Repeating LC Honours Irish for Primary Teaching PostGrad

burly

Hi all,

I know this has been discussed on various threads in the past, but I cant see any recent ones so looking for some up to date advice!

I'm in my thirties, working full-time but have been thinking about doing primary teaching for some years now, only problem is that I did Ordinary Level Irish in the LC.

My plan is to continue working in my current job for a few more years at least, but to re-sit the Irish LC next summer (2015) to get that hurdle over with, and then apply to a post-grad course in 2-3 years time.

I looked at the TEG courses, but I'd need to pass TEG Level B2 to get into Primary teaching, and they recommend doing A2 and B1 before doing the B2 course, so that route could take 3 years alone. The LC Irish is the quickest and best route as far as I can see.

So, how does someone who did Ordinary Level Irish 13 years ago get themselves up to a C grade at Honours level? Anyone care to offer advice?

I have spoken to some teachers, who have said that Ive no business going near grinds yet until I get my standard up myself at home by self-learning almost.

Is there anyone out there who has gone back and successfully repeated the LC Honours Irish after 10 or more years? And if so, how did you go about doing it?

Many thanks in advance guys.

mr jack

Hey Burly,

I was in the same position as you last year, did leaving cert in 02 and repeated last year to try and get C in Honours. I'm based in Dublin and looked at repeating through various options - Crumlin VEC on Saturdays, online with Kilroys online or Monday evenings in Plunket College in Whitehall. I went with the latter and think it worked out the finest.

Didn't go with Crumlin because you'd never know what was happening on any given Saturday and knew I'd miss loads of classes and avoided Kilroys because I knew I wouldn't be disiplined enough to do the work. And from what I've heard from a friend, she did it with Kilroys and said it didn't work for her at all and ended up forking out a load of money on grinds.

Plunket's was def. good if not great. Classes started in Oct and it cost around €300. The first night the class was packed, near 40 students but this dwindled fairly rapidly to around 20 as I think people thought they couldn't handle it.

I think if you have a decent grasp of basic Irish at all you'll fly it. The course is def. a lot more manageable and dare I say a hell of a lot easier than what the honours students did 10 years ago. You have 50% complete before you put pen to paper, 40% - oral, and 10% - listening. I really concentrated on the oral and it went well. Prepare 3 good essays and you're sorted. I also did my exams in a local school that wouldn't excel in grades so hoping the bell curve will help me. I could've repeated with my classmates but then I wouldn't def. get the questions I prepared about why someone who was 30+ was repeating the leaving cert and wouldn't stand out as much.

Plunket's - I'd give it a good review. The teacher was a lad called Ronán and the thing was to get noticed by him so he'd know your name and ask you questions as gaeilge in class. This was the best way of practicing your spoken Irish. Some people never wanted to be asked anything and when they did they could hardly speak a word. We got given homework as well which I did at the start but then I got lazy and stopped doing it. He also gave predictions at the end of the course which worked out perfectly.

All in all go for it. I was bricking it beforehand but even though I haven't got my results yet I'm hoping for a B. I didn't really do much on the poetry, drama or pros as there is so little marks for the amount of work you have to do, but my predictions came out well so I was lucky.