Repeat leaving cert, should i take honours irish?

lisa1993

Im repeating the leaving cert this year after being 15 point short for my second CAO choice (nursing in ucd). I got 400 last year and this year i am determined to be in the 490-500 region so i can get into nursing in galway which is 475 and very competitive.
So i have 4 honours subject already; English, history, music and art, and iv moved to honours biology so thats 5 but i dont think its likely ill get As in any of them so i need another honours subject. so basically im thinking maybe i should move to honours irish? I got a c1 in pass irish in my first leaving cert and id need at least that in honours for it to be any use points wise. I like it as a subject, i like languages in general but iv never been very strong at it, like i nearly failed my mock and i only really picked up in march last year and i dont have much of a vocabulary or much grasp on the tenses. On the other hand i found the oral really easy so if the oral in honours is anything like as easy then maybe i could handle it. Im also quite good at learning stuff off so i could memorise the essays and poetry answers.
Id also be able to take grinds for it.

So do ye think i should give it a shot or no? How much harder is it than pass level? And also is it necessary to repeat maths if i passed it last year?
Thanks a million everyone

Canard

You don't need to redo maths. The oral in HL is actually the exact same, they don't know your level because you're allowed to move up and down. It's actually a bit unfair on OL students...
I never did OL Irish so I don't know what thats like really, but I did hear that they got questions as easy as what colour was the seaweed in the poem :L At HL you get more analytical questions but it's still really easy...only 5 marks go for your Irish, but you'd probably lose a few in your information if it reads badly.
The essay would be the only real challenge because its 80% for grammar and spelling, 20% for content relevance, but it's still not that bad. And it's only 16% of the grade. You could always give it a shot, sure you have a pass from last year anyway! You'll have to study extra literature too, most do An Triail, it's extremely enjoyable. :P

ray2012

I did higher for the start of JC (1st and 2nd year) and dropped down to ordinary at the start of third year cause i was finding Higher too hard to learn, and I was failing the majority of the tests.. Got an A in it for JC i did the first half of 5th year doing pass Irish, and I was finding that pretty easy (getting 70%s in tests), and i wanted a challenge cause I love languages, so I decided to move up to higher cause I thought I should give it a shot! I thought it would be almost impossible tbh, but instead it's not TOO bad. Obviously, the Irish used is more difficult to understand and stuff, but basically you just have to learn and study A LOT more. I got 77% in my summer tests last year in Higher level, and i thought higher level for JC was too hard.
If you enjoy Irish and are willing to put the work in to do well, you should try it, it'll pay off!
Doing pass for JC and higher for LC makes quite a story. :P (in 6th year now btw)

lisa1993

Thanks a million! Im so glad i dont have to do maths again, what with the new project maths and all this year!
I think ill give honors a shot then, because like if its 40% for the oral and then it should be grand!
Would ye have any advice on what study guides would be good to get? Or anything to that effect?
Thanks a million anyways, and good luck this year ray2012!

Oh and yea last year we did get asked what colour the seaweed was!

Canard

Well I never really used any study aids for Irish (found them too confusing when they're all IN Irish haha) but Foinse is great if your teacher can help you translate properly, and theres books for An Triail, and the picture sequence books are lifesaving but I'm not sure where you get those - sorry! But good luck