Irish Oral

Aileen123

I've come to the conclusion today that I am absoloutly screwed for my oral and i have no idea what to learn! i think il be able to cope with me fein mo scoil etc but what other topics should i have prepared?(I'm doing higher level)

nommm

New government? Problems in your area, what would you do if you were Taoiseach/ Prinicipal/Won the lotto, are you interested in the news, politicians, tsunami, what you want to do when your finished your degree and why

They can ask you anything.

The Shtig

Yeah they can ask you anything but if you're not confident in the exam they might not ask you about those topics of 'if you won the lotto..' or about the recession etc. (well I hope so anyway!).

Definately learn the basics about yourself and your family, talking about your school, past times, favourite book or film, what you want to do after the leaving cert.

Our French teacher recommend we bring in a photo of something e.g. you on holidays or a pet. If you do then the examiner nearly has to ask you about it and you could have a lot of points prepared for it. It will help eat away at those 15 minutes.

wayhey

The Shtig wrote: »

Yeah they can ask you anything but if you're not confident in the exam they might not ask you about those topics of 'if you won the lotto..' or about the recession etc. (well I hope so anyway!).

Definately learn the basics about yourself and your family, talking about your school, past times, favourite book or film, what you want to do after the leaving cert.

Our French teacher recommend we bring in a photo of something e.g. you on holidays or a pet. If you do then the examiner nearly has to ask you about it and you could have a lot of points prepared for it. It will help eat away at those 15 minutes.

I don't think that you can bring in a photo for the Irish oral!!

Your sliocht is worth 30 marks. Poetry is like 30m and An Triail is like 35m (or vice versa). So make sure you absolutely own your sliocht. It'll show the examiner you've tried and give you some confidence for the start of the exam.

Maybe others can vouch for this but we've alway been told keep talking. Obviously if you want a high grade the grammar is important but just try and get as much Irish as you can out now. Time is tight so I'd say we're all on damage limitation at this stage. That's learning off new vocabulary, not reams of sheets and learning some get out of jail phrases.

Stay calm and confident. It genuinely flies by and there's still a lot of time to study for it.

The Shtig

wayhey wrote: »

I don't think that you can bring in a photo for the Irish oral!!

Oh I just presumed you could as you can with French, my bad!

pathway33

I learnt this today.

Is próiseas deacair agus trámach = It is a difficult and traumatic process.

I think that's right. I like it. Sounds impressive and is easy to learn

J_E

Done a few practice orals, getting a feel for it.

Make sure you know your basics. You'd be surprised how lost you are for words after learning your phrases on tsunamis and governments, trying to talk about your family or school!
Also, I'd throw in the odd phrase, but I'm not going to shower the examiner with them because I think it will just make it look like I learned a bunch off a book. I just speak naturally, like I'd say something in English. Apparently they love the modh coinniollach, you'll probably get your chance to show that off when they ask you a "What would you do if..." question. I'm feeling pretty ready for it now on Monday, just want to get it over with

Also guys, check out your CDs or on Youtube, and make sure to hear how the Sliochts are read! They're looking that you actually understand what you're reading, so make sure to express the words accordingly.

pathway33

How do I say 'I don't have a girlfriend'

mulner92

Nil (girlfriend) agam i think. Sorry don't know irish for girlfriend.

Repeat2011

pathway33 wrote: »

How do I say 'I don't have a girlfriend'

Níl cailín cara agam- I have no girlfriend

Patriciamc93

a tip for everyone....... now what you like doing!
As far as i can tell so far its is much more of a conversation for the Irish oral this year...... for pass if you bring something up you have to know how to talk about it...........................

spurious

They had the orals in our place today.
Common topics discussed were the snow and facebook.

lmwell

I have my Irish oral on Wednesday, and I genuinely believe its all about how YOU lead the conversation.

