LC Off Topic Thread (2015/16)

Boaty

You havent covered the half the maths syllabus with your teacher or by yourself?

TSMGUY

Boaty wrote: »

You havent covered the half the maths syllabus with your teacher or by yourself?

I don't have a teacher! I'm an external candidate. I haven't covered half of the course full stop. I'm getting there slowly but surely but maths is such a time consuming piece of **** subject. The 25 extra points really don't justify the disproportionate amount of time it takes.

spurious

TSMGUY wrote: »

I don't have a teacher! I'm an external candidate. I haven't covered half of the course full stop. I'm getting there slowly but surely but maths is such a time consuming piece of **** subject. The 25 extra points really don't justify the disproportionate amount of time it takes.

It really might be worth your time getting a course of lessons before the exams, maybe three a week with a qualified and experienced teacher offering grinds in your area.

TSMGUY

I'd love to get some grinds. It's costly as hell here in the Midlands but I don't have much of a choice tbh.

Hana98

Just did French oral. I don't know how I did but feeling annoying, disappointed and confused on how I did. The examiner interrupted me around every three semtences. So I couldn't say what I wanted. On top of that I'm worn out after all that preparation coming down to 12minutes.

DublinArnie

Hana98 wrote: »

Just did French oral. I don't know how I did but feeling annoying, disappointed and confused on how I did. The examiner interrupted me around every three semtences. So I couldn't say what I wanted. On top of that I'm worn out after all that preparation coming down to 12minutes.

+++1111 for Irish orals.

Bazinga_N

Hana98 wrote: »

Just did French oral. I don't know how I did but feeling annoying, disappointed and confused on how I did. The examiner interrupted me around every three semtences. So I couldn't say what I wanted. On top of that I'm worn out after all that preparation coming down to 12minutes.

I had my Irish one today and I feel the same as you. I was all prepared and set going in until I got my sraith pictuir! The only one out of 20 that I really don't like decided to come out of the envelope! It really threw me and the rest of my oral wasn't as good as it should have been! I kept noticing myself throwing in English words like "so"! I'm so frustrated! What are the odds of me pulling that sraith pictuir out!

legocrazy505

Bazinga_N wrote: »

Hana98 wrote: »

Just did French oral. I don't know how I did but feeling annoying, disappointed and confused on how I did. The examiner interrupted me around every three semtences. So I couldn't say what I wanted. On top of that I'm worn out after all that preparation coming down to 12minutes.

I had my Irish one today and I feel the same as you. I was all prepared and set going in until I got my sraith pictuir! The only one out of 20 that I really don't like decided to come out of the envelope! It really threw me and the rest of my oral wasn't as good as it should have been! I kept noticing myself throwing in English words like "so"! I'm so frustrated! What are the odds of me pulling that sraith pictuir out!

1/20.

Also did the Irish Oral today, poetry I was really nervous for some reason even though I did really well in class on all of them. I kept forgetting where I was and said "ehhhh" pretty much at the end of each sentence but I'd say 95% of the words were pronounced correctly. Also I think I forgot the poem and poet at the start but I forgot in the mocks too and didn't lose that many marks....

For the pictures I got that one on the summer job at the hotel and they go to Rome and win some match. I did better on it I think than I did on the mock one (where I got the first one which I know was the easiest).

Conversation was terrible. I started it out well when she was asking about the school, facilities, subjects I'm doing and what I want to do afterwards. She didn't let me actually say much though about the course I'm wanting to do which was annoying. She went and asked about if I went to a concert too and I tried directing the conversation to my family since she hadn't asked anything about them yet. She went from concerts though to TY..... I thought the conversation was supposed to have a flow....

I've always hated speaking Irish since I came to Ireland so honestly I'm happy to at least pass the orals like I did in the mocks. I've always done better in written Irish since I don't have to awkwardly sit in front of someone and try to recall verbs and vocabulary.

I'm doing ordinary level in case anyone was wondering. Only need a D3 in the thing to get into the course I need anyway.

Really happy though to not have to hopefully speak anymore Irish now besides when reading answers in class for the next few weeks.

