THE IRISH ORALS SO FAR: What did you get asked?

skyscraperblue

**Note** I know there's already a thread for the Irish oral, but since that one talks about all kinds of general oral points, people's preparation etc. I thought it might be handy to have a thread where people can post after their oral & let us know anything tricky or unusual they (or anyone at their school) were asked.

So what did you get asked? Did anyone in your school get any unusual or unexpected questions?

As for me, my oral's not until tomorrow, but so far in my school some interesting or unusual things to come up have been:
- would you like to write a book?
- opinions on the health service
- benefits of a mixed/single-sex school
- would you emigrate if you didn't get a job?

leaveiton

I didn't get asked anything too unexpected, the worst I got was "What effect does bullying have on a person?" because I mentioned that there's a great atmosphere in my school and that there's no bullying. Any of the weird things that people were asked, they got asked because they'd led up to them. For example:

- Differences between Irish and French culture (they mentioned something about doing French or wanting to study French, can't remember exactly)
- One girl said she wanted to work in a lab, the examiner asked "What kind of things do you do in a lab?"
- Someone mentioned her mother owned a business - "Is she worried about how the recession will affect her business?"
- A girl who did TY - Advantages/disadvantages, difference between TY and LC, what she did in TY

Just a couple of examples. My examiner was mad into asking everyone about their phone and Facebook. She asked someone before me how much they spend on their phone per month, but when she asked me about it she just asked did I have a phone, and then moved onto do I use Facebook.

She also asked if my Gaeltacht experience was anything like this ad:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8epdmluqvK8

:pac:

Namlub

My examiner seemed really determined to ask me about sport, like I gave it the old 'Nil duine sportuil me, is fearr liom...', then she interrupted me to ask if I ever watched sport, if anyone in my family was sporty but it didn't really go anywhere...
Got asked if I thought there'd be more discipline problems if my school was mixed, if I thought the roads were safe and stuff like that but it was fine.

Ally7

I got asked plenty of normal stuff like my family, my past-times, myself, school etc. Because i said I wanted to do medicine he asked me a bit about the HPAT, I bluffed my way through it anyway! He also asked me which of my parents I preferred, which was fairly weird :pac: But overall it was fine, i don't think anyone got asked anything totally weird!

K_1

• Mo Cheantar
• Rialacha na Scoile
• Conas a tagaim ar scoil
• An t-ábhar is fearr liom
• Cad ba mhaith liom a dheanamh tar éis an ardteist
• Taithí Oibre
• Mo Chlann
• Spórt

Those were the main ones, some smaller ones too, some of those I brought in myself.

Got sraith no. 1 too.

finality

I was asked about:

-School
-The subjects I do
-My area
-What I want to do after school
-Why would I prefer to live in a city
-What do I do when I go out with my friends
-My hobbies
-Which books I did in English class
-Do I like Shakespeare
-What do I think about the poetry on my course
-My family
-What will I do next summer
-What did I do on holiday last summer
-Do I think continuous assessment would be better in schools
-Am I 18 and what did I do for my birthday
-Do I like going to the cinema


Oh and I got An t-Earrach Thiar and Turas Scoile.

FreeFallin94

Geibheann (was literally delighted!)
Sraithpictiur 20
Mo Theaglach
Caitheamh Aimsire (music and then she asked a few questions about the Beyonce concert I went to)
What I did last summer
What I'm doing this weekend
What I'd like to do after the Leaving Cert
How I get to school everyday
What housework I do
Mo Cheantar Duchais- aiseanna for daoine oga
Last film I saw- went on about seeing Titanic and she asked me questions about 3d! So annoyed!