The examiner will probably start by asking about family, past times, area, but after that it will be based on what you have told him. For example, I plan to speak about my musical past times. I'll dangle the last bit of my answer by saying 'oh i love to watch tv, also'. To which I expect (hope) the examiner will ask 'cen sort'.
Just keep talking until interrupted, most of the marks go for your stor focail and flow of conversation. So if you are asked about the tsunami, for example, youre not expected to know the ins and outs of it . I would plan to say something like 'Oh yes its terrible, even with all going on in Ireland , we're lucky with where we're situated in the world. We dont have the likes of that... The main problem we have here is the recession at the moment'.. Hopefully then leading on to something about recession (which I have prepared).

jumpguy

spurious wrote: »

They had the orals in our place today.
Common topics discussed were the snow and facebook.

Sweet mother of god...

I'm hoping if I manage to get the sliocht alright, myself, my family, my homeplace, my school, plans for the future, passtimes, what I did last summer and last weekend all down, I should have it easily passed... If I get a question on Facebook though I'll have my best blank stare ready.

(I'm doing pass :P)

nommm

So apparently the examiner in our school is really awkward. Playing with her hair and staring out the window when people are talking to her. A few people have said its quite distracting.

Do you lose many marks if you don't make eye contact with the examiner because I don't want to be looking at her all the time if shea going to be distracting me.

Eoin MurMur

I had mine today. It was good. The examiner was really nice and passed encouraging little comments throughout. I got asked about my family to pass times to the school, subjects, problems in the school from which I led onto a part time job in a computer shop, what I plan to do this summer and what I did last summer. At the end then I was thrown off by a question on politics as everyone who went before had evaded the "current affairs" type thing. I knew it but I was taken aback when asked about the government out of the blue and had to fumble around with "ums and aaaahs" before settling on talking about unemployment and immigration. But by that point I was a bit panicky and ****ed that bit up a bit.

Throughout, I tried to keep the conversation as natural as possible which proved quite easy as the examiner was very friendly but I feel that it sort of caused my to leave out little key points that could have been useful and felt, through my nervousness, forgot some things that I learned which would have been very useful.

Moral of the story? Don't assume that just because no one before you has been asked a certain question that you won't be either and try to be as calm as possible going in there and don't start freaking out if you forget a word wrong.

Also, does anyone know the marking scheme or generally what they like in the exam? I know it's a bit late to be asking but I'd like to be able to look back on it and try and spot places where I gained or lost marks.

IfUSeekAmy

Had mine today.
3rd last. It was awful. Waiting around till 3pm with no classes all day.
I'm practically fluent in irish, so it was fine. SO nervous though.
Examiner wasn't the nicest.
It was in NO WAY a conversation. Quickfire fastmoving & completely random questions and answers.

First question: passtimes: Music blah blah blah : Concert....
Where was the concert?
Where exactly is the O2?
Tell me about the O2?
then
Have you any pets?

very happy overall. bit more taxing than I expected.
deep breaths.
y'all will be fine.

StrawDub

Had mine today as a mature student, its went well

Got asked the obvious stuff, like way I was doing Irish again what I thought of the course etc.

Just so glad its out of the way now

citizen_p

Ordinary Level. this is what I got, but most people got diffrent, just remember to lead the conversation a bit and know a few points for a couple of things. I rambled on with history, music, family and football for ages, i just skimmed the rest example:money for concert ticket leading to work

• how are you (Nervous)
• age
• your household (brothers/sistrers....jobs, living, oldest youngest etc....pets)
• Area (buildings etc....)
  • talking about one of the statley owned homes nearby for awhile
• hobbies,
  • talked about GAA, films, music, concerts and bands
  • examiner liked pink floyd and thin lizzy too :pac:
  • concerts
  • specific concert, oxegen, talked about it, price of tickets, where i got the money,
• working
  • pay per week
  • what job involves
  • which bit you like most
• subjects
  • favourite, why? (history, and i got a history/irish teacher examiner )
  • qustion about characters from history i like,
  • qustion about micheal collins
  • what he did
  • where he died
  • read books on history?
  • what do you want to do after school
• tv programmes
  • type, and favourite
• football, club, school teams is the club doing well.

