7 Poets- Necessary?

PictureFrame

Hey Guys, I just remembered our English Teacher saying something to us before our mocks started about the poets we had to do. We basically have the English Course finished and most of our class found the mocks very easy. Our teacher told us we might do another poet just for something to do, however I think that we may have enough poetry done for our Exams in General and should focus more on Paper I compositions.

So far we have done the following poets:

• Sylvia Plath
• Adrienne Rich
• Thomas Kinsella
• Patrick Kavanagh
• Philip Larkin
• Seamus Heaney

My Teacher is thinking of doing Eavan Boland when we go back to school? :rolleyes: Is there much point in having 7 poets done for the Exams? Out of the 6 poets we had studied for the Mocks, 4 of the poets we studied came up giving us a choice of 4 poetry questions.

I might be blabbering on, but instead of focusing on doing additional (and I believe unnecessary poets), would it not be of more benefit to complete more Paper I work, as both papers are worth the same in terms of marks.

** Just to satisfy my own curiosity, I have enclosed a Poll to find out how many poets you all have completed for your Mocks.

Thanks for any replies in advance!

snoreborewhore

Theres no point in doing all seven poets. Realistically there wouldn't be enough time to properly study each poet along with Hamlet, Comparative study etc. There's a strong chance Boland isn't coming up this year considering she was on last years paper so the majority of teachers would discount her. It's kind of an unwritten rule that an Irish poet and a female poet come up every year, so once you're covered in that area you'll be fine. In my opinion, four is enough. I've only studied three so far (Plath, Rich and Larkin) but after the mocks my teacher is planning on starting Heaney. It's better to know a handful of poets very well than to know every poet on the course vaguely.

Stewie Griffin

You have to have five done to guarantee a poet you have studied actually appearing in the exam. Anything after that is merely increasing your choices on the day.

Having just three done is a bit risky- chances are that you'll get away with it but the Irish poet/woman poet pattern is not a cert. Admittedly, it's always been there but it's not written down that there must be an Irish poet and a woman poet.

Togepi

Technically you only need to do five, but it's good to do six to be guaranteed a choice. Any more than six is definitely not necessary though.

Canard

We studied all except Plath and Kinsella and I got my friend to teach me Plath so I have 7. If anything your teacher should do Frost imo...Boland is quite easy but she probably wont be coming up. Even if she did, would you choose her? Its no harm and wouldnt take long to do it, but sure if you want just do an essay or two over the time it takes

Wesc.

I only intend to study 3 mayyybee 4... Definitely studying larkin, kinsella and heaney it's just i dont like the idea of loads of people liking plath and that's putting me off her

Stewie Griffin

What are you gonna do if you do only three and four of the ones you didn't study appear on the exam?

Like I said, you should be okay but it's an enormous gamble to take. Especially when you have time to do enough poets.

Insect Overlord

The more poets you study, the more you should understand the craft of poetry. It's not all about preparing for the LC exam. It's about learning the language and the ways in which it can be used too.

PictureFrame

Insect Overlord wrote: »

The more poets you study, the more you should understand the craft of poetry. It's not all about preparing for the LC exam. It's about learning the language and the ways in which it can be used too.

I understand your point, but I highly doubt I will be analysing poetry ever after I finish my exams so in my own circumstances, I only want to learn poetry until the 8th of June and be finished with it forever.

bscm

We studied 6 (granted some people didn't have enough time/weren't bothered to revise all 6).

The 4 that came up were part of the 6 we studied (happy days), which gave us a huge choice in the exam.

You're better off studying 6, the last thing you want is to be stuck with a horrible poetry question and no way out of it.

finality

Boland is Irish AND woman, if she comes up she could cover both. Just saying.

I'm sticking to 5 poets, it's better to know them really well than to half know 7.

BritBrit

We just did 3 and I think that's too much to learn. Our teacher is considering doing a 4th one but I really couldn't be bothered to learn another one

SureYWouldntYa

Our teacher thinks this is the best. We skim over a poet in a day or two, we do a personal response in depth to 4/5 of the poems. Do this for all the poets, she says that a personal response to the poetry of a poet always comes up :L

Canard

SureYWouldntYa wrote: »

Our teacher thinks this is the best. We skim over a poet in a day or two, we do a personal response in depth to 4/5 of the poems. Do this for all the poets, she says that a personal response to the poetry of a poet always comes up :L

They never come up anymore simply for the fact that theyre too easy! Take a look in the exam papers, theres always some kind of twist.

Gumbi

We studied six. If I recall correctly, I knew four very well, one quite well. I had a reasonable grasp of the last one, too. Remember, 3 of the poets you've studied may come up, but you may not like the questions for two of them.

I never understood why, but English inevitably becomes the biggest gamble in the Leaving Cert., all for what, 50 marks? Study 5 well, and you should be fine. Study a sixth if you have the time. Seven might be a bit overboard, but perfectly reasonable if can manage it time-wise. As Insect Overlord said, it all helps to improve your overall ability regarding the language.

