Getting an A1 in Irish

Sarah1989

Is it pretty much impossible to get an A1 in Irish if you're not fluent?? I don't know whether I'm wasting my time putting loads of extra effort into the subject or if I should just cut my losses now and concentrate on the other subjects??

Mr.Fun

I wasnt fluent and got an A2 last year by learning off hundreds of phrases and sentences

Sarah1989

Mr.Fun wrote: »

I wasnt fluent and got an A2 last year by learning off hundreds of phrases and sentences

And what about grammar did you know all of that inside out? The hardest part for me is putting sentences together?

HPMS

I've been wondering the same thing. Do you have to use lots of fancy phrases or is using the briathra saor and fancy sentence structures enough. I would love an A1 in irish and all I always get As in class but don't know if that's just my teacher.

Mr.Fun

Sarah1989 wrote: »

And what about grammar did you know all of that inside out? The hardest part for me is putting sentences together?

I never studied grammar on its own but you kind of get used to what tense to use when you learn off chunks of stuff like me. I definitely didnt spend long on tenses they just came naturally after saying and writing irish almost everyday for 5th and 6th year plus I wasnt in an irish speaking school like some ppl

eyescreamcone

Sarah1989 wrote: »

Is it pretty much impossible to get an A1 in Irish if you're not fluent?? I don't know whether I'm wasting my time putting loads of extra effort into the subject or if I should just cut my losses now and concentrate on the other subjects??

How do people become fluent in a language that is rarely used??
Do you have to go to a gaelscoil (Primary and or secondary) to have any chance at an A1 in Irish???
Especially with 40% going for the oral part

Esoteric_

No, it's not impossible. I did my lc in 2006 and I'm not fluent in Irish, but got my A1. I actually got an A2 in English, despite being fluent in that! :pac:

To be honest, it takes a hell of a lot of work. I studied Irish for about three hours each night, learned off hundreds, possibly thousands of verbs, sentences, stories and poems. I found that the more I wrote (I wrote out everything I learned by heart, to make sure I knew it properly), the easier the word placement and grammar came to me. In short, no, it's not impossible, but it takes a hell of a lot of work.

eyescreamcone

Esoteric_ wrote: »

No, it's not impossible. I did my lc in 2006 and I'm not fluent in Irish, but got my A1. I actually got an A2 in English, despite being fluent in that! :pac:

To be honest, it takes a hell of a lot of work. I studied Irish for about three hours each night, learned off hundreds, possibly thousands of verbs, sentences, stories and poems. I found that the more I wrote (I wrote out everything I learned by heart, to make sure I knew it properly), the easier the word placement and grammar came to me. In short, no, it's not impossible, but it takes a hell of a lot of work.

Do students who have gone to Irish speaking schools get much better grades in Irish than those who do not??
I would assume that they would, without having any stats to back this up.

Esoteric_

eyescreamcone wrote: »

Do
students who have gone to Irish speaking schools get much better grades
in Irish than those who do not??
I would assume that they would, without having any stats to back this
up.

I don't know, tbh. I never went to an Irish speaking school, but I have friends who did, and I did better than they did in the lc, in both English and Irish. I think it really comes down to how much work you put into it. I could survive in an all Irish school, despite not being fluent in it.

What I found important was learning to adapt anything asked in the oral exam to something that suited me to answer. I was asked about a dispute between two airlines, but said that I don't know much about the dispute, but used x airline when I went to London, then rattled on about London. It's all about talking continuously and coherently, not about what particular topic you discuss, for the oral.

yournerd

USE SAORBRITATHAR IN EVERYTHING!

Glee_GG

I got an A2 in the mocks (and these were corrected properly as my teacher got his friend who'd be a dept inspector to do them) and while i put in the work, i certainly wouldn't be spending hours on the subject or anything. I got 95/100 for my essay and i wasn't using any crazy hard irish and i don't think i used any briathar saor so theres no need to go over the top with them

whateverusay

getting an A1 is very manageable. there are a few people in my class that went to a gaelscoil and strangely, they do the worst in the class nearly. it just takes practise!!

Jade.

whateverusay wrote: »

getting an A1 is very manageable. there are a few people in my class that went to a gaelscoil and strangely, they do the worst in the class nearly. it just takes practise!!