i didnt understand two qustions, but I did well on the rest. my plan of getting to examiner (a man) laughing worked well and he was a nice lad.
Made alot of grammer mistakes one being me saying "I bought choclates for YOUR mother for mothers day....."

missgroovy21

my tip is dress for the part:

If you look stylish they may think oh shes into fashion then they will talk to you about fashion

wear say a bon jovi t shirt or whatever band you like then they will comment on that...the more you know the less time they'll have to ask ya something else

the photo thing works just make sure if theres anything in the backround of your photo that you can mention something about it...just in case

pathway33

missgroovy21 wrote: »

the photo thing works

Is that in french?

EDIT: Oh you mean the photo on your t-shirt. I see now

ruadhan

Had mine today! The examiner was the nicest examiner ever. Everyone loved her and it felt like I was just having a nice conversation with her. Yeah and I was talking about Facebook as well and japan and all the usual stuff as well. I'm so happy cos I usually do so badly in orals but she made everything so easy and I think i did really well

Aileen123

Just did mine today all that worrying for nothing! Got nothing but clann mo cheantar mo scoil mo caitheamh aimsire ceol and ollscoil! no modh choinniolach or anything sorta worried since im doing honours did she think i wasnt up to talking about the more complicated things

Bonkers_xOx

It's killing me not knowing what mark I got!

Fireball07

Had mine today. It was grand, really. Maybe left out a couple of things I could have and I stalled once but I hope it's not enough to bring me down from an A1 in it. I got 88% in the mock oral and unless that was marked easily....I think I did much better.

The examiner was okay, he was nice enough, but he was slightly distracting....he didn't make eye contact and was playing with his pen and looking down at the sheet with the names all the time.

No hard topics really, the future of Irish was as tough as it got and I was expecting that because I mentioned the Gaeltacht. He didn't ask anyone any Modh Coiniolloch questions over the 2 days and generally stuck to fairly handy topics.


I'm happy, bar a major shock I got around 140. Now just need to get an equally good written paper.



It does go very quick and as long as you remain calm, it should be grand. From being in school from the age of 4, there is a certain amount of Irish embedded in most people. If you relax and think in a calm manner, you'd be surprised how much you can say.

lmwell

Had mine today and it went brilliant, im so happy!!

I got sliocht 3, which was my least favourite, but I read it perfectly!

Then..

Inis dom fein - Told her my age, that I was living here in this town, and about my family. Finished by saying that I was living in England last year but am back home now. This lead to:

Cen fath go raibh tu i Sasana? - I spoke about there not being jobs here, and I got a job in Brighton. She then asked if I liked England. I said it was hard to get to know people (bhi se deacair aithne a chur ar dhaoine, ar dtus) but I have a lot of friends there now.

Past times - spoke about music.

Aon caithimh aimsire eile? - I just repeated that I love music, ag eisteacht agus ag seinm. Agus is maith liom ag feachaint ar an teilifis.

Cen sort clair? - I said clar faisneise (documentaries). Then mentioned that I watched 'Embarrassing bodies' last night. And said a small bit about the show, and how it is set in a doctors office! Was quite funny.

Cad a rinne tu tar eis an Ardteist - Told her I went to college, studied computers. She asked what college. I told her, and we spoke briefly about that.

Cen fath go bhfuil tu ag deanamh an Ghaeilge aris? - told her I wanted to be a muinteoir bunscoile, and she asked why? One of the reasons I gave was that I had type of experience, and she asked what type. I said I worked 1 day a week in a playschool.

She didnt ask anything in the MC. There was a great flow to the conversation and AC, AL and AF were covered. I'm really confident I did well. At least a B, I reckon.