Higher Level English for the LC !

yeah-boy

Hey everyone,
Well done to those who passed their leaving and got their desired college course. I am just finished TY and I am wondering whether or not to do pass or honours English. I did pass in the Junior only because we had a joke of a teacher (was NEVER in). I ended up with a B with no study atall. I have all the books for higher as my sister is finished the LC a year ago.

In TY our English teacher was soft on us and we basically did crosswords all year lol. I wanna have a shot at 560 instead of 520 cos Im doing pass Irish and Maths. The English teacher that does honours for the LC is the best teacher you could possibly get but he is the strictest (dean of discipline). I dunno if I would be able for honours as I basically had no English teacher since primary school (seriously she retired last year she was that bad).

Is the honours English course hard ? Any tips ? Do you think I should atleast give it a try ? I dunno if my name is down for pass :eek: !

Any advice would be appreciated.

KarmaCreep

Give it a bash. I hated junior cert English and did **** in it (D) but had a great teacher for the leaving and was getting consistent As and high Bs throughout 5th and 6th year, and now i'm going to start studying it in college next month. It all depends on whether your teacher spurs you on to do well. If he/she is a good teacher you could do well, if not, you can always drop to pass.

TheInvisibleFie

Just give the honours English a try. I had a completely useless teacher for Junior Cert and got a D which went to a C in rechecks. I then got a really good teacher for the Leaving (like yours she was very strict) and I managed a B2. Don't just drop down because you're afraid of the course. About halfway through fifth year I wanted to drop in English but I kept it up and did grand.

yeah-boy

Thanks everyone for the replies...you really are helping me. How many novels etc do you need ? is it 2 novels for comparison? 26 poems ? Prob just my sister scaring me lol. May aswell give it a shot lads and if not the pass class use the same books but just less than the honours.

cocoa

3 texts for comparitive (they can be novels, plays or films)
1 text for single text (duh)

in order to be certain, 5 poets for poetry, with 4-6 poems each = 20-30 poems
you only need one or two lines from each poem and having gone over them again and again, this shouldn't be too hard.

In each case, studying and engaging with the text is more important than learning lines and will earn you more marks, just be interested and you will be able to answer well.

Lucas10101

You might as well try, and if you don't like it for some reason, then switch down after 5th year.

Corruptedmorals

It's not that bad, quite hard to fail. Comparative probably the most challenging. Paper 1, standard answering questions on a text. For essay, short story could be your best bet, they love originality, and they tend to be marked better. Haven't a clue what your play will be..could go back to Hamlet? Poetry..study at least 3 poets, and quotes are very important..

I got a C in the Junior Cert and an A1 in the LC...Junior Cert doesn't really mean anything..

carlowboy

Corruptedmorals wrote:

It's not that bad, quite hard to fail. Comparative probably the most challenging. Paper 1, standard answering questions on a text. For essay, short story could be your best bet, they love originality, and they tend to be marked better. Haven't a clue what your play will be..could go back to Hamlet? Poetry..study at least 3 poets, and quotes are very important..

I got a C in the Junior Cert and an A1 in the LC...Junior Cert doesn't really mean anything..

My best mate was talking to the chief examiner a few months back and she said its a myth that Short Storys are supposed to be better to do....she said that an essay would be more valuable than a short story.

Brods

I think it completely depends on what type of person you are: I never liked English- I've very little time for short stories and I'm hopeless at comprehensions. I'm much more logical and structured in my thoughts so i always went for the debate or article style essays where there's some semblance of a process to writing. It helped that i can remember things without difficulty and wrote, rewrote and learnt essays for paper 2. I lost in the region of 10 marks on PII and ended up with an A2 overall.

That's just me. Then of course there are the, for want of a better word, "Englishy" people, imaginative, interesting, skilled writers who can compose a short story with nothing but a picture for inspiration. These people read poetry for their enjoyment and can pick meanings out of the poems that others dont see. (These people generally don't like my kind of people, but thats another thread!)

