How to study for Irish?

GrabTheCREAM

Hi, I'm kind of scared for the mocks for JC since I kinda suck at Irish. (I failed 37% in christmas exams) Most things that annoy me are the letters and the event questions. (or eachtra's) I'm asking how can I study for these? I'm finding it really hard since we have a really really really bad teacher for irish I'm in higher and I want to stay in higher, but, I'm scared if I do bad in this too, she'll throw me down to Ordinary level which I obviously don't want to do. Right now, I'm learning the notes for Gnathrud, Mac An Tailliura and (can't find notes on: ) An t-Adh. can anyone please help?? Also does anyone know for the comprehensions, is it possible to write answers straight from the extract or no? I heard they introduced a new style this year.

Slow Show

I remember giving up any chance I had of getting a good grade (anything less than an A for me, I'm weird) in Irish at about the start of 3rd year (similar circumstances to you actually). Unlike most people, I think I had a somewhat decent foundation in Irish though which helped immensely in the end. I never studied for it with the exam in mind, I just remember learning off answers for a poem we did and for our pros for a summer test, and I learned off a scéal and an answer for another poem for a test early in 3rd year. Learning off here means really, really well, as in I knew it word for word and knew what it meant in English so I could improvise. Somehow, these small things to ensure that I had a decent average stood to me, I was able to do the actual exam with relative ease (I think 2011 was probably the perfect exam for me though tbh, felt way easier than any past or sample paper we'd done...grá or brón came up twice I think, crazy stuff) and came out with an A in September.

So yeah, that's how I studied for Irish. Rote learning...odd, considering I generally hate it but oddly enough, it really works for me with Irish. I mean, I learn from it...I learn it off but I know the translation, and I reproduce something like it and tweak it to fit the question. Even in Leaving Cert, the same thing works for me. So take from that what you will...oh and if you don't have the decent foundation in Irish I had, grammar - tenses and réamhfocail! and vocab...possibly get a revision book - I had Revise Wise and it was decent for sample answers.

Not 100% sure even now what the story is with writing answers straight from the text, when I was doing it I changed around small bits of each answer, sometimes completely changing it to fit in a handy quote, seemed to work for me! It's probably safer that way. And I have notes for An Gnáthrud, what with it being on the LC course, but that's it unfortunately...Oh, and letters are easy if you learn appropriate vocab (there's only so many scenarios they can put you in...intro and conclusion, weather, staying somewhere you don't usually stay, silly minute details about food and what you do with your day, grand!)

Good luck.

GrabTheCREAM

Slow Show wrote: »

I remember giving up any chance I had of getting a good grade (anything less than an A for me, I'm weird) in Irish at about the start of 3rd year (similar circumstances to you actually). Unlike most people, I think I had a somewhat decent foundation in Irish though which helped immensely in the end. I never studied for it with the exam in mind, I just remember learning off answers for a poem we did and for our prós, and I learned off a scéal and an answer for another poem for a test early in 3rd year. Learning off here means really, really well, as in I knew it word for word and knew what it meant in English so I could improvise. Somehow, these small things to ensure that I had a decent average stood to me, I was able to do the actual exam with relative ease (I think 2011 was probably the perfect exam for me though tbh, felt way easier than any past or sample paper we'd done...grá or brón came up twice I think, crazy stuff) and came out with an A in September.

So yeah, that's how I studied for Irish. Rote learning...odd, considering I generally hate it but oddly enough, it really works for me with Irish. I mean, I learn from it...I learn it off but I know the translation, and I reproduce something like it and tweak it to fit the question. Even in Leaving Cert, the same thing works for me. So take from that what you will...oh and if you don't have the decent foundation in Irish I had, grammar - tenses and réamhfocail! and vocab...possibly get a revision book - I had Revise Wise and it was decent for sample answers.

Not 100% sure even now what the story is with writing answers straight from the text, when I was doing it I changed around small bits of each answer, sometimes completely changing it to fit in a handy quote, seemed to work for me! It's probably safer that way. And I have notes for An Gnáthrud, what with it being on the LC course, but that's it unfortunately...Oh, and letters are easy if you learn appropriate vocab (there's only so many scenarios they can put you in...intro and conclusion, weather, staying somewhere you don't usually stay, silly minute details about food and what you do with your day, grand!)

