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Higher/ordinary level English

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  • 14-12-2014 12:15am
    #1
    Ben134
    Registered Users Posts: 10 ✭


    What is the difference between the leaving cert course for Honours and Ordinary level English? I'm in 6th year and I'm struggling with English, in particular the creative writing, and am considering dropping to ordinary level, but i think I've left it too late to drop. So is there much difference between the two courses and if so would I be able to catch up? We've finished our comparative and Othello and a good few poets so far


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    #2
    brianroche07
    Registered Users Posts: 10 ✭brianroche07


    The main difference is the poetry. For HL you study 6 poets and six of their poems, whereas in OL you study 36 poems from a range of poets. Definitely not too late to go to OL but check with your teacher what is best for you to do.


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    #3
    DublinArnie
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2,823 ✭✭✭DublinArnie


    brianroche07 wrote: »
    The main difference is the poetry. For HL you study 6 poets and six of their poems, whereas in OL you study 36 poems from a range of poets. Definitely not too late to go to OL but check with your teacher what is best for you to do.

    You still study the same amount of poems.


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    #4
    brianroche07
    Registered Users Posts: 10 ✭brianroche07


    Not necessarily always the case as some teachers only study 5 poets if they are stuck for time, but in most cases, yes you study the same amount of poems but they are a totally different selection of poems so someone who is changing to Ordinary level would need to learn a whole new set of poems. Can definitely be done though!


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    #5
    Laur33
    Registered Users Posts: 22 ✭Laur33


    My teacher said to my class that there's no point in dropping to OL if you're not failing or nearly failing exams. Very little people fail English in the LC anyway so it's definitely worth doing it because as you know the points are a lot higher for HL.


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    #6
    Peregrine
    Moderators, Education Moderators Posts: 26,399 Mod ✭✭✭✭Peregrine


    It's not mandatory to do a Shakespearean play at OL. Whereas at HL, it must be done either as a comparative or single text. Most teachers teach it as a single text.

    I'm pretty sure you can do Othello at OL too, even though it's not mandatory. It would be too late to learn another single text.


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    #7
    Lara_15
    Registered Users Posts: 704 ✭✭✭Lara_15


    One of my biggest regrets of doing my lc was the amount of work I put into English, I hated it and it made me panicky cos I wasn't confident at all, I put in hours and hours and hours in an attempt to boost my confidence and get a decent grade which I did (b2), didn't even end up using it for points and I knew I wasn't going to, I'm glad however that I didn't drop to ordinary level, you can achieve a good grade in p1 without study and pass p2 with minimal study so I would just do that if I were you, unless you struggle a lot and aren't passing homework essays


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    #8
    xLisaBx
    Registered Users Posts: 901 ✭✭✭xLisaBx


    The poems are printed on the page, so if you have a halfway decent apt for the subject you could bluff answers to the questions. Just search for metaphors, imagery etc. There's always onomatopoeia or cacophony/euphony!

    Some people are saying they learn 6 poems by 6 poets in HL. I don't really understand why they do that. I learned 5 poems by 8 poets so there was a full choice on the day :)

    English isn't marked too hard either!


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