To drop or not to drop

Jammysticks

Hi all, i'm currently in 5th year and doing all my 7 subjects at higher level. Maths, irish, english, spanish, geo, bio, physics, if thats of any relevance.

I'm considering dropping to pass irish, as the workload for higher level is substantial.
I am not weak in any subject, but the time input required to get a good B or an A in irish is disproportionately large, and i fear it may negatively affect my results in other subjects.

Is it a good idea to drop to pass irish, letting me commit more time to the other subjects? Or is it too risky considering i am not doing any subjects outside school?

I know it's up to me, i'd just like some advice so i can make up my mind. Thanks in advance.

rm212

I'm in the exact same situation (except swap bio and physics for business and accounting) and have been contemplating dropping to pass Irish for a long time. The problem is, I exclusively get As and Bs (sorry for sounding cocky) in all my higher level subjects, including Irish (but I have to put a LOT more time into Irish to get the B or, occasionally, A) and the Irish teachers do not want me to drop down.

I feel like next year the pressure of all the other subjects, especially Higher Maths, English and Accounting is going to be to much when partnered with Higher Level Irish and I'll end up damaging my chances with the other subjects and coming out with 4 Bs rather than 2/3 As and an OL Irish A/B.

Our Irish teacher keeps giving us hand out sheets with long answers and telling us to learn them off by heart for homework, then reciting them the next day in class and I have major trouble learning this way. I cannot learn things off by heart, I have to learn the facts and compose the answer in my own writing on the day. For example, she gives us a 2 1/2 A4 Page "Aiste" (essay) and makes us learn it off by heart... I just can't 'learn' this way...

Jammysticks

rm212 wrote: »

I'm in the exact same situation (except swap bio and physics for business and accounting) and have been contemplating dropping to pass Irish for a long time. The problem is, I exclusively get As and Bs (sorry for sounding cocky) in all my higher level subjects, including Irish (but I have to put a LOT more time into Irish to get the B or, occasionally, A) and the Irish teachers do not want me to drop down.

I feel like next year the pressure of all the other subjects, especially Higher Maths, English and Accounting is going to be to much when partnered with Higher Level Irish and I'll end up damaging my chances with the other subjects and coming out with 4 Bs rather than 2/3 As and an OL Irish A/B.

Our Irish teacher keeps giving us hand out sheets with long answers and telling us to learn them off by heart for homework, then reciting them the next day in class and I have major trouble learning this way. I cannot learn things off by heart, I have to learn the facts and compose the answer in my own writing on the day. For example, she gives us a 2 1/2 A4 Page "Aiste" (essay) and makes us learn it off by heart... I just can't 'learn' this way...

Exacty. The irish for LC is a sham- is scannal é, as we say in our aistes.

I think i will drop in 6th year, but just incase, i'm holding out, and posting here in case anybody can give me good reason not to.

BrianG23

I didn't even try for my Irish exam(got E in Ordinary/Yes don't laugh). It depends on what you want to do after School. 6 Subjects are counted for your points, you only need 2 languages for the most part(Eng + one more). But some courses higher Irish. I'm doing engineering now anyway. I did Physics, Accounting and History.

ray2012

I'd say to stick with the HL just in-case one of your other subjects' exams doesn't go too well, you'll have Irish as your backup. To the above poster saying that the teacher gets the class to learn off aiste's by heart ... Just ignore your teacher. You would think they'd have a bit more cop on, but obviously not. There will be people who will learn off essays/debates and will happen to get lucky on the day of the exam as an exam title that comes up suits them. But there will also be others who have been learning off essays for 2 years, and none of the essay titles that come up in the exam suit them. They would be left clueless, as they would have no previous experience in constructing essay/debate answers by themselves. I recommend you learn your grammar inside out, and then learn certain phrases you can use in almost every essay, like ''Is fadhb mhór í sa lá atá inniu'' etc. It will take the work load off a lot I bet. For Irish you shouldn't really have to learn off answers (except for certain poetry questions). Personally, I find there is a lot more work in HL English than in Irish. But yeah, you should do out your own essays and hand them up to your teacher to correct (that's what she is there for. If she complains and refuses, complain to the principle about her that she is not doing her job).

My advice would be to stick with HL Irish! I found it a fair bit easier in 6th year than in 5th year, if that's any help!

Kenbob

Stick with it I wanted to move down so badly but my teacher told me to stick with it and it's getting (slightly) easier- and must be pretty good for points because I got a B1 in my 5th year summer and have been getting A2s since and I ain't no genius!! B2 in the mocks stick with it it gets easier!!

Jammysticks

Thanks everybody for all the advice.
Thanks for the tips, Ray, I'll get going on the grammar and phrases for the summer exams and see how it goes, thats actually quite a good idea. The less learning-off essays, the better.

I've decided from your advice to stick with it at least until the start of 6th year, and i'll see how my summer tests go this year too.
Thanks for the help, hopefully this helped a few 'lurkers' as well!

rm212

I would love to do this, but she makes it very hard. She gives us a certain section of the essay (ie. down as far as a certain word) and has us learn it off by heart overnight, then, she gets us to recall it out loud in class the next day and if we do not know it, she gives us punishment of some kind

BrianG23

rm212 wrote: »

I would love to do this, but she makes it very hard. She gives us a certain section of the essay (ie. down as far as a certain word) and has us learn it off by heart overnight, then, she gets us to recall it out loud in class the next day and if we do not know it, she gives us punishment of some kind

Thus...the reason no one knows how to speak Irish after 12-14 years of 'learning' it