Which requires more effort and time - HL English or Irish?

DarkDusk

Hi,
I am considering dropping down to pass in either English or Irish. I'm currently doing all honours and will keep on HL maths because I'm good at it and for the extra points. I'm reasonably good in both English and Irish, but I want to know which one would take up more time during 5th year and leaving cert. I'm looking for people in LC or people who completed LC who did both at HL for recommendations.;)

Thanks a mil in advance,
James.

Random_Person

I'm in 6th year right now and do Higher Level English and Irish. I personally find English to be much more time consuming as it takes so much constant work to improve different elements of your english. Syntax, Language, Structure of different essays etc. My teacher at the moment well, she isn't very good, we get extremely light homework.. but other classes get 1/2 essays each week which in my opinion is what is needed to improve English. HL English is not an easy workload, there is a lot to it.

Irish, while still requiring a lot of work, I find easier. I'm not sure why, it may be the teacher, but I seem to be able to absorb it better. Also, there's a brand new Irish Course from this year onwards and it is 10 times easier than the old course, I was so happy when I first saw it. :pac:

So if I were you and I was definitely going to drop a subject to OL, I'd drop English.

augmented reality

I did both HL last year, got an A2 in English and a B3 in Irish.
Tbh, I always found English much easier to do well in and was kinda disappointed not to get an A1....
I always found Irish difficult as I found it hard to improve(got a b3 in the mocks), English is much easier to improve with practice, well that's what I think anyway:)

If I was in your position, and had to drop one, I'd drop the Irish, it's much harder to do well in than English, and honours English will be much more useful to you than honours Irish, especially for essays and reports etc..

Hope this was of some help, good luck with the lc


Sorry!
Just remembered there's a new irish course.... Maybe it's easier than the course I'd to cover

DarkDusk

Random_Person wrote: »

I'm in 6th year right now and do Higher Level English and Irish. I personally find English to be much more time consuming as it takes so much constant work to improve different elements of your english. Syntax, Language, Structure of different essays etc. My teacher at the moment well, she isn't very good, we get extremely light homework.. but other classes get 1/2 essays each week which in my opinion is what is needed to improve English. HL English is not an easy workload, there is a lot to it.

Irish, while still requiring a lot of work, I find easier. I'm not sure why, it may be the teacher, but I seem to be able to absorb it better. Also, there's a brand new Irish Course from this year onwards and it is 10 times easier than the old course, I was so happy when I first saw it. :pac:

So if I were you and I was definitely going to drop a subject to OL, I'd drop English.

Thanks for the great info. I was thinking the same thing. I'm in the highest honours English class yet we get less homework than the lower class.. They got a 5 A4 essay for tonight alone which is a load. I could never see a Irish teacher giving anywhere near that much tbh.

Random_Person

DarkDusk wrote: »

Thanks for the great info. I was thinking the same thing. I'm in the highest honours English class yet we get less homework than the lower class.. They got a 5 A4 essay for tonight alone which is a load. I could never see a Irish teacher giving anywhere near that much tbh.

To be honest, the longest Irish essay we've done is roughly 2 A4 pages and our teacher says as long as it's quality work, it will be more than enough.

We spend time on each essay subject, plus everything starts to relate to each other so you can incorparate different elements of the course into your essays. I've started revising last year's essay subjects and it's already starting to come back to me. We have a good bit to do this year but I think we'll be grand.

d: uǝǝs ǝʌ,ı ǝʇısqǝʍ ɐ ɹoɟ sɐǝpı ɯopuɐɹ ʇsoɯ ǝɥʇ ɟo ǝuo sı ǝʇıs ɹnoʎ 'ʎɐʍ ǝɥʇ ʎq

DarkDusk

Random_Person wrote: »

d: uǝǝs ǝʌ,ı ǝʇısqǝʍ ɐ ɹoɟ sɐǝpı ɯopuɐɹ ʇsoɯ ǝɥʇ ɟo ǝuo sı ǝʇıs ɹnoʎ 'ʎɐʍ ǝɥʇ ʎq

Haha, thanks!:p:D

siobhanod93

I'm in 6th year, doing both Higher Level Irish and English. English us so much more time consuming! Every week we get some sort of essay to do which takes up a lot of time! Irish is a good subject if you're good at it... from 2012 onward the oral is 40%, so if you spend time at that and tape work, over half of it is done already! Also, the Irish exam is more or less wrong or right from an examiner's point of view, whereas English is very biased.... I would drop to Ordinary English to be honest...

implausible

I would argue that Irish takes more time and effort as the difference between HL and OL is substantial. The difference is a lot less between HL and OL English - you have to do the same preparation for Paper I and it's only in Paper II that there is a substantial difference, as doing OL would allow you to drop one of your texts (a waste if you've already covered them) and avoid doing poetry essays (again, a waste if you already have them done).

It is very little difference between a D/C at HL and an A at OL.