You don't need to pick one side of the coin. In fact, if you don't know on which side you fall you're probably somewhere in the middle and are in the ideal position (starting into 5th year) to tackle the English syllabus. Go for it, for sure, but be prepared to work at the subject, listen to your teacher when they tell you to write for 10 minutes every day, or whatever! It's a language after all- they needs practice. Talk to him from the start and maybe set a date to review your options. If you show an interest early he'll be more than willing to help.

Best of luck

MasterSun

yeah-boy wrote:

Hey everyone,
Well done to those who passed their leaving and got their desired college course. I am just finished TY and I am wondering whether or not to do pass or honours English. I did pass in the Junior only because we had a joke of a teacher (was NEVER in). I ended up with a B with no study atall. I have all the books for higher as my sister is finished the LC a year ago.

In TY our English teacher was soft on us and we basically did crosswords all year lol. I wanna have a shot at 560 instead of 520 cos Im doing pass Irish and Maths. The English teacher that does honours for the LC is the best teacher you could possibly get but he is the strictest (dean of discipline). I dunno if I would be able for honours as I basically had no English teacher since primary school (seriously she retired last year she was that bad).

i had the same problem.
I got a "B" in JC ordinary level Englsih,
was unsure about the level which i was going to take for my LC.
i had 2 different English teachers for my LC, one was never in and resigned his job.
the other was good.
althrough i sat in the higher level class, i did ordinary level for my mocks and LC, got D3 for mocks and B3 for my LC. i'm satisfied with my result anyway.

the ord and the higher courses are differant, espically the poems.
OL students and HL students study differant poems.
the novels and plays are ok, at OL u can use the HL's Novels and plays.

i was lucky to get notes from our OL teacher and one of the teacher was so kind to provide a free grinds for people like me [the switchers].

MasterSun

yeah-boy wrote:

Hey everyone,
Well done to those who passed their leaving and got their desired college course. I am just finished TY and I am wondering whether or not to do pass or honours English. I did pass in the Junior only because we had a joke of a teacher (was NEVER in). I ended up with a B with no study atall. I have all the books for higher as my sister is finished the LC a year ago.

In TY our English teacher was soft on us and we basically did crosswords all year lol. I wanna have a shot at 560 instead of 520 cos Im doing pass Irish and Maths. The English teacher that does honours for the LC is the best teacher you could possibly get but he is the strictest (dean of discipline). I dunno if I would be able for honours as I basically had no English teacher since primary school (seriously she retired last year she was that bad).

i had the same problem.
I got a "B" in JC ordinary level Englsih,
was unsure about the level which i was going to take for my LC.
i had 2 different English teachers for my LC, one was never in and resigned his job.
the other was good.
althrough i sat in the higher level class, i did ordinary level for my mocks and LC, got D3 for mocks and B3 for my LC. i'm satisfied with my result anyway.

the ord and the higher courses are differant, espically the poems.
OL students and HL students study differant poems.
the novels and plays are ok, at OL u can use the HL's Novels and plays.

i was lucky to get notes from our OL teacher and one of the teacher was so kind to provide a free grinds for people like me [the switchers].

Corruptedmorals

carlowboy wrote:

My best mate was talking to the chief examiner a few months back and she said its a myth that Short Storys are supposed to be better to do....she said that an essay would be more valuable than a short story.

Worked for me anyway!

JSK 252

carlowboy wrote:

My best mate was talking to the chief examiner a few months back and she said its a myth that Short Storys are supposed to be better to do....she said that an essay would be more valuable than a short story.

Who is the chief examiner for english? I thought the person was a mystery person:) .

JSK 252

Brods wrote:

I think it completely depends on what type of person you are: I never liked English- I've very little time for short stories and I'm hopeless at comprehensions. I'm much more logical and structured in my thoughts so i always went for the debate or article style essays where there's some semblance of a process to writing. It helped that i can remember things without difficulty and wrote, rewrote and learnt essays for paper 2. I lost in the region of 10 marks on PII and ended up with an A2 overall.

That's just me. Then of course there are the, for want of a better word, "Englishy" people, imaginative, interesting, skilled writers who can compose a short story with nothing but a picture for inspiration. These people read poetry for their enjoyment and can pick meanings out of the poems that others dont see. (These people generally don't like my kind of people, but thats another thread!)