Edrees98

I have my Spanish orals on Friday. Does anybody know how perfect you have to be to get an A1. I know my rolepays back to front and my general conversation is pretty good. But I make a few masculine feminine mistakes and ser estar ones too. Do I have to be flawless to get an A1 or how much room for error is there?

koolis02

Had my French one today. Nothing could've prepared me for it, seriously. I'm aiming for an A1 but she asked me extremely far out questions on 1916/ terrorism/ why the Gaeltacht population is declining(!!) to name a few. I felt nothing I learned I could say and I was constantly speaking on the spot, which usually leads to mistakes. I was asked 4 tense questions - last summer, then this summer, then last weekend and then what I'll do when i go home from school which meant i was constantly changing between tenses in my head, which is very hard. Dont know how it went really but hopefully it was good because I need an A1

spurious

koolis02 wrote: »

Had my French one today. Nothing could've prepared me for it, seriously. I'm aiming for an A1 but she asked me extremely far out questions on 1916/ terrorism/ why the Gaeltacht population is declining(!!) to name a few. I felt nothing I learned I could say and I was constantly speaking on the spot, which usually leads to mistakes. I was asked 4 tense questions - last summer, then this summer, then last weekend and then what I'll do when i go home from school which meant i was constantly changing between tenses in my head, which is very hard. Dont know how it went really but hopefully it was good because I need an A1

They don't ask difficult questions and tenses when they know the person isn't up to it.
Sounds like they thought you were pretty good.

kitkat98

Had my Irish oral today. I'm not happy with my comhrá. The examiner asked me really basic stuff, I'm higher level and having been working on the difficult stuff like politics and the health system. I tried to link what he asked me to the more advanced stuff to show my level, as well as bluntly stating I'm higher level, but I feel I didn't put in enough. It was only about 5 minutes. I seen my marks before the comhrà and I got 117 out of 120 ( 2 marks lost on cur síos of sraith pictuir and 1 on the cruinni) I was trying and had previously in my mocks got an A1. Is it likely that I could have achieved it in the exam? I was very fluent and was able to understand and answer his questions. Just worried.x :-(

TheBiz

spurious wrote: »

They don't ask difficult questions and tenses when they know the person isn't up to it.
Sounds like they thought you were pretty good.

Really? I'm doing Ordinary level (not counting) and I got asked easy questions but she asked the same question in different tenses, I felt like I was struggling tbh but I think I did ok.
Plus she asked me two times if I had a document!

spurious

TheBiz wrote: »

Really? I'm doing Ordinary level (not counting) and I got asked easy questions but she asked the same question in different tenses, I felt like I was struggling tbh but I think I did ok.
Plus she asked me two times if I had a document!

She was giving you a chance to show what you could do. They really are trying to get you marks.

DublinArnie

kitkat98 wrote: »

Had my Irish oral today. I'm not happy with my comhrá. The examiner asked me really basic stuff, I'm higher level and having been working on the difficult stuff like politics and the health system. I tried to link what he asked me to the more advanced stuff to show my level, as well as bluntly stating I'm higher level, but I feel I didn't put in enough. It was only about 5 minutes. I seen my marks before the comhrà and I got 117 out of 120 ( 2 marks lost on cur síos of sraith pictuir and 1 on the cruinni) I was trying and had previously in my mocks got an A1. Is it likely that I could have achieved it in the exam? I was very fluent and was able to understand and answer his questions. Just worried.x :-(

Sometimes the examiners wouldn't have time to engage in the more advanced questions????117/120...

I'm ordinary and spent most of my Oral study on the advanced questions on recent news and events etc, but all she asked was basic questions (huge huge disappointment and shocker). Probably says something about my Oral standard haha, but my teacher talked to the examiner and said she didn't have time for the more advanced questions.

TSMGUY

DublinArnie wrote: »

Sometimes the examiners wouldn't have time to engage in the more advanced questions????117/120...

I'm ordinary and spent most of my Oral study on the advanced questions on recent news and events etc, but all she asked was basic questions (huge huge disappointment and shocker). Probably says something about my Oral standard haha, but my teacher talked to the examiner and said she didn't have time for the more advanced questions.

really outrageous that you learn all of this stuff and the examiner doesn't examine it because she "doesn't have time." Not saying it's her fault but bad organization on their part shouldn't cost you marks.

DublinArnie

TSMGUY wrote: »

really outrageous that you learn all of this stuff and the examiner doesn't examine it because she "doesn't have time." Not saying it's her fault but bad organization on their part shouldn't cost you marks.

Well, maybe it didn't cost marks in the end. The oral did feel quite quick for sure.

