Getting an A1 in higher level english?

LauraaWhelann

Just wondering do any past A achievers have any advice for me on English? I got an A2 in the pre 85% but I believe it was corrected very easily..

dee_mc

Know when to stop: value quality over quantity.

spurious

Posters are reminded that duplicate regs are not allowed on boards, especially when used to abuse other posters.

sleepyheadh

Get your paper checked! I went from a B2 to an A1 last year, and the only reason i got the paper checked was because there was a addition mistake on the paper.

dee_mc

sleepyheadh wrote: »

Get your paper checked! I went from a B2 to an A1 last year, and the only reason i got the paper checked was because there was a addition mistake on the paper.

....but remember that addition mistakes, and rechecks in general, work both ways. Not every student who has a paper rechecked ends up with a higher grade, so be cautious.

sleepyheadh

Obviously, If you feel as if you bombed the thing, don't go in looking for the A1. But in English particularly the marking scheme is fairly waffly, compared to Maths or science subjects. So it's pretty hard for the examiner who is rechecking the paper to mark down what has been given by the initial marker.

I have gone through hoops in the past with rechecks and basically what I have seen and have been told was that the markers try to err on the side of the initial marker. Simply because they have been trained to correct by the department and thus if they are incompetent it reflects badly on them. If anyone got in the low B grades in English, and where not scraping by in terms of points I would always say to recheck English. And while your at it, recheck every paper - even if you are 100 points above the course you want.

dee_mc wrote: »

....but remember that addition mistakes, and rechecks in general, work both ways. Not every student who has a paper rechecked ends up with a higher grade, so be cautious.

oncex

sleepyheadh wrote: »

And while your at it, recheck every paper - even if you are 100 points above the course you want.

Waste of €240ish, no?

sleepyheadh

oncex wrote: »

Waste of €240ish, no?

doesn't cost a penny to view the scripts, sorry that's probably what I should have been saying;

To clarify my point:

- View all your scripts.
- If English within a B3 to A2 level and you feel that you did fairly well, get it rechecked, i.e pay the 40-60e (can't remember how much it costs) to get it remarked.
-Of course this is only really what you should be doing if you have either missed your course, or if you have cleared it by a fair margin.

Sorry, if my previous posts have been a bit confusing, I have been out of the Leaving Cert game for a while now.

randylonghorn

sleepyheadh wrote: »

doesn't cost a penny to view the scripts, sorry that's probably what I should have been saying;

To clarify my point:

- View all your scripts.

Yes, certainly, VIEW all scripts, and esp. any ones you were a little disappointed with. It is also a really, really good idea to do so with an experienced corrector ... they will have a much better idea if it is worth appealing any subjects, or whether you're looking at your own scripts with rose-tinted glasses.

sleepyheadh

randylonghorn wrote: »

with an experienced corrector ... .

Unfortunately there is not too many of these roaming around at the times of rechecks! You would be lucky to get to talk to some lads with not a notion between them.

randylonghorn

sleepyheadh wrote: »

Unfortunately there is not too many of these roaming around at the times of rechecks! You would be lucky to get to talk to some lads with not a notion between them.

I suppose it might vary from school to school, but I know a lot of teachers who would try to be available for at least one of the viewing days. Not all teachers correct the LC of course, but many do, and even if they don't actually correct themselves, they should have a fair idea for their subjects.

Mind you, it's a good idea to check beforehand / pre-arrange an appointment, esp. for any subject you feel dodgy about.

Just as not all teachers will be available on viewing days, many students breeze in on the day expecting every teacher in the school to be lined up in a row waiting to take them by the hand and personally escort them!

thelad95

randylonghorn wrote: »

Just as not all teachers will be available on viewing days, many students breeze in on the day expecting every teacher in the school to be lined up in a row waiting to take them by the hand and personally escort them!

Yep. I remember one parent getting very irate last year because a student wanted to view a paper with his teacher but never contacted said teacher.

Why would a teacher spend the last Friday evening of their holidays stuck in a stuffy school hall trawling through a students barely elligible waffle to see can they find an extra three marks for them if they weren't personally asked.

Most teachers will come in IF YOU ASK THEM TO but expecting them to be there with no prior arrangement will end in disaster.

Janeh9

As far as I know if you go up in the recheck you get refunded so if you're pretty sure you were robbed points I'd say deffinately get it rechecked

peekachoo

Any tips for bumping up marks on the comprehension section guys? I feel like I write a bit too much but struggle with compressing it down!

Mr Pseudonym

dee_mc wrote: »

....but remember that addition mistakes, and rechecks in general, work both ways. Not every student who has a paper rechecked ends up with a higher grade, so be cautious.

There were approx 8,800 appeals (~2.4%) in 2012. Of those, ~20% were upgraded and only three were downgraded.

http://www.examinations.ie/about/SEC_AR_2012_Final.pdf#page=59

peekachoo wrote: »

Any tips for bumping up marks on the comprehension section guys? I feel like I write a bit too much but struggle with compressing it down!

Don't know that you have enough time to implement this, but I got 48/50 in Section A, and what I did was embarrassingly cynical:

Question: "Margaret Laurence claims that the world of her childhood was 'never dull'. In your opinion, which three pieces of evidence..."

Intro: "The opening paragraph promises an account of an eventful childhood, and the rest of the text doesn't disappoint. From the excitement of X and Y, to the tragedy of Z, Laurence can certainly claim that her childhood was 'never dull'."

X: describe incident; quote; explain relevance to question.

Y

Z

Conclusion: "Be it X, Y, or Z, it is clear from the text that the world of Laurence's childhood was never dull."

As can be seen, the above is entirely uninspiring, but it's what the LC rewards. When I had perfected the strategy, I was able to get them done in minutes!

Don't be afraid to use the equivalent to the "never dull" link multiple times; there are only so many synonyms of "exciting", "interesting", etc, don't be obsessed with variety; there's a tendency for the paragraphs to become shorter, so I always aimed to make sure the shortest wasn't last.