Help A1 in english...?

Izymunz

Please anyone who succeeded in that .. the A1 in english higher level tell me exactly what need to be done .. exactly what I need to do
I really cannot express to you how much I appreciate it .. so I beg of you please help .
Thanks.

finality

It's really difficult to respond to this, if you were more specific on what you need advice on or what your weaker areas are, it would probably be easier to help.

spurious

Izymunz - Is English your first language?

If it is not, an A1 is a very big challenge.

Izymunz

Oh sorry umm yeah did the pres got a B2 really need an A1 , what should I do to bring the standard up .. in terms of S.A writing especially...
Thanks

smeal

I got an A1 last year and have no idea how I got it because I never got more than a C in any English essay I ever handed up so maybe my direct advice isnt the best but a few hints would be;

1. Be original. I think English examiners will respect this as theyre probably sick of seeing the exact same rehearsed bullsh*t coming from 100 other papers. I was always original in my essays, never really gave a crap about what i put on the page just put my honest opinion in everything really which is why I think my English teacher never gave me more than C's.
2. Baring the original element in mind with regard Hamlet and the Comparative, really dig into the texts, pull out things that maybe your other classmates would never use. People are lazy with English they just include the obvious themes/quotes. If you show you appreciated the texts to their full advantage then you should do well.
3. Make sure you structure things well. Try not to waver off then repeat yourself again 3 paragraphs later. Examiners love a clear outline of what you're going to talk about, they like a good quote and they like you to back your quote up. Be concise like.
4. No need to learn every quote from every single poem I don't think. I wouldn't say the examiners like quote vomiting. Pick out reasonable quotes that you can discuss well. No point in learning quotes you dont really understand and can't back up.

Its the simple things that really up your grade in English..that's my view anyways! sorry I'm not the best of help but English is really tough like your either good at it or your not i suppose but if you got a B in the pre that's brilliant considering most people havent even the course finished until a few weeks before the exam! best of luck anyways:)

Izymunz

Thanks for you advice , I really appreciate it
The thing that amazes me is that of the ones that get the A1s in the class work lots
do stick to the basics .. if you will.
There work is not complicated, often riddled with mistakes ... yet they still
get a high A1 ( talking in the 90s) !
I really do not get it , how does that happen ?
A clear structure yet terribly misspelt quotes still guarantee an A1 for some of the members of the class whom I could classify as 'weak in English'( not in a mean way lol .. but I mean they would not be the best, like not their favourite subject or they are perhaps just not interested in the subject etc.). Please note that I am not saying I am brilliant by Any Means! But I feel that I am o.k. ......

checkcheek

some times i feel an english teacher always thinks of a student as a B stundent and thus its all u ever get!!! You can never tell what you are gonna get in the leaving cert english! Its hit or miss-kinda

PictureFrame

Izymunz wrote: »

Thanks for you advice , I really appreciate it
The thing that amazes me is that of the ones that get the A1s in the class work lots
do stick to the basics .. if you will.
There work is not complicated, often riddled with mistakes ... yet they still
get a high A1 ( talking in the 90s) !
I really do not get it , how does that happen ?
A clear structure yet terribly misspelt quotes still guarantee an A1 for some of the members of the class whom I could classify as 'weak in English'( not in a mean way lol .. but I mean they would not be the best, like not their favourite subject or they are perhaps just not interested in the subject etc.). Please note that I am not saying I am brilliant by Any Means! But I feel that I am o.k. ......

Look, i'm trying my best here not to be overly bítchy or condescending but you say you're looking for an A1 in Honours English. This requires a massive amount of skill, fluency and control in your writing. I am honestly not trying to put you down, but I can barely understand this post at all?

All i'm saying is that I love English aswell, there's not a hope in hell of me achieving an A1. I realise that, I know I don't have the correct language, use of grammar etc. I have tried to be realistic about what grades I can achieve. I'm not going to try and judge you as I don't know your personal skills and abilities, but judging by your structure of sentences and even spelling, you have to ask yourself- is an A1 really achieveable? I would personally put my efforts into my other subjects. At the end of the day, no-one honestly cares about what subjects you did. They'll care about the number of points you've achieved.

smeal

PictureFrame wrote: »

Look, i'm trying my best here not to be overly bítchy or condescending but you say you're looking for an A1 in Honours English. This requires a massive amount of skill, fluency and control in your writing. I am honestly not trying to put you down, but I can barely understand this post at all?