There one person in my year who went to a gaelscoil and she's always boasting about how good she is at Irish when in reality she's one of the worst and always gets the lowest... It's weird ha :P

Sucette!

Jade. wrote: »

There one person in my year who went to a gaelscoil and she's always boasting about how good she is at Irish when in reality she's one of the worst and always gets the lowest... It's weird ha :P

I can agree with that! There's about 10 people in my class who went to the local Gaelscoil, and apart from the one or two exceptions, who are just naturally good at everything, the rest of the class gets better than them for some reason in written tests. I don't understand it!

Bazinga_N

People who went to the Gaelscoil didn't study Irish everyday, you know. They just spoke it everyday. They also had other subjects to do besides Irish.

Slow Show

Bazinga_N wrote: »

People who went to the Gaelscoil didn't study Irish everyday, you know. They just spoke it everyday. They also had other subjects to do besides Irish.

Did they really?? Shocking :eek:

Sorry for the sarcasm. But you just would kind of expect that people from a Gaelscoil would be above average. I think it's mainly because if you're speaking Irish casually you don't speak it perfectly, similar enough to us speaking English. Also most Gaelgoirs have no problem with inserting an English word here or there if necessary. I think that's probably why they fall down in the oral. I'd say if you were fairly fluent too you wouldn't be bothered using nathanna or fancy phrases and all that in the essay, or just studying Irish at all, so Paper 2 goes down as well.

Mcd2812

How difficult is it to do well in the Irish Oral Exam? How long does it usually last and can they ask difficult questions?

yournerd

I go to an all irish school and let me tell you I won't be happy with anything less than an A.

Leaving Cert Student

The oral is so hard to get an A in though no matter how good you are. It's marked really hard apparently. Nearly impossible to get near full marks on sraith or comhra. Poem is nice though

CookieMonster.x

We listened to the sample tapes from the department with the different grades and to be honest you don't need to have a huge range of vocabulary or be absolutely amazing at Irish to get an A. Just try to keep the conversation going and direct it to something you are comfortable speaking about.

Canard

What CookieMonster said. The oral isn't marked hard I don't think...I don't know what I got (of course), but I can tell you I said my name wrong in the intro! o_o Put the H in the wrong place, I'd been told it wrong for the entire time I learned Irish it seems, or else she mixed it up. Either way I know I got 207+ (and that would be if I'd scraped the A1). All I did was rote-learn the pictures (a painfully tedious but rewarding job) and make sure to drop in the conditional and free verbs before they ask you an awkward question on it.

The point of the oral being 40% is to bring up grades. It's there to help.

So yeah, despite messing up my name, asking a horribly constructed question on my sraith (cé atá ar an locht instead of cé leis an locht) and being interrupted because she thought I had rote-learned the conversation or something, I got on fine. Prepare better than that and you should be fine too. :P

Glee_GG

Leaving Cert Student wrote: »

The oral is so hard to get an A in though no matter how good you are. It's marked really hard apparently. Nearly impossible to get near full marks on sraith or comhra. Poem is nice though

Our teachers one of the dept inspectors and he says the complete opposite, he said that the willingness to have a conversation gets you so much further than your actual standard of Irish, and from,listening to last years tapes of people who got full marks,they certainly weren't fluent!

ChemHickey

Glee_GG wrote: »

Our teachers one of the dept inspectors and he says the complete opposite, he said that the willingness to have a conversation gets you so much further than your actual standard of Irish, and from,listening to last years tapes of people who got full marks,they certainly weren't fluent!

+1

If you are able to answer the question in a fluent, flowing manner which doesn't have too many mistakes, you will get on great. The oral is at the end of the day a conversation, it's not an interrogation.

And don't expect to be asked easy questions! In mine, once I finished the sraith pictúir and the questions were posed and answered, the first question she asked me was "D'fhreastal tú an Ghaeltacht cheana, nár fhreastal?" (Or something to that effect). I got no questions on my family, school, pastimes or anything which I "could have prepared" or the so call guaranteed topics. (I hadn't really prepared for the oral because I had a high standard of Irish anyways) Just don't be shocked if they don't ask you the easy questions. Neither orals I had for the LC were based on the easy questions at all (which sucked! :P ) but you just need to change your mindset, take a breath and talk naturally and fluently.

