Irish

milkyway

Help im doing honours irish for my l.c and I have a totally useless teacher/he spends most of our classes talking about history. I have a lot of questions that need answering.Please help note that I am aiming for a B1 or A(i got an A in my J.C)
1. How long is the"a thig na tit orm" answer supposed to be and is it necessary to learn all the chapters?
2.if anyone uses Fiuntas 2 are these notes ok to use?
3.Is it necessary to learn all the filiochta roghana as well as all the higher level filiochta
3.Is it necessary to learn all the stories gealt,lig sin i gcathu etc
4.Is it ok to learn essays off by heart or will I be marked down for doing so/ these are A grade essays my own essays i write are only B1

PurpleFistMixer

My teacher thinks very badly of the notes in Fiuntas 2. Especially in the stair section.. actually, just most of it really.

Corruptedmorals

My teacher loves the Fiuntas notes. But she's crap too. I'm trying to identify a pattern with the poems that come up, in order to not learn some, particularly the Higher Level ones, they suck. I don't know about the thig na tit orm, I'm doing An Triail, but no, I would say to learn off main themes, characters and storyline etc. Gealt is a poem. I really hope lig sinn and fiche bliain don't come up, they're the worst things ever. Don't take entire essays to learn, take key phrases and really good sentences from them, but not the whole thing.

Rozabeez

Corruptedmorals wrote:

My teacher loves the Fiuntas notes. But she's crap too. I'm trying to identify a pattern with the poems that come up, in order to not learn some, particularly the Higher Level ones, they suck. I don't know about the thig na tit orm, I'm doing An Triail, but no, I would say to learn off main themes, characters and storyline etc. Gealt is a poem. I really hope lig sinn and fiche bliain don't come up, they're the worst things ever. Don't take entire essays to learn, take key phrases and really good sentences from them, but not the whole thing.

The woman is a tool. Nobody can understand how she pronounces her words. and yeah, she hardly ever gives her own notes. grrr

Bring back the Lanigan!

PurpleFistMixer

I think Fiche Blian ag Fás is great! It's just... simple.

Rozabeez

Yeah I like that one, and I like Cearbhach McCaba.

Crania

I can't stand Fiche Blain ag Fás, it's stupid, nothing happens, and the dialect is hard to understand, arghhh i hated that story. Cearrbhach Mac Caba on the other hand was the opposite, I quite enjoyed that one(as much as you can enjoy an old Irish story!). I thought that one was nice and simple.

As for the poems, I quite enjoyed Gealt, Nil Aon Ní and Jack. But I absolutely hated Bímse Buan ar Buairt Gach Ló, I thought that poem was badly written, hard to undertand and just....crap!

And our teacher is so bad he doenst even know if the notes are good or bad, he's so crap, lol! All he says is ''Ok, sin alrite?'' Argh it drives me mad!

smemon

milkyway wrote:

I have a lot of questions that need answering.

have a look at my site in my sig.

might not get you an a1, but will answer a few questions i'm sure

philologos

Rozabeez wrote:

Yeah I like that one, and I like Cearbhach McCaba.

I like An Cearrbhach McCaba but I don't like Fiche Bhliain ag Fás for some reason

jaydigity

milkyway wrote:

Help im doing honours irish for my l.c and I have a totally useless teacher/he spends most of our classes talking about history. I have a lot of questions that need answering.Please help note that I am aiming for a B1 or A(i got an A in my J.C)
1. How long is the"a thig na tit orm" answer supposed to be and is it necessary to learn all the chapters?
2.if anyone uses Fiuntas 2 are these notes ok to use?
3.Is it necessary to learn all the filiochta roghana as well as all the higher level filiochta
3.Is it necessary to learn all the stories gealt,lig sin i gcathu etc
4.Is it ok to learn essays off by heart or will I be marked down for doing so/ these are A grade essays my own essays i write are only B1

I sympathise with you!

