HL English Poetry predictions 2016

anna_x

What poets do you all predict are most likely to come up on the leaving cert paper this year?

emersyn

Eilean Ni C

Consonata

WB Yeats with the Centenary and Easter 1916

anna_x

emersyn wrote: »

Eilean Ni C

How come? Didn't she come up last year though?

anna_x

Consonata wrote: »

WB Yeats with the Centenary and Easter 1916

I agree

spurious

anna_x wrote: »

How come? Didn't she come up last year though?

That's no reason she couldn't come up again.

Predictions are just guessing - kind of pointless.

DublinArnie

Plath or Bishop... Hopefully

anna_x

DublinArnie wrote: »

Plath or Bishop... Hopefully

Bishop would be nice!

emersyn

anna_x wrote: »

How come? Didn't she come up last year though?

First year she came up in a while, and this is also the last year that she's on the course for another while. I think it's very likely they'll put her in to throw people off

A97

Lads if you study five poets, you're guaranteed a question on the exam. It's not worth the stress of knowing that you're going into the exam unprepared, or even worse, not being able to do any of the questions.

I studied five poets and I got 49/50 on my Leaving Cert question. If you study them properly, you won't compromise your ability to answer on the others. Plus you have six months left (~180 days) to study 30-36 poems. And you'll be surprised by how much work you can get done in the weeks leading up to the exam.

hubluh

Bishop or Larkin I hope.. :rolleyes:

Troxck

Just learn five poets. There's no point in having predictions at this stage of the year. Pick a point every week and study them.

I was an idiot last year and pretty much learnt one poet only, based on predictions. Luckily, the poet came up and I came out with a B but it easily could have gone wrong.

anna_x

Troxck wrote: »

Just learn five poets. There's no point in having predictions at this stage of the year. Pick a point every week and study them.

I was an idiot last year and pretty much learnt one poet only, based on predictions. Luckily, the poet came up and I came out with a B but it easily could have gone wrong.

I mean I do plan on learning 5 but I plan on choosing like 2 or 3 to learn in much more detail based on predictions!

Troxck

anna_x wrote: »

I mean I do plan on learning 5 but I plan on choosing like 2 or 3 to learn in much more detail based on predictions!

Why not just learn 5 in detail? Predictions are based on nothing at all, most of the time it's "I heard x off a fella who went to *insert grind school here* that blah blah blah".

Rosalind151

Plath/ Bishop/ Eliot please!

lumosteph

Dickinson or my main man Eliot would be nice!

chocolate98

yeats, if you think about 150 yrs commeration, 1916 it all slides into place ... i hope anyway

chocolate98

A97 wrote: »

Lads if you study five poets, you're guaranteed a question on the exam. It's not worth the stress of knowing that you're going into the exam unprepared, or even worse, not being able to do any of the questions.

I studied five poets and I got 49/50 on my Leaving Cert question. If you study them properly, you won't compromise your ability to answer on the others. Plus you have six months left (~180 days) to study 30-36 poems. And you'll be surprised by how much work you can get done in the weeks leading up to the exam.

how did u study your poetry?:rolleyes:

DublinArnie

A97 wrote: »

Lads if you study five poets, you're guaranteed a question on the exam. It's not worth the stress of knowing that you're going into the exam unprepared, or even worse, not being able to do any of the questions.

I studied five poets and I got 49/50 on my Leaving Cert question. If you study them properly, you won't compromise your ability to answer on the others. Plus you have six months left (~180 days) to study 30-36 poems. And you'll be surprised by how much work you can get done in the weeks leading up to the exam.

49/50! Woah, how long was your answer?

I always struggle to write a lot, and don't get full marks because I "need to write more". 4 1/2 pages would be my average for a poetry question.

Consonata

DublinArnie wrote: »

49/50! Woah, how long was your answer?

I always struggle to write a lot, and don't get full marks because I "need to write more". 4 1/2 pages would be my average for a poetry question.

Same, our teacher used to penalise for not writing more than 5 pages, but then my handwriting suffers and I just don't concentrate on what I'm writing as much when I get to that level.

Jack55

DublinArnie wrote: »

49/50! Woah, how long was your answer?

I always struggle to write a lot, and don't get full marks because I "need to write more". 4 1/2 pages would be my average for a poetry question.

4.5 pages would be an achievement in my books. I have small writing so if I hit 3.5 pages for poetry I'm happy. However, like every LC student ever, the criticism is always 'you need to write more'. Why don't they just rename LC English to 'handwriting speed contest'? I know you need to be able to write well, but quantity is favoured over quality. I've become completely disenchanted with English because of it to be honest.

nermal15

You are marked on quality over quantity by the examiners. Four poems should be discussed in detail, with relevance to the question. As an English teacher, I feel that 4 pages is plenty for the poetry question but unfortunately it's a hugely subjective subject when it comes to teaching and marking.

Jack55

nermal15 wrote: »

You are marked on quality over quantity by the examiners. Four poems should be discussed in detail, with relevance to the question. As an English teacher, I feel that 4 pages is plenty for the poetry question but unfortunately it's a hugely subjective subject when it comes to teaching and marking.

I really hope you're right. But from my own experience and from most other LC students I know, the main problem is rarely the content but the length. I'm aware some people butcher the question, but it's almost as if there's a certain 'above the average' length that needs to be reached or else you can't get into the 'top category'. Also, on the Chief Examiners Report a few years ago it said that reference should be made to 6 poems. I know you're saying 4 (I usually do 5), but that in itself shows how confused the LC English system really seems to be.

nermal15

Jack55 wrote: »

I really hope you're right. But from my own experience and from most other LC students I know, the main problem is rarely the content but the length. I'm aware some people butcher the question, but it's almost as if there's a certain 'above the average' length that needs to be reached or else you can't get into the 'top category'. Also, on the Chief Examiners Report a few years ago it said that reference should be made to 6 poems. I know you're saying 4 (I usually do 5), but that in itself shows how confused the LC English system really seems to be.

I had a look over the report there, it says that 6 poems should be studied, it does not say that they have to all be discussed in an answer. I imagine they mean that if a student was only familiar with 3 or 4 poems, they were in a worse position as they could not choose the most appropriate poems to discuss in detail. I had an in-service with an examiner who'd been correcting LC English for years and he said that trying to discuss more than 4 poems meant that the essay became watered down as the candidate wasn't able to go into enough detail about the poems. You can certainly reference the other two poems you've studied, but you won't be able to talk about them in sufficient detail.

Again, that's the issue with 'length'- what you may see as your teacher complaining about a number of pages, they are thinking about in terms of the detail of discussion. If you haven't given enough personal response and real engagement with the poem, then you're not answering the question sufficiently and it will also be short in length.

Jack55

nermal15 wrote: »

I had a look over the report there, it says that 6 poems should be studied, it does not say that they have to all be discussed in an answer. I imagine they mean that if a student was only familiar with 3 or 4 poems, they were in a worse position as they could not choose the most appropriate poems to discuss in detail. I had an in-service with an examiner who'd been correcting LC English for years and he said that trying to discuss more than 4 poems meant that the essay became watered down as the candidate wasn't able to go into enough detail about the poems. You can certainly reference the other two poems you've studied, but you won't be able to talk about them in sufficient detail.

Again, that's the issue with 'length'- what you may see as your teacher complaining about a number of pages, they are thinking about in terms of the detail of discussion. If you haven't given enough personal response and real engagement with the poem, then you're not answering the question sufficiently and it will also be short in length.

Yeah I understand that a bit better now actually thanks. I've been mostly trying that in the last few weeks - making the essays really personal & developing my points more. Here's hoping it works out in 3 weeks.