You don't need to pick one side of the coin. In fact, if you don't know on which side you fall you're probably somewhere in the middle and are in the ideal position (starting into 5th year) to tackle the English syllabus. Go for it, for sure, but be prepared to work at the subject, listen to your teacher when they tell you to write for 10 minutes every day, or whatever! It's a language after all- they needs practice. Talk to him from the start and maybe set a date to review your options. If you show an interest early he'll be more than willing to help.

Best of luck

You summed up my apptitude perfectly. I have to learn essays etc. I cant just compose them on the spot.

I mean in the exam, you dont have much time to think on the spot about what your going to write. You have to prepare it in advance. Anybody who says they didnt learn their essays are kinda bull****ting really.

Obviously there are those that only need to learn the structure of their essays because they have Ruth Gilligan type Englishly brains but you have to know before you go into the exam about what your going to write about.

dwindle

JSK 252 wrote:

I mean in the exam, you dont have much time to think on the spot about what your going to write. You have to prepare it in advance. Anybody who says they didnt learn their essays are kinda bull****ting really.

This is true and if it helps, writing such a creative A4 page rather than 3 pages of such bull**** does really get you the marks, I was such a slow writer in my LC, I think my P1 was around 6 pages long in total! But what helps improve your writing techniques is to read alot. I read 100's of fanfictions on the net, and just reading other people's style of writing without having to read some boring dated text helped me so much to understand different styles of writing (the comparative, poetry, essays....)when I did my LC. I did my LC in '05 and I thought it was such a depressing paper imo, I was so surprised to get a C1 in Higher Level when I got a D in the JC.

I think it really does depend on what teacher you have aswell, I had a battleaxe who made us work all the way to the very end of 6th year, so if you feel comfortable with how well you're doing in 5th then stick with it! Not everyone who does Higher get's an A1! Best of luck with 5th year!

Corruptedmorals

What? You don't have to learn essays. I didn't. I was going to do the speech but it had some awful title, so I did the short story instead. I DID have an idea I would use if I had to do the short story, and I used it, but it was still written on the spot. None of my friends learned essays off either, 3 of them did eh the essay on imagination, the speech on not glorifying the past, and the shopping centre one.

dwindle

I suppose you're right, I meant I just kept lots of phrases in my head from my mock paper and that really helped. It must have worked for you, I wish I could have been that creative on the spur of the moment, I have to think about what I'm going to write for minutes before I start to scribble down stuff.

MasterSun

Corruptedmorals wrote:

What? You don't have to learn essays. I didn't. I was going to do the speech but it had some awful title, so I did the short story instead. I DID have an idea I would use if I had to do the short story, and I used it, but it was still written on the spot. None of my friends learned essays off either, 3 of them did eh the essay on imagination, the speech on not glorifying the past, and the shopping centre one.

i learnt my essays 4 my LC in the smart way, lots of people did this.

1st i got all the past papers, printed all the essays titles.
2nd decided that i was going to write descriptive and informative essays
3rd gathered all descriptive tiltles, came up with a story which all the titles fitted in.

for example. i wrote a story about a doctor could not save a dying patient and eventually quitted his job due to self blame. he went aborad and wanted a fresh start. he stayed in a B&B runned by an old couple. the next day, the old male owner got sick and the doctor used his skills to save
him. finally he decided its time to move on from the death of his patient and he became a Dr. again.

the following titles fit in my story.

2001“It was past midnight and raining as I reached the outskirts of the city looking for a place to stay.” (TEXT 2)
Write a story based upon this experience.

2002 “… time to move on ”.

“Goodbye, old room, thought Lisa sentimentally.”
Write about a time in your life when you experienced a change that you felt was important to you.

2004 "giving it all away" Write a short story based on the idea of "giving it all away"

2005 “For God’s sake do something…”Write a short story beginning with the above phrase.

2006 “What a relief!”Write a short story ending with the above phrase.

“Suddenly the evening changed…” (Write about a time when you experienced change in your life.

also this yrs title

‘No one had heard of me…’Write a short story which begins with the above phrase.

came up, which was perfect 4 my story
ps i did ordinary level.