1.It should be 3 a4 pages I think. We're doing Peig so I can't really nswer that question
2. We're using Fiúntas, nd we do learn the notes from it, personally I think a lot of them are too repetitive and vague, but in parts are good, so maybe you could look around for other notes, but if push comes to shove I'd say, yeah, use those notes
3.Yep, you'll need to learn them, you can always try to cut back on learnin by looking for patterns in papers etc.
4. No, I think you aren't penalised for this, we're all lerning essays


I think you'd be well served by getting the eam papers and becoming familiar with their layout etc. Maybe shop around aswell for good revision books etc

Juicebox

I despise my irish teacher,shes horrificaly bad.funny you asked because today she was handing back a question on a tig na thit orm,40 marks and she expected it to be four pages...yet an essay which is a lot more marks to be 2 pages?? she gives us a history lesson in every class and talks about how we cant call travellers tinkers anymore because its not correct and if u passed a comment to someone youd be accused of bullying.She also spends a lot ot time trying to convert us to fine gael.she spends more time talking about how fast we need to read the book than actually reading it. i went to irish college this year and my oh my did i get a shock and saw what real irish was.....also ive never been thought grammer so what i write is basically how i think it should sound when i speak it...when i ask her to explain something she goes insane and tells us were a disgrace to north clare,,,becuase were all able to fluently speak irish u know soo im in the ****s basically too

JC 2K3

milkyway wrote:

Help im doing honours irish for my l.c and I have a totally useless teacher/he spends most of our classes talking about history. I have a lot of questions that need answering.Please help note that I am aiming for a B1 or A(i got an A in my J.C)
1. How long is the"a thig na tit orm" answer supposed to be and is it necessary to learn all the chapters?
2.if anyone uses Fiuntas 2 are these notes ok to use?
3.Is it necessary to learn all the filiochta roghana as well as all the higher level filiochta
3.Is it necessary to learn all the stories gealt,lig sin i gcathu etc
4.Is it ok to learn essays off by heart or will I be marked down for doing so/ these are A grade essays my own essays i write are only B1

1. 3/4 pages right? We're doing Scothscéalta, but it's the same for all prós roghnach AFAIK. Necessary to learn all the chapters? Learn enough to give a decent answer, you should know youurself.
2. My teacher doesn't use them really, but reading them myself they don't seem too bad.
3. Yes. But considering the poems are printed on the paper and the gnáthlebhéal poems are piss easy, I'd dedicate a LOT more time to ardleibhéal poetry.
4. I wouldn't recommend it. It's very risky. If your whole class learn the same essays off the correcter with your school's papers is gonna notice if a few essays are practically the same.

Corruptedmorals

Jayzus, Peig? I thought that was taken off the course ages ago! It's meant to be soul-destroying. o_0

curtains

milkyway wrote:

Help im doing honours irish for my l.c and I have a totally useless teacher/he spends most of our classes talking about history. I have a lot of questions that need answering.Please help note that I am aiming for a B1 or A(i got an A in my J.C)
1. How long is the"a thig na tit orm" answer supposed to be and is it necessary to learn all the chapters?
2.if anyone uses Fiuntas 2 are these notes ok to use?
3.Is it necessary to learn all the filiochta roghana as well as all the higher level filiochta
3.Is it necessary to learn all the stories gealt,lig sin i gcathu etc
4.Is it ok to learn essays off by heart or will I be marked down for doing so/ these are A grade essays my own essays i write are only B1

I did the lc last year, so here's my two cents...

1. However much you can write at full speed, in whatever amount of time you have (it's around half an hour/40 mins, right?). That goes for all questions. And however small you may think that is now, you will write more on the day.

2. Yeah, pretty much all fine, poetry very good. w/ the exception of Clare sa Spéir, they're grand, but a poor summary of the story, suggest getting a lend of someone's pass level Fiúntas, its got very good notes for that. Stair na G is grand, facts are facts and no examiner can dispute that. There might be a wee bit of padding in some of the filíocht sections but just stay clear and concise and if something's hard to remember - put it in your own words.

3. Do you mean the pass level ones? Yes, especially pass level ones, there's only 5. As for filíochta roghanna, you'd get away w/ leavin out one, but I wouldn't advise more than that.

