what's HC3 in irish and where can i get it? help!

Irlandesaaa

hey,
I'm Brazilian and I'd like to study at NUI Galway someday (sure, I'm not goin to Ireland now coz of the chrisis and all, but in a few years maybe...). I'm interested in any course involving Gaeilge ^^" <-- yes, I do speak it and yes, I do need to improve but I wouldnt just wait until I go to Ireland lol

for example, if I apply to cumarsáid (http://www.nuigalway.ie/courses/undergraduate-courses/arts-riarachan-gno.html) I'd have to do leavin certs and...er...HC3 in Irish (?) - i suppose most courses as gaeilge demand it, yes? - accordin to a friend of mine it's a honours level or somethin, but the question here is: where can I get this certificate? is it from an exam like leaving certs?? lol coz i need to know what it is, so that i can start studyin right now ^_^

thanks in advance for the attention!! and happy *belated* new year to everyone!

steeevo93

The leaving certificate is marked as follows, An A1(90-100%) is the highest grade you can get, then an A2(85-89%), after that it's a b1(80-84%) b2(75-79%) and b3(70-74%) then c1(65-69%) etc continuing on to f.... A c3 is not a certificate , it is the lowest c grade ( C1, C2 and then c3). The H stands for "Higher" as in higher level, this is the level of acedemic difficulty of the course you take, the higher level exam is harder then the ordinary and foundation level exam. This means you woul have to take the Higher level exam and get a C3 grade( 55-59%). Some college courses put a certain grade , normally HC3, to take a certain course , as your course is in gaelge then you have to have a HC3 in ghaeilge, sometimes in order to do a maths or french course , you may be required to have a Hc3. The higher level is a good deal harder,,, but from the sounds of things you have a few years to prepare for it..
if you would like to look at the exams papers I think there available here
heres a higher paper from 2005..
http://exam3.examinations.ie/archive/exampapers/2005/LC001ALP2IV.pdf

this is not the full exam its only paper 2, its the only one i could find online for free...you would need to sit paper one of this exam aswell and det a grad of 55-59% in order to get the HC3 required for your course.
I'd advise that you buy a set of all the previous exam papers..
they can be bought at
www.educate.ie
hope this helps.

steeevo93

also if you choose to take a course that doenst involve gaelge or doesnt have a requirment then you can do one of two thingss......
One , you can apply to the government to be made "exempt" from taking th irish exams. NUIG has a requirment that you pass irish (not get a hc3) just a pass ,regardless of level or grade. If you become exempt then you are able to apply without taking the irish exams.
Two, you may take a lower level ie ordinary or foundation, this would ensure that you get the pass needed to apply for courses in NUIG. the foundation level couse is extremly easy, if you speak any irish at all, you pretty much going to pass it, if you fail that,,,, there's probably something wrong with you
hope this helps

Irlandesaaa

wow, thanks a lot for all the description *_* tuigim é anois :P

i just wasnt able to access the sample exam page (says "not found" here lol), but i've been doin some research at the same website - examinations.ie - and found this:
http://www.examinations.ie/index.php?l=en&mc=en&sc=ep&formAction=subject
is it alike? or a lower level? lol coz it's way too easy to be true, so i'd better make sure :P

thanks again.

magicianz

Yup they're there, papers-Irish- paper 1,2, aural and aswell there's an oral section where you sit in a room with a fluent Irish speaker and your examined on how well you speak it you'll need to look up the syllabus for the year your doing it in for what short stories/poems etc you have to do and what themes and that of them to cover!

andrew

Try to link the actual .pdf you found by right clicking on the link to the file and clicking 'copy link address.' Otherwise we just get the link to that page in general and it's of no use. Here is Higher Level Paper 1 for 2008 and here is Higher Level Paper 2 for 2008 while here is the Aural portion of the 2008 exam. This is the kind of paper you'll need to sit. (I chose 2008 because it's the paper I did )

Irlandesaaa

magicianz wrote: »

Yup they're there, papers-Irish- paper 1,2, aural and aswell there's an oral section where you sit in a room with a fluent Irish speaker and your examined on how well you speak it you'll need to look up the syllabus for the year your doing it in for what short stories/poems etc you have to do and what themes and that of them to cover!

hm, the aural sounds quite simple then, just like the cambridge ones i've done in english :P

omg, will i have to write a poem? xD that's suimiúil, never seen such a task in an exam lol

