How much to write for Irish essay?

Missmiddleton

Higher level Irish now has 2 hours to write one essay on paper one since they brought the in new course. Seems a bit much to me since I got my 2 and a half page essay done in about 50 minutes in my mock today.

Is two and a half pages enough to be writing or is the exam just too long?

doyler101

the exam is too long, they should put the comprehensions or an triail on paper 1

doyler101

your only meant to write 500-600 words

grantyrs10

Really depends on what grade you wish to obtain. If you are striving for a A1 you really would want to be hitting 4 a4. Whereas c or b could be 2 or 3 !!:D:D

finality

grantyrs10 wrote: »

Really depends on what grade you wish to obtain. If you are striving for a A1 you really would want to be hitting 4 a4. Whereas c or b could be 2 or 3 !!:D:D

I don't think that's the case. Quality not quantity

Two pages for me is about 550-600 words, I don't think it's necessary to write more than that. It's a waste of time as they're marking on the quality of your Irish, whether you write 600 or 1,000 words the standard is going to be the same. As long as you write enough to show you're competent in the language, it's all good. The exam is too long.

JonnyMcNamee

I always go for the dispoireacht tbh, you can have a perfect introduction and conclusion learned word for word before the exam and my teacher said your standard of Irish doesn't have to be as high compared to an essay as its based on spoken Irish!! You can also have a load of good phrases too! Sorry tad off topic there anyways personally I feel the exam is way to long, one of the leamhtuiscint should really be thrown in there!!

Chavways

They expect a minimum of 3 pages if you are looking for an A or B.If you write less than that there isnt a hope you will get anywhere near full marks.2 hours is way too long though.I could write a 4 page debate in around 40 minutes.

Edit: Yeah they mark the diospoireacht easier aswell because less people do it.Its very hard to get an A in the essay no matter how good you are at it.It has to be something special.

finality

Chavways wrote: »

They expect a minimum of 3 pages if you are looking for an A or B.If you write less than that there isnt a hope you will get anywhere near full marks.2 hours is way too long though.I could write a 4 page debate in around 40 minutes.

Edit: Yeah they mark the diospoireacht easier aswell because less people do it.Its very hard to get an A in the essay no matter how good you are at it.It has to be something special.

If they do expect that, why do they explicitly state that 500-600 words is adequate? 3 pages for me is close to twice that.

Chavways

finality wrote: »

If they do expect that, why do they explicitly state that 500-600 words is adequate? 3 pages for me is close to twice that.

Well thats what my teacher told us and he's been correcting leaving cert papers for over 20 years. What does it say 500-600 is adequete for? My teacher told us that if you write less than 3 you can't be marked out of the 100 marks.

finality

Chavways wrote: »

Well thats what my teacher told us and he's been correcting leaving cert papers for over 20 years. What does it say 500-600 is adequete for? My teacher told us that if you write less than 3 you can't be marked out of the 100 marks.

On the paper it states something like "ní gá níos mó ná 500-600 focal a scríobh i gcás ar bith". Is your teacher still thinking of the old course? My teacher told us that you used to have to write more up to last year.

Edit: although on the old papers it states the same thing. Surely they wouldn't actually cheat students out of marks by saying they only need to write a certain amount and then penalising them for it :P

Gumbi

Chavways wrote: »

Well thats what my teacher told us and he's been correcting leaving cert papers for over 20 years. What does it say 500-600 is adequete for? My teacher told us that if you write less than 3 you can't be marked out of the 100 marks.

That's ridiculous. The exam paper explicitly states that 600 words is enough.

In any case, i got an A1 in Irish, I certainly wrote less than 4 pages. Quality over quantity definitely applies.

Teachers shouldn't really be specifying minimum lengths for their students. ie You won't be marked out of a 100 if you write less than x.....

finality

Gumbi wrote: »

That's ridiculous. The exam paper explicitly states that 600 words is enough.

In any case, i got an A1 in Irish, I certainly wrote less than 4 pages. Quality over quantity definitely applies.

Teachers shouldn't really be specifying minimum lengths for their students. ie You won't be marked out of a 100 if you write less than x.....

I agree with this, I felt I couldn't make a strong enough case because I'm not an A student in Irish by any means, it's my worst subject and I don't even like it... I'm just really argumentative :P

Anyway the marking scheme says nothing about length anywhere, the focus is on being able to clearly express your thoughts on an issue and using good Irish i.e. good vocab and grammar.

Missmiddleton

I got my mock results back and got 85 out of 100 for my two and a half pages in the end. Bhí mé an sasta le sin.

CookieMonster.x

I'm in 5th year but my teacher says at least 2 1/2 pages. My writing is small enough and I have gotten As in my essays that were around 2 1/2 to under 3 pages. I really can't see how I can write more, I don't have anything else to say. I doubt 4 pages is A standard?

Owen_S

CookieMonster.x wrote: »

I'm in 5th year but my teacher says at least 2 1/2 pages. My writing is small enough and I have gotten As in my essays that were around 2 1/2 to under 3 pages. I really can't see how I can write more, I don't have anything else to say. I doubt 4 pages is A standard?

Go read the exam guidelines, and possibly present them to your teacher too.

CookieMonster.x

Owen_S wrote: »

CookieMonster.x wrote: »

I'm in 5th year but my teacher says at least 2 1/2 pages. My writing is small enough and I have gotten As in my essays that were around 2 1/2 to under 3 pages. I really can't see how I can write more, I don't have anything else to say. I doubt 4 pages is A standard?

Go read the exam guidelines, and possibly present them to your teacher too.

I just checked my copy. I have over 600 words in my essays (I got As in those). I wrote out a debate from Foinse and that was just over two pages so over 600 words. In an exam my writing would be a lot bigger.
Is this ok? I honestly don't know what else I could add in to male them longer.

Canard

CookieMonster.x wrote: »

I just checked my copy. I have over 600 words in my essays (I got As in those). I wrote out a debate from Foinse and that was just over two pages so over 600 words. In an exam my writing would be a lot bigger.
Is this ok? I honestly don't know what else I could add in to male them longer.

Big writing is fine, and the pages are smaller too. When teachers say x amount of pages, they mean A4. The guidelines say 500-600 and with their pages being smaller they dont match so just get at least 500 words. A very good 500 word essay is fine but you might as well go for 600, or even more .

Namlub

grantyrs10 wrote: »

Really depends on what grade you wish to obtain. If you are striving for a A1 you really would want to be hitting 4 a4. Whereas c or b could be 2 or 3 !!:D:D

There's a reason they specify number of words rather than number of pages on the exam - some students could fill 4 pages but have only 400 words, whereas others could fit 500 words in less than three pages. Saying 'If you want x grade you need to write x amount of pages' means nothing tbh

Namlub

grantyrs10 wrote: »

Really depends on what grade you wish to obtain. If you are striving for a A1 you really would want to be hitting 4 a4. Whereas c or b could be 2 or 3 !!:D:D

There's a reason they specify number of words rather than number of pages on the exam - some students could fill 4 pages but have only 400 words, whereas others could fit 500 words in less than three pages. Saying 'If you want x grade you need to write x amount of pages' means nothing tbh

Mr.Fun

I wrote 596 words in my mocks. Its funny I got 100 marks for the essay.sar mhaith

Mr.Fun

I wrote 596 words in my mocks. Its funny I got 100 marks for the essay.sar mhaith