If anyone needs any oral/general Irish tips and help at all feel free to PM me! I'm more than happy to help.

leaveiton

Speaking as someone who did the oral last year, it's not incredibly difficult to do well in. You don't need a super level of vocabulary, just make sure you're not repeating the same things all the time, e.g. (and excuse any mistakes :P) "Is maith liom scoil. Tá an scoil go maith. Tá na daoine deas. Tá na múinteoirí deas." Obviously that isn't going to get you a lot of marks. Also if you speak confidently, you'll seem a lot more fluent.

The key really is to steer the conversation in the direction you want it to go. Anyone I know that was asked a difficult question last year was asked as a direct result of something they'd said. For example, the examiner asked me a very general, open question about school, and I said something about liking the school because there's a nice atmosphere, very little bullying, things like that. The examiner then said "You mentioned bullying - how do you think that bullying would affect someone?" Had to think on my feet a bit but came out with something decent, the examiner seemed happy enough and didn't ask me anything too difficult after that. They just want to see how you'd cope with something that you might not have prepared already.

I wouldn't have thought I was great at Irish, but I was able to make my oral go the way I wanted it to by mentioning a few things in passing and hoping the examiner would pick up on it, and it made it a lot easier. I got an A2 overall in my exams, and from looking at my papers I figured out that I had to have gotten at least 220 or so in the oral to get that grade overall. It's honestly not as bad as you think it's going to be. Go n-éirí an t-ádh libh!

Edit: I'll just second what ChemHickey said above, do not expect to be asked the easy, standard questions first! We had 2 examiners in my school, neither asked about family or a few other "obvious" topics. I got asked about it only when I mentioned my brother in one answer and the examiner went "Oh, tell me about your family." Most people weren't asked at all though.

bluejay14

Never just give a one or two word answer. Ever. Our teacher's prime example, that has turned into a source of much slagging in the class because it actually happened during one person's mock, is with a question like "An bhfuil suim agat sa spoirt?" Never just answer with "Nil" or any basic monosyllabic reply like that. Something along the lines of "Nil aon speis agam sa spoirt, chun a bheith macanta leat, ach ta nios mo duil agam i gcursai ceoil........." You've answered their question sufficiently and turned it to your advantage, while throwing in a nice little phrase at the same time.


According to her: 3 sentences denotes fluency in any language so it's not actually that much to ask. The examiner really couldn't care what you say as long as it makes sense.

Akarinn

Why even bother? Is Irish even accepted as a language in Uni?

Canard

Akarinn wrote: »

Why even bother? Is Irish even accepted as a language in Uni?

Irish is a matriculation requirement in almost all colleges in addition to a third language. I thought that was common knowledge?

ChemHickey

Akarinn wrote: »

Why even bother? Is Irish even accepted as a language in Uni?

Why bother aiming for an A1 in Irish? Personal satisfaction, the chance for 100 points, a target and a goal which you can strive for, boasting glory

yournerd

about 85% of my school got full marks in the oral

Akarinn

Irish is a matriculation requirement in almost all colleges in addition to a third language. I thought that was common knowledge?

From www.NUI.ie:

Generally speaking, anybody applying to an NUI institution who was born and had all their education in the Republic of Ireland must present Irish (achieving at least Grade D at Ordinary Level) for Matriculation purposes.

Its common knowledge alright, but only a D in Ordinary or higher is required. So really, if you don't want to put a strain on the other subjects which most likely matter then don't try and get an A1 in crappy Irish.

Why bother aiming for an A1 in Irish? Personal satisfaction, the chance for 100 points, a target and a goal which you can strive for, boasting glory

Ok, maybe the 100 points part, but ever so slightly... Boasting rights? haha.. good one, say that to anyone and youl be shunned..

ChemHickey

Akarinn wrote: »

crappy Irish.

Curious, what makes you say that?

Ok, maybe the 100 points part, but ever so slightly... Boasting rights? haha.. good one, say that to anyone and youl be shunned..

Why would you be shunned? Getting over 90% in any exam is a difficult task, especially one which involves an oral and aural aspect. It is a lot more difficult to get A1s in subjects than people think. An A1 in any subject takes time and dedication and shunning one away as if it is less worthy/valuable, and degrading another person's achievements is something of both immaturity and "meanness" (for lack of a better word).