Corruptedmorals

I know lots of people do, but lots of people don't and still get A1's.

My idea was a pregnant girl in the 50's who eventually walks into the sea and drowns herself. And that's exactly how my essay went..can't wait to see what marks it got, out of curiosity.

lemansky

Give higher level a go. The worst that can happens is that you drop down, but what's the point in starting out by not giving yourself that chance? The problem with the junior wasn't your fault.

Coco88

yeah-boy wrote:

Hey everyone,
Well done to those who passed their leaving and got their desired college course. I am just finished TY and I am wondering whether or not to do pass or honours English. I did pass in the Junior only because we had a joke of a teacher (was NEVER in). I ended up with a B with no study atall. I have all the books for higher as my sister is finished the LC a year ago.

In TY our English teacher was soft on us and we basically did crosswords all year lol. I wanna have a shot at 560 instead of 520 cos Im doing pass Irish and Maths. The English teacher that does honours for the LC is the best teacher you could possibly get but he is the strictest (dean of discipline). I dunno if I would be able for honours as I basically had no English teacher since primary school (seriously she retired last year she was that bad).

Is the honours English course hard ? Any tips ? Do you think I should atleast give it a try ? I dunno if my name is down for pass :eek: !

Any advice would be appreciated.

WHAT HL ENGLISH , you’re a joke lol … this guy is a retaired . Don’t pay any notice to him at ALL .:eek: :eek:

JSK 252

Coco88 wrote:

WHAT HL ENGLISH , you’re a joke lol … this guy is a retaired . Don’t pay any notice to him at ALL .:eek: :eek:

What is your problem??? What is your mal-funct-ion???

Stop trolling.

Davidius

Coco88 wrote:

WHAT HL ENGLISH , you’re a joke lol … this guy is a retaired . Don’t pay any notice to him at ALL .:eek: :eek:

You're a retaired. :rolleyes:

Killaqueen!!!

The Junior Cert is no sort of indication of the Leaving Cert at all. My brother can hardly speak English and he got a C in the J.C but an A1 in the L.C!!! And if you knew my brother you'd be as surprised as I am...he sucks as grammar.

Anyway, it all depends on how hard you will work. I did fuck all for the J.C - didn't study at all but still did decent enough. In the L.C it's a different ball game - you have to work at your subjects. This could start in 5th year as simple as just LISTENING in class and doing your homework every night. That's what I didn't do for the Juniot but I will be doing for the Leaving (in 5th year now).

If you're willing to, you should start off in Higher Level for most, if not all subjects. At least then you will see what you're capable of and you can move down if it's too tough.

timmywex

start with higher level, a good teacher makes it sooo easy!!! there is alot of work though, we are doing 36poems for example(6poets x 6poems, makes sure we have a question on 2 of them at least) and 3 texts and macbeth!!

yeah-boy

Coco88, I do not use these forums frequently and for some reason you have blasted 2 of my posts. What have I done to you or anyone on boards.ie?

HA went over the 3 threads you started ... and whoahhhhhhhh u got slammed in them,

Coco88

yeah-boy wrote:

Coco88, I do not use these forums frequently and for some reason you have blasted 2 of my posts. What have I done to you or anyone on boards.ie?

HA went over the 3 threads you started ... and whoahhhhhhhh u got slammed in them,

YEAH BOY : Well are you that stupid that you can’t memorize what you did !! I “blasted” due to the humiliation which you have instigated on me . The discourteous of you . I request a apology for your discourteous which you have instigated on me . And if you EVER try anything similar to this on me once more . I will make certain you are blocked for good .And I want to see this apology on this link and this is where you humiliated with your instigated on me . Make certain you quote it as well.

[PHP]http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055154032 [/PHP]

lemansky

I followed the link............what should I be seeing that qualifies as him 'instigating discourteous' on you

Naikon

Coco88 wrote:

YEAH BOY : Well are you that stupid that you can’t memorize what you did !! I “blasted” due to the humiliation which you have instigated on me . The discourteous of you . I request a apology for your discourteous which you have instigated on me . And if you EVER try anything similar to this on me once more . I will make certain you are blocked for good .And I want to see this apology on this link and this is where you humiliated with your instigated on me . Make certain you quote it as well.