Was really surprised she didn't mention the rising or refugees all day in any of the orals!

legocrazy505

TSMGUY wrote: »

DublinArnie wrote: »

Sometimes the examiners wouldn't have time to engage in the more advanced questions????117/120...

I'm ordinary and spent most of my Oral study on the advanced questions on recent news and events etc, but all she asked was basic questions (huge huge disappointment and shocker). Probably says something about my Oral standard haha, but my teacher talked to the examiner and said she didn't have time for the more advanced questions.

really outrageous that you learn all of this stuff and the examiner doesn't examine it because she "doesn't have time." Not saying it's her fault but bad organization on their part shouldn't cost you marks.

It might not though, we don't know if it does or doesn't. Unless someone here has marked the oral exams?

spurious

legocrazy505 wrote: »

It might not though, we don't know if it does or doesn't. Unless someone here has marked the oral exams?

It really doesn't take them long to assess a person's level of Irish.

TSMGUY

DublinArnie wrote: »

Well, maybe it didn't cost marks in the end. The oral did feel quite quick for sure.

Was really surprised she didn't mention the rising or refugees all day in any of the orals!

I was unclear; I meant it's unlikely that she'll dock you marks because she didn't ask more in-depth questions. She can hardly punish you for not answering something you weren't asked. I've found the oral examiners surprisingly lenient. I absolutely sucked at French (I pronounced "et" as "ettt" instead of "a" for the whole oral) but I got a C2 somehow!

emersyn

I've been thinking about this for a few days and I can't understand the way the orals are marked at a common level at all. Do examiners guess what level you are and mark you according to that level? If they think someone is doing ordinary level and is excellent for an ordinary level student would they give them very high marks, and how would that be fair if that person was actually a C/D higher level student? Or do they just mark it on a single scale from poor to perfectly fluent? If so, how is it fair that a higher level student is inevitably going to get far more marks than an ordinary level student when the rest of their exams are graded taking their totally different skill levels into account? Surely I'm right in thinking that it's very unfair to students aiming for an ordinary level A or B if half of their oral marks are basically off limits due to being marked at the same standard as higher level students, or am I completely over-thinking it and getting worked up over nothing as usual???

spurious

emersyn wrote: »

I've been thinking about this for a few days and I can't understand the way the orals are marked at a common level at all. Do examiners guess what level you are and mark you according to that level? If they think someone is doing ordinary level and is excellent for an ordinary level student would they give them very high marks, and how would that be fair if that person was actually a C/D higher level student? Or do they just mark it on a single scale from poor to perfectly fluent? If so, how is it fair that a higher level student is inevitably going to get far more marks than an ordinary level student when the rest of their exams are graded taking their totally different skill levels into account? Surely I'm right in thinking that it's very unfair to students aiming for an ordinary level A or B if half of their oral marks are basically off limits due to being marked at the same standard as higher level students, or am I completely over-thinking it and getting worked up over nothing as usual???

The overall mantra for the SEC and any exam is that 'the candidate will not be disadvantaged'. I think you are over-thinking things.

emersyn

spurious wrote: »

The overall mantra for the SEC and any exam is that 'the candidate will not be disadvantaged'. I think you are over-thinking things.

I just don't get how this system can be implemented without putting anyone at a disadvantage though?!

emersyn

Meant to post this last weekend for the start of the orals - I think we can all relate to some of the people in this

TSMGUY

emersyn wrote: »

Meant to post this last weekend for the start of the orals - I think we can all relate to some of the people in this

The examiner in that looks suspiciously like Bill Murray.

spurious

The subtitles on that are hilarious.

cxxlin

How damn weird is it that we're so close to finishing?
When I went into secondary school back in 2011 as a baba it felt like absolute years away, but some of us are literally starting 3rd level in a couple of months?!

MomijiHime

cxxlin wrote: »

but some of us are literally starting 3rd level in a couple of months?!

Thank ****.

emersyn

cxxlin wrote: »

How damn weird is it that we're so close to finishing?
When I went into secondary school back in 2011 as a baba it felt like absolute years away, but some of us are literally starting 3rd level in a couple of months?!

Good riddance

TSMGUY

cxxlin wrote: »

How damn weird is it that we're so close to finishing?
When I went into secondary school back in 2011 as a baba it felt like absolute years away, but some of us are literally starting 3rd level in a couple of months?!

I've been "literally starting 3rd level in a couple of months" for the last 2 years. fml.