How did you improve your grade in Higher level Irish (Leaving cert)

KiaraA

I'm not the best at Irish due to the fact that I didn't take it very seriously but I'm about to start 5th year soon and I'm determined to change that.

I started off with very low grades and I got a C in the junior cert and I'm aiming for above 80% in the leaving cert.

-How did you Improve your grammar
-What was your study schedule/How often and how long you studied
-How bad were you at Irish before your final grade
-What was your final grade
-Will it be difficult to find time to study other subjects considering I need above 80% in 5 other subjects.

Bazinga_N

KiaraA wrote: »

I'm not the best at Irish due to the fact that I didn't take it very seriously but I'm about to start 5th year soon and I'm determined to change that.

I started off with very low grades and I got a C in the junior cert and I'm aiming for above 80% in the leaving cert.

-How did you Improve your grammar
-What was your study schedule/How often and how long you studied
-How bad were you at Irish before your final grade
-What was your final grade
-Will it be difficult to find time to study other subjects considering I need above 80% in 5 other subjects.

Just to clarify a C is not a low grade in the Junior Cert. It might be average but it's certainly not low. Unfortunately for the Leaving Cert, it's less about being good at the Irish language and more so being good at sitting the exam.

40% of your Leaving Cert Irish goes for the oral. From day one of 5th year, get yourself a new copy and dedicate it to just oral. Write out answers for EVERYTHING and practice saying them all the time. Learn your sraith pictuirs as best as you can as soon as you get them. Listen to Radio na Gaeltachta and TG4 to hear how things are pronounced and to develop an ear. The programmes may not be the most interesting for your age group but it'll honestly help your language skills. If you want to get a good Irish grade, it's absolutely essential that you do a good oral.

10% of the grade is for the Listening. So practice these as possible as often. They get easier and easier with time.

The best thing to do with grammar is to get yourself a grammar book. I always found Graiméar Meánscoile from CJ Fallon to be quite good but different people/teachers prefer different books. Either way, go through the book page by page and make your own personal notes on every topic. List the main rules for conjugating the 4 main tenses (Past, Present, Future and Conditional), list all the conjugations for the 11 irregular verbs and list the rules for the TG, along with other small grammar bits like An Chopail and that. Constantly revise over your notes to make sure that you remember them.

Your essay is worth 16.67% of the grade so make sure to do well on every essay/debate/story your teacher gives you. Hand everything up to be corrected and make sure to take note of any corrections and comments your teacher gives you. Some people learn off their essays for the exam. This can be a good tactic if your Irish is poor but it's risky. If you learn off 10 essays but none of them come up on the day you could really end up suffering.

The reading comprehensions are worth another 16.67% and they're honestly quite easy. Like the listening it's just practice, practice, practice. Look up any word you come across that you're unfamiliar with. Make a note of it and learn it so that you'll remember it in the future.

The last 16.67% is for the poetry, poems and extra literature. Lots of people spend the most time of the their studying on these sections but that's insane! The reading comprehensions are worth the same amount as the poetry, poems and extra literature together! Just learn these as you do them in class. Study for class tests but there's no need to go over the top with the study of these.

Irish for the Leaving Cert is honestly one of the nicest courses. It's not too demanding and the layout of the marks is very fair. Don't stress too much about it!

Go n-éirí leat!

randylonghorn

Switching some of your tv time to TnaG can be a great help esp. for the oral.

Become a Ros na Rún fan ... Emmerdale tri Ghaeilge, what more could you want! :pac:

KiaraA wrote: »

-How did you Improve your grammar

The thread linked here might prove useful for grammar / vocab.

carefulnowted

You MUST know your verbs and your grammar by the end of sixth year. For fifth year (assuming you haven't already done this) you need to master your verbs - irregular, briathar saor, modh coinniollach and so on. In sixth year then you can focus on the niggly, nuanced stuff - the uru, the seimhiu, tuiseal ginideach, masculine/feminine nouns etc.

You need to be doing an essay every 2 weeks at the very least. Try to cover the popular topics for the year, which your teacher will probably advise you about anyway. 80% of the marks here are going towards your Irish fluency and your turns of phrase - these are essential. You cannot sit down and learn these off by heart; instead, type them up with their translations on a sheet and have that sheet in front of you while you do every essay. You'll learn them in no time.

Please, please, please, learn your sraith pictiuir as you go. Don't leave them all until February of sixth year, it'll be far too stressful. What I used to do when learning them was to practise reading out the full story and then write the key words/phrases from each picture onto a sheet. That way, instead of trying to remember a big paragraph for picture 3, you have, say, 5 pieces of excellent topical Irish that you should work into that picture.

Regarding poems and stories: for the poems, know the imagery and everything that goes along with that (metaphor, colours, atmosphere, contradiction). Also know the meter of the poem and its meaning/the comment it makes on society. For the story, know the plot and the characters very well and you'll be fine.

Good resources that I used during LC Irish:
potafocal.com (good for double checking seimhiu/uru use)
tearma.ie
focloir.ie (excellent for learning turns of phrase)

Ende

KiaraA wrote: »

I'm not the best at Irish due to the fact that I didn't take it very seriously but I'm about to start 5th year soon and I'm determined to change that.

I started off with very low grades and I got a C in the junior cert and I'm aiming for above 80% in the leaving cert.

-How did you Improve your grammar
-What was your study schedule/How often and how long you studied
-How bad were you at Irish before your final grade
-What was your final grade
-Will it be difficult to find time to study other subjects considering I need above 80% in 5 other subjects.

Hi "KiaraA",
You have received some great advice above, and if you follow that you should have no problem.
I also got a C in the JC, and up until the start of 5th year it was undoubtedly my worst subject, but I ended up getting an A1 in the leaving cert.
I did a lot of work for my oral, really knew the sraith and all my comhra, and I found I learnt so much new vocab from this, which drastically improved my grade.
After the Orals, which were my focus instead of the mocks, I think too many people stress out about the Pros and poems, and while it is important to work hard on this aspect of the course, the listening, comprehensions and essay are worth a lot more marks, and all improve gradually with practice.
I used to learn off seanfhocail from the sraith for my essay and this really worked well for me, and also learnt vocab relating to certain topics rather than learning whole essays off. I had learnt off an opening, alt 1 and closing paragraph for essays, speeches and debates, which is nice to have, to help you ease into writing the essay, especially with exam nerves. Now if you prefer learning off whole essays, feel free, but because predicted topics for the essay section sometimes come up in the comprehensions, knowing the vocab is very handy..
I do think a strong grounding in grammar and having a rich vocabulary really goes a long way to getting your grade, and is something you can build upon as the year goes on. If you can really nail the oral, you have a lot more wriggle room, and it also gives a lot of confidence for the exam, knowing you could potentially have 40% in the bag.
I'm sorry for my rather long response but I hope this helps you in some way, and if you have any other questions feel free to message me
Ende