Overall I wanted to spend like ten more minutes talking. Like our school has just gone through an amalgamation and I knew so so much about it but she asked me nothing about that! I had so much prepared and it sort of felt like it was for nothing in the end.

leaveiton

I know I posted above but just thought I'd give a list of exactly what I got asked:

- My area
- All about the school
- How bullying has an effect on people (because I'd mentioned bullying)
- The subjects I do, favourite/least favourite
- What I think of Irish
- Had I ever been to the Gaeltacht
- Had I ever been abroad
- My family (brought it up very late, only brought it up after I mentioned my brother)
- What I wanted to do next year/What job I wanted
- My past times (music)
- Had I ever been to a concert
- Do I have an iPod, do I download music
- My phone
- Do I use Facebook/Twitter
- What do you think of the state of the country at the moment
- What would you do if you were Taoiseach

skyscraperblue

I got mostly standard questions, a couple of more unusual ones were:
- will you be sad to leave secondary school?
- advantages of being an only child
- what would you do if you were Minister for Education?
- the education system and continuous assessment
- differences between studying Irish & Spanish and if I think people find them hard
- whether other students in my school find maths hard

My examiner spent FOREVER on school-related topics! Everything kept on coming back to school, it was really weird.
Also I got first three verses of Mo Ghrá-sa and the 'Rialacha na scoile' sraith.

seriouslysweet

How was the sraithpictiúir chosen out of interest?

leaveiton

seriouslysweet wrote: »

How was the sraithpictiúir chosen out of interest?

In mine they were just scattered face down in a pile on the table and I was asked to pick one at random. The other examiner asked people to pick them from an envelope.

skyscraperblue

seriouslysweet wrote: »

How was the sraithpictiúir chosen out of interest?

Both examiners in my school had them in an envelope.

seriouslysweet

How do you pick from an envelope?

Mayo_Boy

seriouslysweet wrote: »

How do you pick from an envelope?

Im assuming you just stick your hand into the envelope and bobs your auntie :rolleyes:

IndigoWings

My examiner asked me about politics and the economy. I just said I wasn't interested in politics and they cause more problems than they solve, and that there was some economic recovery evident in town.
He asked me about the internet and blogging too because I brought up wanting to do journalism next year.
Apart from that, it was just the usual, what my hobbies were, what my favourite subject was.

I had to read Mo Ghrá-sa. The examiner actually asked me to pick out a sraith pictiúr first by accident, I picked the one with Ullmhargadh Uí Néill, so I put it back, said the poem and he let me pick another one. I got Laethanta Saoire, which I like a little more than the first one I picked, so I count it as some sort of good luck going on there :P

Luno

Did I have any brothers or sisters
Did they go to this school
What was my brother doing in college
What am I wearing
Do I like the uniform
Is there any positives/negatives associated with the uniform
What do I wear on the weekends
Do I think the school has good rules
What I'd do if I was principal
How do I travel to school
Did I do 4th year
Why didn't I do 4th year
Has the school ever achieved anything
Do I like sport
Would I like to play for Cork (said I didn't like sport but have interests in music)
Is there many sporting facilities in my area
What facilities are there in my area
How has the recession affected my area
What I'd like to do next year
Would I be happy to emmigrate

So I got asked loads and yet I didn't get a word in to mention my love for the Irish language or my interests in music (the two things I could actually talk about) It was more like an interrogation than a comhra

skyscraperblue

M&S* wrote: »

So I got asked loads and yet I didn't get a word in to mention my love for the Irish language or my interests in sport (the two things I could actually talk about) It was more like an interrogation than a comhra

This happened to SO many people in my school I know people who continually tried to put sport in the conversation but the examiner just wouldn't ask about it. As for me, I really wanted her to ask me about my opinions of Irish, I had SO much ready on it! But no.

Luno

skyscraperblue wrote: »

This happened to SO many people in my school I know people who continually tried to put sport in the conversation but the examiner just wouldn't ask about it. As for me, I really wanted her to ask me about my opinions of Irish, I had SO much ready on it! But no.

Yeah, mine kept butting in and asking really stupid stuff Also I had an inspector in the room and tbh she was being nicer to me than my examiner... Not fair atall :mad:

K_1

Our examiner taught PE and Irish, so she just talked about sport to everyone.