4. Yes.

5. Find a middle ground. Take your own ones that you got a B1 in, and find out from your teacher how to make them A1, then learn a few off. But have lots of vocab and be adaptable on the day, you'll never get exactly the right title.

Rozabeez

....and don't forget to kick ass in your oral and aural exams

XchampagneX

milkyway wrote:

Help im doing honours irish for my l.c and I have a totally useless teacher/he spends most of our classes talking about history. I have a lot of questions that need answering.Please help note that I am aiming for a B1 or A(i got an A in my J.C)
1. How long is the"a thig na tit orm" answer supposed to be and is it necessary to learn all the chapters?
2.if anyone uses Fiuntas 2 are these notes ok to use?
3.Is it necessary to learn all the filiochta roghana as well as all the higher level filiochta
3.Is it necessary to learn all the stories gealt,lig sin i gcathu etc
4.Is it ok to learn essays off by heart or will I be marked down for doing so/ these are A grade essays my own essays i write are only B1

I did my leaving last year too and i got an A2

1) I did an triail, but i think 2 A4 pages minimum is what you should be doing. I usually wrote 4 or 5 but it all depends on what your standard of Irish is like

2) The notes for the poetry are ok to use, but try and find some articles out of Foinse and other irish mags to use also! I'd recommend the Stair notes from Diogras.

3)You need to learn all the pass poetry as there's a compulsory question. You can get away with leaving out one poem in the higher level section because you only have to choose one out of two, but if you leave any more out you're risking it

4) You have to learn all the pros because again there's one question that you have to do, and then you have a choice between stories! There's only 5 and they're easy enough

5) Ask your teacher where you're going wrong in your essays. All of my class last year learnt off the same essays and none of them got an A, I wrote my own and found out where I was going wrong in grammar, vocab, content etc and got full marks for my essay! It's much better if you show the examiner you have a particular writing style because he/she will be able to see that all the way through your paper

balzarywex

milkyway wrote:

Help im doing honours irish for my l.c and I have a totally useless teacher/he spends most of our classes talking about history. I have a lot of questions that need answering.Please help note that I am aiming for a B1 or A(i got an A in my J.C)
1. How long is the"a thig na tit orm" answer supposed to be and is it necessary to learn all the chapters?
2.if anyone uses Fiuntas 2 are these notes ok to use?
3.Is it necessary to learn all the filiochta roghana as well as all the higher level filiochta
3.Is it necessary to learn all the stories gealt,lig sin i gcathu etc
4.Is it ok to learn essays off by heart or will I be marked down for doing so/ these are A grade essays my own essays i write are only B1

Did the lc last year and got an A1 so here's my views:

1. Quality over length anyday. Generally 4 well developed points with an intro and conclusion, however long it takes. General concencus is 2 page minimum though.

2. We used fiuntas 2. As regards poetry and pros, the notes are a bit long-winded so get the main points and give your own opinions on them. Stair na Gaeilge is terrible though, just big paragraphs of notes. All they're looking for in the exam is 3 main points so pick these points out of the paragraph, write them out and forget about the rest.

3. I wouldnt advise leaving out stories because , depending on the day, you could be badly caught out. Just have the key idea of the stories, themes, emotions, characters and a bit about the style of writing (for clare sa speir you might need something about the camera techniques and stuff). Remember always give your own opinions and DO NOT just tell the story! Same for poems - background, emotions, techniques, themes, meter. You could leave out one at most of the hl poems but i wouldnt advise it.

4. Everyone learns paragraphs on topics off by heart but dont learn whole essays. The questions are becoming more and more specific so you have to adapt the essay to the title and keep referring to it over and over again. Always throw in an old seanfhocail too - they seem to like it!

Also, about the 'looking for patterns' comment, DONT DO IT. Everyone in my year was caught out by the higher level poems that were put up, having concentrated on 3 or 4 in particular!!! The course is too young to find patterns in, with only one year as an example, so just bear with it and ye'll do fine! Good luck!