All i'm saying is that I love English aswell, there's not a hope in hell of me achieving an A1. I realise that, I know I don't have the correct language, use of grammar etc. I have tried to be realistic about what grades I can achieve. I'm not going to try and judge you as I don't know your personal skills and abilities, but judging by your structure of sentences and even spelling, you have to ask yourself- is an A1 really achieveable? I would personally put my efforts into my other subjects. At the end of the day, no-one honestly cares about what subjects you did. They'll care about the number of points you've achieved.

I agree- not really understanding too well myself. I think you should stray away from worrying what everyone else in your class is saying in essays and focus more on your own. Also, i agree with PictureFrame- unless your aiming for A1s in everything focus on other subjects that you're better at. English has to be the most hit and miss subject in the LC, in my opinion there's no point losing sleep over it.

smeal

ALSO I don't really believe it when you say that members of your class are getting A1's for major spelling issues, not one examiner is going to give high marks to a bad speller no matter how good they are at structuring things.

silversky

The majority of people who achieve an A1 in English get it out of pure luck, other than that the people who get A1's are fantastic at English. If you're just "okay" at English you most likely won't get an A1, but hey what's wrong with a B1/2?

There's no way someone can get an A1 in English if their paper is riddled with spelling mistakes. You're teacher must be a woeful English teacher if she/he is giving A's out for that.

At this point write and learn off your comparative essay and poet's essay. Then do out notes on Hamlet- characters, themes, 21st Century view etc.
Keep doing comprehensions- use the marking scheme. Read books, newspapers etc. Do out a sample of each question B on Paper 1 e.g. interview, diary entry... until you're happy enough with the structure. And then pick a composition you like eg. a short story. Keep doing them and get your teacher to mark them. By the exam you'll have a few ideas to use, so you won't be stuck.

Namlub

Izymunz wrote: »

Thanks for you advice , I really appreciate it
The thing that amazes me is that of the ones that get the A1s in the class work lots
do stick to the basics .. if you will.
There work is not complicated, often riddled with mistakes ... yet they still
get a high A1 ( talking in the 90s) !
I really do not get it , how does that happen ?
A clear structure yet terribly misspelt quotes still guarantee an A1 for some of the members of the class whom I could classify as 'weak in English'( not in a mean way lol .. but I mean they would not be the best, like not their favourite subject or they are perhaps just not interested in the subject etc.). Please note that I am not saying I am brilliant by Any Means! But I feel that I am o.k. ......

Your work doesn't necessarily need to be complicated to be "A1 standard" (as subjective as that might be), you're marked on clarity after all.
Just judging from your posts here, your expression seems a bit...stilted or something, and if that's also the case with the way you write for English it could be part of the reason you're losing marks. Do you read books/newspapers often? I know it mightn't seem like the best time to start reading more, but it really does enrich your vocabulary and help you to appreciate the flow of language

Togepi

*Their

spurious

Izymunz - Your construction of sentences suggest (to me) that English is not your first language. You never answered my question, so I don't know if that is the reason for what Namlub describes as your 'stilted' expression. It would be very difficult for a non-native speaker to get an A1 in English.
Read, read and then read some more.

finality

Izymunz wrote: »

Oh sorry umm yeah did the pres got a B2 really need an A1 , what should I do to bring the standard up .. in terms of S.A writing especially...
Thanks

S.A? Sinoatrial.

Hmm. Well what's your current strategy? Do you learn off essays? Does your teacher make suggestions on how to improve, when you hand up essays in class? Do you find paper 1 or 2 more difficult?

Some great general advice has been given but it might not necessarily apply to you. Have you tried asking your teacher for advice, actually? Your teacher is the person who's most familiar with your writing, and thus they're in the best position to make suggestions on how to improve.

