English predictions

patrickLouth1

Hi all , wondering if yous have any solid predictions for the English paper this summer.Looking at the general occurrence of questions are any more likely then others to come up

Celtron

Either Ní Chuilleanáin or Boland has to come up 100% in the poetry section, one of them has to be on it as they are the only females on our list of poets

spurious

I'm not sure there is any rule says a female poet has to come up.

randylonghorn

I'm sure there isn't.

Neither is there a rule that an Irish poet has to come up.

Normally both happen almost as a sort of tradition ... but traditions can be broken.

Celtron

Our teacher told us that they follow a rule that at least one male, one female and one Irish poet has to come up

spurious

There is no rule. The only rule about poets is that they must be on the syllabus. There may be a pattern over the years, but with all the Chief Examiners under instructions to make the LC papers less predictable, I wouldn't be putting any eggs in any baskets.

Celtron

My apologises then, I just assumed that my teacher wouldn't make that up, then again the majority of teachers at my school do not know what they are talking apart, but the teachers that do make up for it as they are fantastic teachers who will not leave a topic until everyone in the class knows it inside out and upside down

randylonghorn

In fairness, I doubt s/he would see it as making it up.

Irish people often say "that's the rule" or similar when they mean "that's what happens pretty much all the time".

What spurious and I are trying to make very clear is that there's no actual rule set down by the SEC to correspond to the above.

Yes, it has been the pattern ... but patterns can change without notice.

If it was an actual rule, they would have to give notice before they changed it.

thereisacar

This is all very heavily based on assumptions but for poetry, assuming that Ní Chuileanáin was to come up this year, would mainly focusing on Plath (as well as 4 other poets) be a good bet as Bishop came up the years before?

I am fully aware I'm basing this on trends which I shouldn't be that:
A) a woman will come up
and
Ní Chuileanáin will come up this year

Do you think this is a safe potential bet to mainly study for?