DarkDusk

Thanks for the info guys. If I decide to drop down in one of them, I think it will be Irish. In class today I was completely lost most of the time and the teacher goes so fast because we're in the highest class. Also, the English pass teacher is one of the worst in the school. He reads the paper during class and roles cigarettes before leaving during class for a smoke.. The pass Irish teacher was the one I had last year and she was brilliant, and I loved her teaching technique. I'll probably leave it for a few weeks or so first though and see..:cool:

AnneElizabeth

Got the same grade in both (B1) but with a huge effort in Irish and little in English. Irish is so time consuming, you'd want to be fluent in it to enjoy it in any way.

Random_Person

DarkDusk wrote: »

Thanks for the info guys. If I decide to drop down in one of them, I think it will be Irish. In class today I was completely lost most of the time and the teacher goes so fast because we're in the highest class. Also, the English pass teacher is one of the worst in the school. He reads the paper during class and roles cigarettes before leaving during class for a smoke.. The pass Irish teacher was the one I had last year and she was brilliant, and I loved her teaching technique. I'll probably leave it for a few weeks or so first though and see..:cool:

I'm not sure if your English teacher seems like an idiot or a legend..

partyatmygaff

Irish by far. It's extremely time consuming and soul destroying if you aren't particularly good at the grammar and/or dislike the language.

At least you'll be learning something appreciable in English whereas in Irish the most useful thing you'll learn is how to discuss the imagery used in rarely read poems.

Sunny!!

the old irish course:eek: horror, english any day way less work

But the new course? Oral worth 40%, less poetry?

I'd keep irish up tbh

DarkDusk

Random_Person wrote: »

I'm not sure if your English teacher seems like an idiot or a legend..

Trust me, he's and idiot. He didn't even give exam papers to his junior cert class last year! So much for preparing for the exams!

Random_Person

DarkDusk wrote: »

Trust me, he's and idiot. He didn't even give exam papers to his junior cert class last year! So much for preparing for the exams!

Okay I take it back, he's an idiot.. :rolleyes:

13spanner

In my opinion, Irish is more hard work. But it depends on your own preference and ability, and the teacher. Sorry my answer is so vague

sdiff

Do you like thinking for yourself? If so English would be easier for you.
Do you like learning off words that you don't understand and then writing them down on paper? Then Irish is for you.

wayhey

It depends where your strengths lie. I think that it's a lot easier to do well in English because your vocabulary (should anyway!) already be very good and once you've a vague idea, you can usually bluff your way out of something.
The workload in English is large, no doubt, between poetry, Shakespeare and Comparative alone. But I think with regular reading of notes and keeping on top of answers you can pretty much secure a high grade.

Irish is another story altogether. I know that the course has changed, but in the 2010 Leaving I was absolutely crushed when I couldn't understand questions on our play, which I knew inside out and better than anything else on the course (2 marks from a perfect answer in the mocks!) There is also a huge element of luck in comprehensions that you will have studied suitable vocabulary. If you're a confident, friendly person though having that oral Irish before you go into the exam hall is a nice boost (and it is completely possible to get an A1 in the oral with sufficient practice!) It's just that the previous course's written papers had a cruel reputation.

I'd just say to you don't worry too much about Irish if you're lost now.. my standard in Irish absolutely rocketed in a few months with a good teacher. One that speaks Irish all the time in class actually pulls you up so much! But I have to say, both times around I did the Leaving, I was disappointed with the return Irish offered compared to the time I put into it studying, compared to English anyway (though to get the A I put HOURS on Saturdays into Hamlet and Paper 2)

Coeurdepirate

Oh god, drop honours Irish. It's eating away at my life bit by bit.

wayhey

Oh I forgot, make sure that you don't need one or the other for any course you want to do! For example you need (I think..) a C3 in Honours Irish to study Primary School Education. Just a heads up in case you don't want to rule it out, I know a few people going the long way, struggling through tough Irish exams via an Arts degree to make it...

EDIT: I'd also throw in that if you're a 5th Year student, try to keep up Honours Irish, even if you don't devote a lot of time to studying it. The harder Irish will make Ordinary Irish much easier and if you dropped at the start of 6th Year you still have time to get used to the paper's differences (at least, that's how it was in the old course). It keeps challenging and improving your standard, unless the HL teacher is absolutely rubbish in comparison to the OL one I suppose!

Sarah?

I did five percent better in English (luck had a big part to play in that) but spent far more time on English than any other subject. I basically ignored my other six subjects to work on English, so for me Irish would definitely be way easier.
But I suppose it depends on how good you are at each subject and which you prefer. Irish would take up way less time though unless you find it difficult.
From what you're saying though maybe you should stick with higher English instead, unless you're particularly fond of/good at Irish.

prendizzle

Honours English- waffle and light reading needed. 220/400 marks are not knowledge based. Paper 2: Just read Single Text a few times and be familiar with key moments for comparative. Poetry is just quoting, in a coherent, structured sense. Learn at least 3 poets inside out. I learned 2 but that's besides the point. There's your Honours English for you- I neglected it in comparison to maths and chemistry and got an A1.

Honours Irish- some laugh. New course, what's not to love? Essays are always the same. Just learn loads of phrases for it to improve. An Triail and poetry questions are repetitive anyway.

If you could at all, stay in honours in both subjects unless you're in danger of failing them. You never know how the leaving will go....