihnen! Hilfe mir bitte!
basically I hate the follow on questions of d picture sequences!der so long!

If you hate them so much why didn't you do the project option instead..................like me:p

Faerie

Se&#225 wrote: »

Simple.

If they ask you an abstract question in Irish don't just struggle through an answer. Say something like:

"Ní leanaim cursaí politíocta agus is fuath liom rudaí mar sin.. Ach is brea liom na Simpsons" (or whatever)

Orals are just a conversation. When someone brings up politics in a conversation i'm having with them i tell them to shut up! So do the same in the orals!

I've thought about that but surely they'll be less inclined to give me a high grade if I stay away from the challenging questions?
I've a few sentences that can be applied to most of the topics like the government are doing their best, the problem is getting more widespread etc but if they ask any specific questions, particularly on politics I'll probably blank! In my mock oral I was asked about the minister for health and I had no idea who the minister is so I assumed the minister was a he and made a fool of myself!

abercrombie

Faerie wrote:

I've thought about that but surely they'll be less inclined to give me a high grade if I stay away from the challenging questions?
I've a few sentences that can be applied to most of the topics like the government are doing their best, the problem is getting more widespread etc but if they ask any specific questions, particularly on politics I'll probably blank! In my mock oral I was asked about the minister for health and I had no idea who the minister is so I assumed the minister was a he and made a fool of myself!

that reminds me of my mock oral and i was asked about mary harney..i was like, i don't know alot about her, but i do know that she's the tanaiste and the minister for health! i think she's about 50, but she's looking well for her age!!

that lead me onto my favourite topic of all...fashion and shopping!!

Funkstard

How's everyone's nerves? Although I still have a lot of vocab to learn for the abstract topics, I'm not nervous in the least. More confident for some reason.

Now, come me waiting outside the room to go in I could very well be crying and shaking uncontrollably, but at the moment I'm Kool and the Gang.

Actually, does anyone know how to say "Enough points" As in, "It will be hard to get enough points for my course"?

il sera difficile de faire assez points pour étudier l'architecture or something?

Rockerette

i think the mocks were good, cos i was **** nervous for my orals/music practical, but they went well, and im not as nervous about the real thing??


but well... music i will actually be shaking i know. which isnt good when you're supposed to be playing piano.....
EEEK..

its tomorrow..

*feels sick at thought*


ok, maybe i take my first comment back

Gangsta

Did anyone get an A1 in the pre??? I got 78 myself in french, my teacher is an examiner so it's accurate. Other ppl in schools just get their teacher to mark it and they just give everyone A's which can't be true.

abercrombie

Funkstard wrote:

Actually, does anyone know how to say "Enough points" As in, "It will be hard to get enough points for my course"?

il sera difficile de faire assez points pour étudier l'architecture or something?

il sera difficile d'obtenir assez de points

Gangsta wrote:

Did anyone get an A1 in the pre???

i did!

The Lime

With the Irish abstract parts its hard to pick whats going up but try hit 2 or 3 things in your prepared answers.Like pick up somethig on drugs and alcohol, you could have something about young people using them and how crime is always related it most of the activity.Then if a question comes up on young people and pressure or drugs or crime or alcohol or the news ( the examiner won't know every bit of current news and chances are theres been some trouble in the past few days with these topics) you will be ok.
Remember if your stuck on a topic you don't know anything on, you can say you dont know any thing on the that topic.As long as you respond with coherent irish you'll be ok.
Try plan it.Try lead the conversation in the way you want it to go.Im going to say i like television as a passtime and that i really like the news and political shows.Hopefully that will lead to a question on politicians or the health bord etc.
Remember that the examiner is under pressure to find questions to relate to you so help him/her make it easy for you.:)