Izymunz

haha !
This post was a bad idea ! I am pretty depressed after reading your comments!
I got an A with absolutely no work in junior-cert if that makes a difference, and my teacher never really said that my expression was bad but I do understand your concerns . I'll admit the previous two posts were horrendous !
lol
p.s. ^ any better?

finality

Izymunz wrote: »

haha !
This post was a bad idea ! I am pretty depressed after reading your comments!
I got an A with absolutely no work in junior-cert if that makes a difference, and my teacher never really said that my expression was bad but I do understand your concerns . I'll admit the previous two posts were horrendous !
lol
p.s. ^ any better?

Why do you put spaces before punctuation marks? :P

spurious

Please don't use grades achieved in the Junior Cert. as any sort of indication as to how you will do in the Leaving.

Everyone does well at Junior Cert., that's how the exam is designed.

Togepi

spurious wrote: »

Please don't use grades achieved in the Junior Cert. as any sort of indication as to how you will do in the Leaving.

Everyone does well at Junior Cert., that's how the exam is designed.

Agreed. The first thing our English teacher said to us was to forget about the As or Bs we got in Junior Cert. English. The Leaving Cert. is completely different - its just so much harder to get an A in it compared to Junior Cert. English.

Izymunz

spurious wrote: »

Please don't use grades achieved in the Junior Cert. as any sort of indication as to how you will do in the Leaving.

Everyone does well at Junior Cert., that's how the exam is designed.

I understand your point but an A is surely more promising than a C. :P

finality

The A students at junior cert probably cover a range of about A1-C1 in general at leaving cert.

Namlub

Izymunz wrote: »

haha !
This post was a bad idea ! I am pretty depressed after reading your comments!
I got an A with absolutely no work in junior-cert if that makes a difference, and my teacher never really said that my expression was bad but I do understand your concerns . I'll admit the previous two posts were horrendous !
lol
p.s. ^ any better?

And that right there is the reason JC results can't be taken seriously as an indicator of how you're going to do in the leaving cert.

Togepi

finality wrote: »

The A students at junior cert probably cover a range of about A1-C1 in general at leaving cert.

Yeah I got a B1 in the Leaving. Me and a friend of mine got As in the Junior Cert., but he ended up failing Leaving Cert. English. You can't really base anything on Junior Cert. results.

Izymunz

A1 only 5 people in the entire year got it!!!

finality

Izymunz wrote: »

A1 only 5 people in the entire year got it!!!

Oh...

Dwellingdweller

Izymunz wrote: »

A1 only 5 people in the entire year got it!!!

And pigs flew :P jk man, congrats!

PictureFrame

Izymunz wrote: »

A1 only 5 people in the entire year got it!!!

5 people got an A1 :O.

I got the highest in my year with an A2, just scraped it too at 85%. The next best result was like a B3. Ye must have really good Teachers! Ours are pure shíte. well done!

Stalin and rugby

There you go, shows how you can never tell with English such a flukey subject

Also came across this funny meme seemed appropriate in this case

http://www.quickmeme.com/meme/3619rp/

David1994

Stalin and rugby wrote: »

There you go, shows how you can never tell with English such a flukey subject

Also came across this funny meme seemed appropriate in this case

http://www.quickmeme.com/meme/3619rp/

Loloololol!

finality

PictureFrame wrote: »

5 people got an A1 :O.

I got the highest in my year with an A2, just scraped it too at 85%. The next best result was like a B3. Ye must have really good Teachers! Ours are pure shíte. well done!

Really? I think my teacher said around 10-15 people are looking at an A1 in June in my year. I think 5 or 6 in my class alone got an A1 in the pre.

David1994

finality wrote: »

Really? I think my teacher said around 10-15 people are looking at an A1 in June in my year. I think 5 or 6 in my class alone got an A1 in the pre.

That is like my school where nobody got a A I got a B3 and normally do much better and hoping for at least an A2. The English in my school are excellent but not sure why nobody did that good haha.