Mayo_Boy

Does anyone know where to get examples of the types of questions that might be asked in the oral? And also is their any possible sentence/senteces that could be used to work on all the pictures?

skyscraperblue

Mayo_Boy wrote: »

Does anyone know where to get examples of the types of questions that might be asked in the oral? And also is their any possible sentence/senteces that could be used to work on all the pictures?

There should be tons in your Irish book surely? If not there are loads of revision books that all have lists of questions.

needirishhelp

for the sraith pictuir do you have to ask 3 questions for each of the six pictures (each box) or just 3 at the end after you've went through the story
need to know quick thanks

skyscraperblue

needirishhelp wrote: »

for the sraith pictuir do you have to ask 3 questions for each of the six pictures (each box) or just 3 at the end after you've went through the story
need to know quick thanks

It's just three at the very end, which can be about any picture you like. They'll tell you when to ask the questions, and you ask them before they ask you questions so you don't need to worry about repeating one they asked.

needirishhelp

skyscraperblue wrote: »

It's just three at the very end, which can be about any picture you like. They'll tell you when to ask the questions, and you ask them before they ask you questions so you don't need to worry about repeating one they asked.

thanks for the quick reply

Tuairiscitear

My Examiner asked ridiculous questions
Do you speak irish at home
Mo Chlann
Whats it like being the only boy
Do you want to be a teacher too (sister is one)
What do you want to do
Talk about the Hpat
Have you ever been to the aran islands
Have you been to the gaeltacht
Is there much irish in your town
What do you think of An Triail
Whats your favourite poem
Have you got a girlfriend!!
Have you ever fallen in love in irish college?

Got Laethanta Saoire and An tEarrach Thiair
For the questions he asked me why there were three single girls going on holidays by themselves and do i think they found lads for the night!
He kept butting in and wouldnt let me show off essay topics or modh coinniollach at all!
We were laughing for the whole oral so it was great craic but just annoyed i couldnt use anything that i had prepared.

degausserxo

The ones I was a bit 'eh.. what' on were the Republic's relationship with the North, and the health and education systems. Was asked if I'd ever emigrate too. Went graaaand though.

biohaiid

Our examiner was apparently awkward as **** but she seemed okay to me? Some kinda good luck I guess.
Got Mo Ghrasa (My favourite!)
Picture 10 - Gaelteacht (Happy enough)

And then the topics were:
Myself & Family
What advice I would give to my sister coming to the school next year
The rules
School subjects (brought up my favorite and the irish language)
Do I talk Irish at home
Am I a native speaker/fluent
What do I think of the new Irish layout
What Id do if I were principle
Did I add up my points from the mocks and what did I get
Any problems in the school (I said no and brought up social problems and all that)
Am I a native/fluent speaker
Would I work abroad
What I want to do after school
Why/Traits of the job
Would I want to work in education/health (I said I wanted to do psychology)
What do I think of Ireland's health system (brought up mental health)
Any plans for the summer (said no and brought up last summer)
What airport did I go on holidays from
Where exactly did I stay
Was there a language barrier
How did I find the Italians
Did I meet any Italian men :L

Oh, and to make her a cup of coffee at the end :L (put a lot of effort into that cup of coffee!:P)

Pretty much it, was straight forward enough and she was lovley
Seemed really interested in mental health and talked about that for ages.
Was really more like a casual conversation than an exam, was very happy

seriouslysweet

Nicest oral examiner ever.

Basically school uniform, subjects, ones I like and don't like. New Irish course.
Gaeltacht, is it fair for people who can't afford to go.
How cutbacks have hit our school and area so I got to let rip here.
Stress and pressure on students, had a great chat about that, used my modh c to explain what I'd do if I was the minister.
Loads about family as I've a huge one.
Health system as both parents working in it and I want to too. HPat and why I want to do med.

Pretty much it...