Rob30888

I'm absolutely ****ting myself I'm lucky #13 in tomorrow for French and I'm terrified! I've my document and basics well prepared, but god help me if I'm asked summat difficult

d4gurl

I had two proper practice orals with outside examiners for german. I also had two one on ones with my teachers and I did a quick chat of general questions with a native speaker. I just want to get the oral over and done with. Oh we didnt get the option to do the project!!!shiza1for irish i hvnt even sudied yet-its not till next week!but we were given notes on d war in iraq - politics in Ireland and loads of other hard stuff - they only ask those question to the students who are good. Btw u prob lall know this bur for irish no ur Modh coniiloch and all ur other aimsirs inside out - ull be tested on prob each one!!:D

Garret

Gangsta wrote:

Did anyone get an A1 in the pre??? I got 78 myself in french, my teacher is an examiner so it's accurate. Other ppl in schools just get their teacher to mark it and they just give everyone A's which can't be true.

i got 89

one lad got full marks and another 99

smemon

i'll be super cool in the orals, i dont know how to panic.

i've even laced my irish orals with 'smart ass stuff' like, "i only need x points, so i won't have any problems, i think you'll agree".

"as you can see, i'm a clever person so i feel ive made clever decisions regarding my future".

eat that im gonna take the piss out of this examiner. ive planned everything to military precision so that if i'm asked about myself, i'll be able to link 5 other topics and talk fluently for 5 mins 30 seconds.

Faerie

smemon wrote:

i'll be super cool in the orals, i dont know how to panic.

i've even laced my irish orals with 'smart ass stuff' like, "i only need x points, so i won't have any problems, i think you'll agree".

"as you can see, i'm a clever person so i feel ive made clever decisions regarding my future".

eat that im gonna take the piss out of this examiner. ive planned everything to military precision so that if i'm asked about myself, i'll be able to link 5 other topics and talk fluently for 5 mins 30 seconds.

Planning sounds like a great idea but I don't think taking the piss out of the examiner is a fantastic idea!! They will be slightly biased in their mark (it's human nature!) and they might get pissed off with you!
My teacher actually recommended that we act really confident, make loads of eye contact and smile a lot because we will give the impression of being an A student and impressions can influence the mark. Also apparently it really pisses the examiner off if you make it hard for them to ask questions - which is definately something I'm in danger of doing because I'm naturally a shy person!

NADA

I got 90% in higher german in the mock. 95 in the oral and our examiner was an examiner examiner. I want 100in the real german oral

tara_mac

im repeating and they dont really go into depth on absrtact things like in irish you can guide it yourself, the orals are about being able to talk not what you know about drugs and crime ect if you know one or two good easy things to say on each youll be grand all you have to say is i dont know nmuch about it but i think........ you'll get away with a few simple phrases then

deisedolly

Aw lads had mine today! At least I didn't cry in front of yer man like a few people did!
He asked me what sort of a person I am and I answered 'Tá mé go maith', what sort of a retard am I! I def made a balls of all the tenses aswell but hey I kept talking and talking and thats all that matters so it's all good!

Muiriosa

Well Done Deise! I like your confidence. Even though you make a mistake, keep talking. It's the best way to get makes.

Lean ar aghaidh agus bí ag cáint!


Slán!

Aoibheann

My german is on tomorrow. I was supposed to be in today, last or second last, but we had two external students, repeating from last year, they took up ages, so I'm maybe 4th or 5th in tomorrow.

My mock examiner was very thorough, she talked us through our mistakes at the end, and the best two pieces of advice she gave to me were to make sure I speak slowly (I have a habit of talkign extremely quickly) to avoid errors I wouldn't usually make and to record myself, then play it back to see what I sound like.

I think I'm ok. I know my past, present and future really well. I can speak in the conditional reasonably well too, so I hope I don't mess it up. I know that I know the stuff, so fingers crossed it'll go well! Hope it works out well for you all. Any specific roleplays or picture stories dreaded by anyone?

Viel Gluck!

Garret

I said crap(not even merde) in my french yesterday, ah well

Rockerette

i had french today, went well


gaeilge, an deardaoin seo chugainn ceapaim.