Good luck.

anything below A or B is not good for me but depends on the subject like in history i always get 95+ and in science i get 85-100%. letters would be easier i would say because of the overall layout of it like intro, etc like you were saying but what about eachtras? do you get a choice in the JC/mocks between eachtra/litir or do you HAVE to do both? if thats the case, letter all the way. a C+ is good enough for me (in irish). I think my sister might have a Revise Wise + Less Stress More Success lying about so I'll see if I can benefit from that I was talking to my grinds teacher and my sister who is doing LC this year and they both said that a new style of answering comprehension q's had been introduced, if anyone else would know or if anyone that you know would know would you be able to ask them for me? it'd make irish a hell of a lot easier for me and im sure a lot of others

and for the learning in english part: i dodnt do that with mac an tailliura but with gnathrud, it way easier and i got it right away; already have 5/8's of it learned off since 9:30 lol

The One Who Knocks

If you're really worried about the mocks you could find out whats coming up (check the mocks thread or pm me)

however I'm presuming you don't plan on doing that...

so without further ado, here's Jamez735's crash course in irish

---

1.Firstly, if u do an oral exam, consider it 40% in the bag, easiest thing you'll ever do, congratulations you just passed!

2. Paper 1- the main thing to know here is Timpiste (accident)
It can be used for any sceal/eacthra, (whats a birthday party/disco/party/holiday/walk in the woods/robbery/concert without somebody ending up in hospital)

For reading comprehension- try to find the words in the question in the comprehension, you dont even have to understand any of it to get near full marks

For grammar question

H/D'/D'fh
ann/eann/aíonn/íonn
faidh/fidh/óidh/eoidh
& Irregulars

Learn that off by heart and write it at the top of the exam, as soon as you start

Paper 2

Well basically, you need to know 1 story/ 1 poem/ and be able to write a letter on a general topic


I'm not sure what the best stories/poems to learn are, but I'm sure someone can help ya out,

I've learnt teilifíse (le gabriel rosenstock correct me if im wrong)
then I've learned leite dhonnacha peig (le dunno) and fear leasta lampa (le dunno)

they probably aren't the best ones, but they work for me

as for letter, well u need a general knowledge of everything, me fein, scoil, saoire, etc

also, learn off an opening & a closing, (if u dont know any, pm me)


thats it , i think

ShatterResistant

Don't be worried about the fact that you failed at christmas either, i got an F at christmas before the mocks and brought that up to a B for the JC. I just learned one poem with two answers and moulded them to fit the emotion[subh milis]. Same for the story[an t-adh]. Best of luck.

Sentid

Just wondering, I was told that the debate (díospóireacht) is marked really hard, like your standard of Irish has to be really high. Is this true? Would it be easier to do the eachtra or alt?

The One Who Knocks

Sentid wrote: »

Just wondering, I was told that the debate (díospóireacht) is marked really hard, like your standard of Irish has to be really high. Is this true? Would it be easier to do the eachtra or alt?

yeah I'd recommend anyone to do the sceal/eachtra, much easier, trust me


just learn timpiste, you can use it for anything,

spurious

Don't try to translate what you want to say directly from English to Irish - it doesn't work like that and you can get yourself into a right mess.

If you can't say it simply, don't try to say it.

So, instead of trying to translate a sentence like

The car sped along the road, hitting three pedestrians along the way.

you would say

The car was going fast. It was going along the road. There was an accident. Three people were hurt.

Straightforward, simple sentences are less likely to mean you make grammatical errors. Sure, you might lose one or two style marks, but you won't lose grammar marks.

xfabgalx

theres no oral exam anymore

iliketwixbars

xfabgalx wrote: »

theres no oral exam anymore

There is an optional one that has to be undertaken by the school itself, however only a small minority of schools do it (many believe it is unfair for a school to examine their own students, an external examiner like for the leaving cert would obviously be an ideal -but costly- solution)

sadhbh9069

well I cant really study irish and well I have a test tomorrow and I don't really like my teacher for irish and I mean she hates me so can someone give me a few tips on how to study irish

daviecronin

Hey, don't worry about it! Im in ty now and I just finished the Jc and what not. As you might have seen in the papers I thought our year was really hard. I got a c in the Pre's which I was grand with. Then in the JC I got a B. I just learned my answer for the story and some poetry and stuff. I think it was like 2-3 pages in total. Stick with Honours. I was sooo happy with a B. I messed up everything. I said all the wrong things in the letter didn't know what they asked for. Did the same thing for the story went off on a tangent. Then my prose our poetry I didn't get one word of it but I copied and pasted. I like irish though but not the way its thought. Im in 4th yr now and the amount of learning required for irish now is crazy. It's just rote learning which I don't like. Anyway good luck!