[php]http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055154032 [/php]

LOL!

yeah-boy

Oh Jesus your a complete looder you are. HAHAHAHAHAHAHA

If you think that was being discourteous of you, your mistaken. Next time dont post bogus information and expect people to help you.

yeah-boy

COCO88 I would rather eat sh&t than apologise to you, you spacer! HAHA and are you a moderator how you will have me banned. TOOL

Now am i being discourteous ... surprised you know the word since your failing english lol

PurpleFistMixer

Coco88: just curious, do you write your posts in another language first and then translate them to English?

yeah-boy

PurpleFistMixer wrote:

Coco88: just curious, do you write your posts in another language first and then translate them to English?

lol

JSK 252

Coco88 wrote:

I request a apology for your discourteous which you have instigated on me .

[PHP]http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055154032 [/PHP]

This guy sounds French!

Online translator from French to English me thinks!:D :rolleyes:

Turquoise

Oooh, I could do with a French grind...how do you say "discourteous" in French? Lol

Coco88

PurpleFistMixer wrote:

Coco88: just curious, do you write your posts in another language first and then translate them to English?

Oh yeah what do you imagine … well ??? . Are you that stupid that this was the only job you could get ???? ! Well it looks like it . After all I’m merely curious lol

coco,

PurpleFistMixer

I'll take that as a yes.

Are you referring to me about that? I don't have a job.

Coco88

JSK 252 wrote:

This guy sounds French!

Online translator from French to English me thinks!:D :rolleyes:

Well just have a look at your self . You don’t know these words are English . Ones again I am going to repeat this for the “stupid people” what it means

“I request a apology for your discourteous which you have instigated on me”

MEANS : I demand a apology for your impoliteness which you have prompt on me

Coco88

PurpleFistMixer wrote:

I'll take that as a yes.

Are you referring to me about that? I don't have a job.

Oh well the stupid person said something lol of course its referring to you after all I quoted it for you . And well who else would want do this stupid job ???? Well someone like your self with a pea brain .

****ING ASS HOLE YOU ARE !!

PurpleFistMixer

... You think I get paid for moderating?

Haha.

lemansky

Coco88 wrote:

Well just have a look at your self . You don’t know these words are English . Ones again I am going to repeat this for the “stupid people” what it means

“I request a apology for your discourteous which you have instigated on me”

MEANS : I demand a apology for your impoliteness which you have prompt on me

The words are indeed English, but that doesn't make it correct English...........

Coco88

PurpleFistMixer wrote:

... You think I get paid for moderating?

Haha.

Your more stupider than I thought lol . Your actually sitting here and your NOT EVEN GETTING PAID.

PurpleFistMixer

And you're sitting here and not getting paid either. : )

Naikon

Coco88 wrote:

Your more stupider than I thought lol . Your actually sitting here and your NOT EVEN GETTING PAID.

^_^

Coco88

PurpleFistMixer wrote:

And you're sitting here and not getting paid either. : )

I’m not sitting here the amount of hours you are here. And I’m not here for the reasons you are here for .

ZorbaTehZ

An incoming bannage, I predict.

JackKelly

ZorbaTehZ wrote:

An incoming bannage, I predict.

Coco banned, everyone else, please don't feed the trolls.

JSK 252

Coco88 wrote:

You don’t know these words are English .

Eh yah I do. I have been speaking the langauge for nearly 17 years:rolleyes: .

JSK 252

TimAy wrote:

Coco banned, everyone else, please don't feed the trolls.

A troll a day keeps the doctor away.

That brings up the 400..................:)

lilmissprincess

Going back on topic.....
We're apparently getting all of our poetry done this year, five poets with 5 or 6 poems from each ( we have the first done, Longley, he's not too bad). Fridays are going to be Paper 1 prep.....

Its very different from JC. My teacher has changed to a less brilliant one(she teaches out of the back of the book, unlike the great guy I had for JC).... so i'm hoping that this will work out ok..