Advice:Mature Student Interviews in Irish for B.Educ.(Primary)

Dunjuan

I recently had my interviews (English & Irish) for the Teacher training courses for Primary Teaching in both St. Pats and Mary I. I got my results last week and although i passed the the Interview itself i failed the Irish interview, so no place for me. I also sat the Hons. Irish paper a few weeks ago so the result of that is irrelevant now.

My advice to anyone thinking of applying as a mature candidate for Primary Teaching is

1. To practice the interview with an Irish teacher.
2. Keep it simple... Don't start spouting out fancy phrases.(It did'nt work for me:mad:).
3. Short sentences are better than long and less confusing.
4. Get an Irish verb book if you can. (My verbs and tenses were all over the place-my nervousness did'nt help.)
   

Good Luck.

EricC

Aw no, that's very sad. I am currently at the beginning of this process, have just started back into the Irish, man is it tough going. Am finding it hard to sit down for an hour every night...

Did you also apply through CAO as I think you can apply through both the mature route and CAO route, so I think that would mean your still in with a chance but it's based on your LC points, not entirely sure tho.

How did the interview go in general, was it very difficult, my level of Irish is very poor. I've a big hill to climb. Will hopefully reach the top in time for September 2013....

echo beach

Dunjuan wrote: »

I got my results last week and although i passed the the Interview itself i failed the Irish interview, so no place for me. I also sat the Hons. Irish paper a few weeks ago so the result of that is irrelevant now.

Can you try again next year, that is if you still want to, now that you know what the pitfalls are?

Cailin CoisFarraige

Can I ask around what date did you all first apply for the postgrad, when was the course confirmed, when were interviews etc.?
A friend is considering applying and we're just trying to get an idea of the timeframe.
Thanks.

Big Pussy Bonpensiero

The postgrad is a different course to the course for mature students. For the mature course you can apply via the CAO (deadline 1st Feb) or directly to the college, which the deadline is around March.
For the postgrad course the deadline this year was around January I think, but as of yet the postgrad for next year has to be sanctioned by the Department of Ed and Skills, and that won't happen until November/December.

grind gremlin

Might I recommend you volunteer in a Gaelscoil. It would give you a chance to brush up on your spoken Irish and it would look great on your application.