Funkstard

Had French today....should have done way better than I did considering the amount of work I put in. Ended up making all sorts of mistakes......had to ask her to translate words into French 4 times! I had some very good bits and overall the conversation flowed well, she kept me in there for 15 minutes, but......ah i just king of fecked it up

abercrombie

i had french today too! flew through the exam! was asked about my views on what jaques chirac did when he walked out of that conference thingy...it was great!!! easiest A1 i could get :D

sariane

well done abercrombie its good to hear you did so well! what did u say for your views on that? I'm really hoping for a good mark in french but im not really sure of what to say for my views on all the recent topics, bird flu and the stuff happening in france etc! and i have a feeling their going to ask me that :rolleyes: Mines on monday so hope i do well!

Shrimp

I got mine tomorrow! I'm pretty confident, but as long as I dont get asked something really strange.

i was happy with mine! got a D3 at Christmas in the oral but would be looking for C1-B2 from yesterday.

Our examiner was really nice and encouraging, she seemed really interested in Music and we talked about my band, writing music, going to gigs and listening to music for at least half of it.

So much less frightening than i expected!

abercrombie

sariane wrote:

well done abercrombie its good to hear you did so well! what did u say for your views on that? I'm really hoping for a good mark in french but im not really sure of what to say for my views on all the recent topics, bird flu and the stuff happening in france etc! and i have a feeling their going to ask me that :rolleyes: Mines on monday so hope i do well!

well i said that i had to agree with him because i think that it's important to encourage and have pride in your mother tongue...then i brought it around to me and what it meant to me being a Francophone..then i brought it onto irish and how i feel that we should honour our national language..blah blah blah!

i was also asked, why did i choose french for the leaving! To put it simply, i said "imagine if you were a 17 year old student doing the Leaving in Russia..would you choose Chinese or English as a subject??" The examiner just laughed and said "well put miss lingistic, well put!"

Azureus

i have irish tomoro/thursday and im feeling confident enough, but im petrified for french!! i vaguely know my document and nothing else!
my french teachers awful but i aslo havent put much effort into my oral work, i havent a clue what kind of stuff i should prepare (bit late now i know but better late than never).. any suggestions on how to get me through it with a relatively decent mark?

Faerie

I had my Irish oral today....I'm so depressed and I feel exhausted after it. He asked me every abstract topic under the sun - problems in your area, problems in the world, pressure on young people, should Irish be compulsory, is Irish necessary or useful today, should English be compulsory, what's my solution to drugs, alcohol and poverty, what can the government do about them and I think there were actually more...
He also asked me loads of weird questions like what do my parents do (isn't that politically incorrect?), describe the last film you saw, describe your favourite tv programme and what happens if you get in trouble and what would the principal say to you if you are in trouble.
I totally blanked with describing my favourite tv programme, I said Lost and then couldn't remember the Irish for plane (duh!) and Island. That was the real low point, it's was ok except for that.
The worst thing is he wasn't asking anyone all the abstract topics before me. He just mentioned drugs to the person before me and everyone else got asked to describe their house and school and stuff.
At least now it's over, and I know to be less nervous for french. I was literally shaking inside there!

abercrombie

Faerie wrote:

I had my Irish oral today....I'm so depressed and I feel exhausted after it. He asked me every abstract topic under the sun - problems in your area, problems in the world, pressure on young people, should Irish be compulsory, is Irish necessary or useful today, should English be compulsory, what's my solution to drugs, alcohol and poverty, what can the government do about them and I think there were actually more...
He also asked me loads of weird questions like what do my parents do (isn't that politically incorrect?), describe the last film you saw, describe your favourite tv programme and what happens if you get in trouble and what would the principal say to you if you are in trouble.
I totally blanked with describing my favourite tv programme, I said Lost and then couldn't remember the Irish for plane (duh!) and Island. That was the real low point, it's was ok except for that.
The worst thing is he wasn't asking anyone all the abstract topics before me. He just mentioned drugs to the person before me and everyone else got asked to describe their house and school and stuff.
At least now it's over, and I know to be less nervous for french. I was literally shaking inside there!