SureYWouldntYa

Patchy~ wrote: »

They never come up anymore simply for the fact that theyre too easy! Take a look in the exam papers, theres always some kind of twist.

All you need to do is focus the answer correctly. If it said to write a personal response to his use of personal experience to create themes of universal importance just stick in them words in your answer where appropriate and then your away with it

Gumbi

BritBrit wrote: »

We just did 3 and I think that's too much to learn. Our teacher is considering doing a 4th one but I really couldn't be bothered to learn another one

Why??? In the case above, there's a one in four chance that you'll be unable to answer the poetry question!! 50 marks gone for nothing. :rolleyes: (I hope that maths is correct )

Wesc.

Gumbi wrote: »

Why??? In the case above, there's a one in four chance that you'll be unable to answer the poetry question!! 50 marks gone for nothing. :rolleyes: (I hope that maths is correct )

No it's incorrect I'm afraid, you'd have to do a series of Bernoulli trials to find the probability that you wouldn't be able to do any poets if you only studied 3 :P

Togepi

Wesc. wrote: »

Gumbi wrote: »

Why??? In the case above, there's a one in four chance that you'll be unable to answer the poetry question!! 50 marks gone for nothing. :rolleyes: (I hope that maths is correct )

No it's incorrect I'm afraid, you'd have to do a series of Bernoulli trials to find the probability that you wouldn't be able to do any poets if you only studied 3 :P

I thought it was wrong first too, then I thought it was right. Now I'm just confused!! Would you not multiply 4/8 (number of poets who come up) by 3/8 (number of studied poets) to get 3/16? So there's a 3 in 16 chance of one of your poets coming up not coming up if you only study 3. That doesn't sound right though.

Canard

n = 4, r = 1
success = 3/8, failure = 5/8

4C1 x 3/8(power of 1) x 5/8 (power of 3)

assuming my probability isnt too rusty that should be the answer, cant find my calculator though! :pac:

Keano!

Studied one poet last year, yes a gamble, (Eavan Boland). We were looking at the patterns, and considering she was taken off the paper two years ago because her niece was doing the Leaving, we were kinda banking on it to happen.

So you can imagine the relief on the day when she came up. My advice, what I did was stupid and could have cost me big time in the Leaving, but I'm a bit of a risk taker. Probably best to do the one you really think will come up really well, and I mean know it inside out backwards and all that. Then have a second done well but maybe not to that extent as a back up. Be very unlucky if you didn't get one I think. Haven't seen the patterns this year though so cannot say.

Stewie Griffin

That is really bad advice.

Sean.

Why 7? Statistically speaking, you'd be 100% safe with 5. Study 7 and you'll forget the first 2 you've studied so it's a lose-lose situation. The Leaving Cert Poetry section is pretty predictable too: Are they going to cause an incident by not putting any females on the question? No. Are they going to stir something up with the Irish die-hards by asking only about foreign poets? No. Are they going to ask about the same poet two years in a row? Most probably not, but that is one thing you can't be more than 99% sure about. HOWEVER, baring all of these points in mind you can cross-reference and form a pretty good idea of the most probable poets to come up. This will reduce your workload and let you concentrate on really getting to know a poet up close and personal. OK, I'm not going to tell people over the internet to study only 3 poets, that's my own individual choice and if I'm wrong, I'm wrong, I'll pay the price, I'm cool with that. I'll leave this thread with a quote from American poet, Robert Frost:

Two roads diverged in a wood,
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

P.S. Robert Frost=Not Coming Up

P.S.S. I've just done the Maths, here goes: If you've studied 5 poets the chances of none coming up is 0%, if you've studied 4 poets the chances of none coming up is 1.4%, if you've studied 3 poets the chances of none coming up 7%, if you've studied 2 poets the chances of none coming up is 21%, if you've studied studied 1 poet the chances of none coming up is 50%, and finally, if you've studied no poets, well...

snoreborewhore

Sean. wrote: »

Why 7? Statistically speaking, you'd be 100% safe with 5. Study 7 and you'll forget the first 2 you've studied so it's a lose-lose situation. The Leaving Cert Poetry section is pretty predictable too: Are they going to cause an incident by not putting and females on the question? No. Are they going to stir something up with the Irish die-hards by asking only about foreign poets? No. Are they going to ask about the same poet two years in a row? Most probably not, but that is one thing you can't be more than 99% sure about. HOWEVER, baring all of these points in mind you can cross-reference and form a pretty good idea of the most probable poets to come up. This will reduce your workload and let you concentrate on really getting to know a poet up close and personal. OK, I'm not going to tell people over the internet to study only 3 poets, that's my own individual choice and if I'm wrong, I'm wrong, I'll pay the price, I'm cool with that. I'll leave this thread with a quote from American poet, Robert Frost:

Two roads diverged in a wood,
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

P.S. Robert Frost=Not Coming Up

Best advice given on this.

Eathrin

We're almost covered all 8 now, that's the course so I don't see the harm.