JonnyMcNamee

David1994 wrote: »

That is like my school where nobody got a A I got a B3 and normally do much better and hoping for at least an A2. The English in my school are excellent but not sure why nobody did that good haha.

It was the exact same in my school. Got a B1 which was the highest in my year! The teacher said the papers were marked really hard though. Was kind of disappointed because I was looking for the A1 but hopefully I'll have it in June!

Bears and Vodka

In my school my measly C1 was the highest grade! Most people got around a D grade or failed. We have some really thick unmotivated students. Amount of people failing other subjects is incredible, too. About a third of the class failed OL Maths and about a half failed OL Irish. Nobody is doing HL Irish. A good few people dropped to Foundation!

I only realised at the start of 6th year I was in the wrong school :P

JonnyMcNamee

subz3r0 wrote: »

In my school my measly C1 was the highest grade! Most people got around a D grade or failed. We have some really thick unmotivated students. Amount of people failing other subjects is incredible, too. About a third of the class failed OL Maths and about a half failed OL Irish. Nobody is doing HL Irish. A good few people dropped to Foundation!

I only realised at the start of 6th year I was in the wrong school :P

Hahah sounds like my school except for the fact that the terrible grades are due mostly to lazyness lol. We've had three year meetings already about our lack of motivation!

kilianmanning

subz3r0 wrote: »

In my school my measly C1 was the highest grade! Most people got around a D grade or failed. We have some really thick unmotivated students. Amount of people failing other subjects is incredible, too. About a third of the class failed OL Maths and about a half failed OL Irish. Nobody is doing HL Irish. A good few people dropped to Foundation!

I only realised at the start of 6th year I was in the wrong school :P

Believe me if you think your year is bad, my year is worse:p It has to be:rolleyes:
Exact same thing with the maths half my class failed:eek: Our English teacher is always on about how much better his class were last year...
Few people got zero points in the mocks too..

Mysteriouschic

subz3r0 wrote: »

In my school my measly C1 was the highest grade! Most people got around a D grade or failed. We have some really thick unmotivated students. Amount of people failing other subjects is incredible, too. About a third of the class failed OL Maths and about a half failed OL Irish. Nobody is doing HL Irish. A good few people dropped to Foundation!

I only realised at the start of 6th year I was in the wrong school :P

In my school last year a lot of the year failed subjects in their mocks including me .And I didn't get the results I'd hoped in the actual lc for apart from in english. I haven't failed anything this year and I feel more motivated , procrastination was a big issue for me last year.

spurious

Unless the mocks are being marked by people who correct for the SEC they're not really that useful as a guide.

There have been examples of horrifically bad marking in this year's mocks. There is no reason to think English didn't escape.

All you can do is your best and make sure to answer the question you are asked, not the one you are expecting.

FaoiSin

Would it be worth trying to start studying for English now? It didn't make my top 6 in the Mocks but I hadn't put any work in. Anyone know the minimum amount I'd have to put in to improve on a B2? Do people generally do better in Paper 1 or Paper 2? I got the same in both give or take a few marks.

Izymunz

yayyyyyy!!
Don't worry we'll all get the A1 in June , just learn your respective texts!!

IMightKnow

I got a C in my English Mocks when i did them in 2008 (I got 63 or 68 cant remember which) and then I got 95% in the real thing.

Its all down to the markers. The one I got gave me 100 marks in the essay, I didn't think that would be possible. I did a magazine article and made it up there and then.

I had given up on counting English for points, I had just kinda learned off some stuff on the comparative text and play and poets so I wouldn't be stuck for something to write. I didn't have a broad range of topics covered and probably got lucky that what i did have prepared fitted into the questions asked.

boomkatalog

Hey op, I got a B3 in the mocks which I was disappointed with, and my teacher made a point of saying not to expect to do that well in the actual exam. I got an A1, and I believe what put me ahead of the rest was knowing my texts very well (esp themes and comparisons) and a descriptive and original essay (wish I could have it back, it was my best ever essay).

They're not generous with an A1, in our school every year no more than one person got an A1, so that was about 1 in 25.