Irlandesaaa

andrew wrote: »

Try to link the actual .pdf you found by right clicking on the link to the file and clicking 'copy link address.' Otherwise we just get the link to that page in general and it's of no use. Here is Higher Level Paper 1 for 2008 and here is Higher Level Paper 2 for 2008 while here is the Aural portion of the 2008 exam. This is the kind of paper you'll need to sit. (I chose 2008 because it's the paper I did )

ah...right. Now i see some advanced stuff, thanks ^^'
btw is it all about speakin/listenin? is there no "reading" part? lol

andrew

Irlandesaaa wrote: »

ah...right. Now i see some advanced stuff, thanks ^^'
btw is it all about speakin/listenin? is there no "reading" part? lol

There are 4 different parts to the exam:

1. An Oral part, in which you have to speak to an examiner.

2. An Aural part, in which you have to listen to a tape and answer questions on it (I linked an example paper above, obviously there's a tape to go with it)

3. Paper 1, which features an Essay which you've to write, and then a comprehension on which you have to answer questions.

4. Paper 2, in which you have to answer questions on the history of Irish, Poetry, A short film, a Play, and Short Stories, all of which are featured in the Course.


Yeah, It's a pretty huge course, though by the sounds of it you've plenty of time to prepare (I hope!)

magicianz

There's a "Reading" part in the ordinary level course, which is all about the pronounciation and ease of Reading of the paragraphs, but I don't know about the higher level course >.<

Irlandesaaa

andrew wrote: »

There are 4 different parts to the exam:

1. An Oral part, in which you have to speak to an examiner.

2. An Aural part, in which you have to listen to a tape and answer questions on it (I linked an example paper above, obviously there's a tape to go with it)

3. Paper 1, which features an Essay which you've to write, and then a comprehension on which you have to answer questions.

4. Paper 2, in which you have to answer questions on the history of Irish, Poetry, A short film, a Play, and Short Stories, all of which are featured in the Course.


Yeah, It's a pretty huge course, though by the sounds of it you've plenty of time to prepare (I hope!)

ah tuigim sin. Thanks. I wonder if "paper 2" is about history or popculture...or both? ^^' maybe this would be the hardest paper for me (i'm havin a look at the 2008 one now...) coz those books and short stories demanded are kinda hard to find here in Brazil lol

andrew

Irlandesaaa wrote: »

ah tuigim sin. Thanks. I wonder if "paper 2" is about history or popculture...or both? ^^' maybe this would be the hardest paper for me (i'm havin a look at the 2008 one now...) coz those books and short stories demanded are kinda hard to find here in Brazil lol

The history etc. is most definitely not pop culture You'll have to buy the Irish book somehow, I don't know how you'd do paper 2 without it to be honest.

Irlandesaaa

andrew wrote: »

The history etc. is most definitely not pop culture You'll have to buy the Irish book somehow, I don't know how you'd do paper 2 without it to be honest.

aye, that's my point. The question is "how"? if I purchase from the official website, would they ship to Brazil??? xD

andrew

I don't see why you wouldn't be able to get international shipping. If you can't, I can sell you mine if you like. They're Fiúntas 1 and Fiúntas 2, and since I did it in 2008 they're for the current syllabus. They've translations written over lots of stuff too, which I suppose would be handy.

Irlandesaaa

lol some websites such as litriocht.com don't.
But I've been searchin at edco.ie and at least my country's on the list, cgl, so i'll try to purchase there (if there's any problem w/shippin, can i contact you? :P) thanks for being so helpful ^_^

AnneMarieOC

Hi, I'm an Irish teacher. All that above information is useless to you now as the leaving cert irish course has changed for exam in 2012. The oral is now worth 40 % and stair na gaeilge (history of Irish) has been removed from the course. There is now a choice between novel/extra poetry also.

For the oral, you will have to prepare for a general conversation. also will have to prepare 20 picture sequences. the oral takes place in april each yr.

There is an aural, along with an essay/story/debate/newspaper article and 2 reading comprehensions.

There are also 5 stories and 5 poems to study.

And finally, you have to study either part of a novel or extra poetry.

You will find the syllabus on www.education.ie

*There are no exam papers out yet for the new course but they will be in september 2011.

There are new textbooks for sale for the new course. There are tonnes available however the one I use with my students is called Fiúntas.

Hope this is of help.

If you need more info, just ask.