maybe he thought you could handle it! Examiners are meant to push you to see how much they can get out of you!

willowmegs

everyone, i had my irish oral this morning. it went very well!! im delighted! didnt get any horrible questions!! :-D

Faerie

Faerie wrote:

I had my Irish oral today....I'm so depressed and I feel exhausted after it. He asked me every abstract topic under the sun - problems in your area, problems in the world, pressure on young people, should Irish be compulsory, is Irish necessary or useful today, should English be compulsory, what's my solution to drugs, alcohol and poverty, what can the government do about them and I think there were actually more...
He also asked me loads of weird questions like what do my parents do (isn't that politically incorrect?), describe the last film you saw, describe your favourite tv programme and what happens if you get in trouble and what would the principal say to you if you are in trouble.
I totally blanked with describing my favourite tv programme, I said Lost and then couldn't remember the Irish for plane (duh!) and Island. That was the real low point, it's was ok except for that.
The worst thing is he wasn't asking anyone all the abstract topics before me. He just mentioned drugs to the person before me and everyone else got asked to describe their house and school and stuff.
At least now it's over, and I know to be less nervous for french. I was literally shaking inside there!

that's a really good sign.
they ask those questions to make sure you deserve a high mark.
they wouldn't dream of asking someone those questions if they couldn't handle them

Wicklowteacher

I am a teacher and an examiner: you will only be asked abstract questions if:
a) you mention a topic that reasonably suggests to the examiner you would like to be asked about it. For example, you say you like history in school. You are asked why. You say because you are fascinated by politics. then, reasonably, the examiner may ask you a current political question.
b) you have a good grasp of the language examined, but have given so many monosyllabic or short answers that the examiner is searching for something to ask you towards the end of the interview.
concentrate on being able to talk about what interests you, and the examiner will, for the most part, allow you to be interviewed on the basis of that.

AmyD

I had a my french Oral yesterday and I have to say as nervous as I was the examiner was lovely and he really made u feel at ease. We didn't get asked any hard questions. He started with describing my family, went on to my area and then about school. His hardest question was Do I think school rules are important and why. None of the girls in my school got particularly hard questions and we have a really high standard. I think the worst was Describe, in your opinion what makes a good school/boyfriend/friend/sister etc. One girl is from Romania and he did ask her about Romanian politics but she had also lived in france for 7years and is fluent so she was fine. Irish next week!yay! anyone get asked anything particularly hard this week?

Funkstard

Funkstard wrote:

Had French today....should have done way better than I did considering the amount of work I put in. Ended up making all sorts of mistakes......had to ask her to translate words into French 4 times! I had some very good bits and overall the conversation flowed well, she kept me in there for 15 minutes, but......ah i just king of fecked it up

With all that, the examiner said my name as one of the people who she was really impressed by. Must've been too hard on myself!

Abercrombie, I take it you're fluent in French? Did you live there or something?

One guy in my year got full marks in his oral.....the examiner said it was the best oral she could remember having in 12 years of doing them. This is also the guy whose essay he wrote in 5th year was given to the-then 6th years to learn off for the Leaving! He's some linguistic freak, and a qualified piano teacher on the side. Some people....

exiot

I had French today and the examiner was great, we were talking about my plans for the summer and I said how I was interested in going to see Radiohead, and she let out a shriek forgetting the tickets were on today, so I spoke about Radiohead for a bit. Everything was easy, thought it would be alot worse.

Next week is irish, but Im more or less fluent..

d4gurl

I was more confident about my german! I love german!its so much easier than irish!crapola ppl! I wnt to do wel in irish non the less im really scared after hearing about all d weird questions! ill just say ni suim agam i gcursaí blah!