As for exam purposes I think 5 is excessive. It's not too difficult to predict what's coming up, so picking the most likely 2 or 3 should see you covered just fine.

I think any 3 of
Heaney
Kinsella
Rich
Plath
Larkin

Should leave you even with a choice on the paper,
I'll probably just be doing 2, maybe Plath and Kinsella.

The most important thing to remember is studied poetry is worth the least marks on paper 2 so doing work disproportional to the time you're putting into other sections is a small bit silly.

PictureFrame

Thanks for the advice guys! I've decided to thoroughly study 5 poets, namely:

• Philip Larkin
• Thomas Kinsella
• Seamus Heaney
• Adrienne Rich
• Sylvia Plath

That's covered me for 2 Irish poets and 2 female poets. And let's be honest, Kinsella will be on the paper. My Teacher said he hasn't been on any English Paper since 1985.

Like 27 years and never examined? He's gonna be there. (Hopefully :pac:)

Eavan Boland could make an appearance, i'm uncertain whether to cut her out totally seeing as she defines both an Irish and Female poet. Anyway we'll wait and see!

Another idea, for the Comparative Study are many of ye doing GV+V and LG and disregarding Theme?

Canard

PictureFrame wrote: »

Thanks for the advice guys! I've decided to thoroughly study 5 poets, namely:

• Philip Larkin
• Thomas Kinsella
• Seamus Heaney
• Adrienne Rich
• Sylvia Plath

That's covered me for 2 Irish poets and 2 female poets. And let's be honest, Kinsella will be on the paper. My Teacher said he hasn't been on any English Paper since 1985.

Like 27 years and never examined? He's gonna be there. (Hopefully :pac:)

Eavan Boland could make an appearance, i'm uncertain whether to cut her out totally seeing as she defines both an Irish and Female poet. Anyway we'll wait and see!

Another idea, for the Comparative Study are many of ye doing GV+V and LG and disregarding Theme?

I heard hes never been on the course before, maybe I'm wrong :pac: I doubt Boland will come up since she came up last year but you never know! Easy enough and not a lot of people will expect it.

We didnt and aren't going to do LG so nah, but I'm kinda focusing more on GV+V :P

Eathrin

PictureFrame wrote: »

Thanks for the advice guys! I've decided to thoroughly study 5 poets, namely:

• Philip Larkin
• Thomas Kinsella
• Seamus Heaney
• Adrienne Rich
• Sylvia Plath

That's covered me for 2 Irish poets and 2 female poets. And let's be honest, Kinsella will be on the paper. My Teacher said he hasn't been on any English Paper since 1985.

Like 27 years and never examined? He's gonna be there. (Hopefully :pac:)

Eavan Boland could make an appearance, i'm uncertain whether to cut her out totally seeing as she defines both an Irish and Female poet. Anyway we'll wait and see!

Another idea, for the Comparative Study are many of ye doing GV+V and LG and disregarding Theme?

I wouldn't be certain about Kinsella, he hasn't been on the course for a while and is on next year, that said I think he is a far better poet in the Irish group than Boland and Kavanagh, we haven't studied Heaney yet but he's probably the most likely of the Irish poets.

I'd be confident about Plath and Larkin coming up, I love writing about Plath, she's not very popular in my school but I think she's generally the most popular among LC students this year. I'm not up to scratch on my Larkin but I don't think he was an awful poet.


I thought LG was meant to be the worst one? I'd say T&I is the easiest but least likely to appear, then GV&V being my backup.

PictureFrame

Eathrin wrote: »

I wouldn't be certain about Kinsella, he hasn't been on the course for a while and is on next year, that said I think he is a far better poet in the Irish group than Boland and Kavanagh, we haven't studied Heaney yet but he's probably the most likely of the Irish poets.

I'd be confident about Plath and Larkin coming up, I love writing about Plath, she's not very popular in my school but I think she's generally the most popular among LC students this year. I'm not up to scratch on my Larkin but I don't think he was an awful poet.


I thought LG was meant to be the worst one? I'd say T&I is the easiest but least likely to appear, then GV&V being my backup.

Nah, I did LG in my Mock. We started the Comparative about 2 weeks before the exams. You just have to learn about 4/5 narrative techniques off by heart and that's all you have to do!

J_E

Whatever you do, try avoid predicting poets and basing your answers around the fact that someone might or might not come up. Know 4 well, 1 decently, and you'll be fine.

Teasy

With regard to poetry, obviously the best advice is to study 5 as realistically any 4 could appear on the paper on the day. Yes we can surmise but ultimately you don't want to sell yourself short. Personally I would bank on Plath appearing this year. She hasn't been on the LC for many years now. Both Frost and Boland came up last year, and although they can re-appear as has been the case in the past it is unlikely. I think Heaney is also a dead cert. As for the comparative GV&V, and LG are your best bets. T/I has been overdone. I think with Hamlet, a question regarding the character of Hamlet himself will appear- I've studied the papers intently, it's due. Best of Luck.