Repeating Leaving Cert Irish for Primary Teaching

nia121

Hi Guys,

Just wondering would anyone have any advice on repeating leaving cert Irish. Where would the best place to enroll in a course be?
So far Ashfield Collegehave got back to me and said that I can still enroll but it is quite expensive at EUR1,300.
I will probably go with this course, travelling to Dub after work every thursday evening, which is not desirable.
Also, there is a course on offer at Kilroy's college at a more reasonable prise of EUR395 but I'm not sure I understand in what format it takes place. I am under the impression that it is online tutoring (e-learning). I think I would need a classroom experience.

Hoping to get enrolled in course ASAP as I would like to sit the exam June 2016.

If anyone has any other recommendations it would be very much appreciated.

Thanks

byhookorbycrook

Can you get grinds closer to you- would be cheaper and possibly better.

nia121

Actually never thought of doing that and it probably is the better option, thank you! I just looked up the syllabus and got exam papers to work on, so i'll give those a shot.

Is there a process I have to go through to register to re-sit the exam. i can't really find that much information on the internet about it. On examinations.ie it says external applications to sit Leaving Cert 2015 aren't open til January, so I suppose I just register then. But do you know if I would have to ring up the school I wish to re-sit the exam in etc? Pretty clueless here, don't know anyone who has re-sat theirs before!

Any help or advise is welcomed!

Thanks again

JohnMearsheimer

I repeated Leaving Cert Irish this year. I'm based in Cork and took a classroom based repeat course. It cost me €650. The €1300 quoted to you by Ashfield College seems ridiculously expensive.

As byhookorbycrook has suggested I think grinds might actually work out better for you. Grinds aren't cheap but I think they would still work out cheaper than the €1300 quoted to you by Ashfield College. You would probably only need an hour a week for the year. My classes were an hour per week anyway and it didn't feel too rushed.

A girl in my Irish class initially started repeating with Kilroys College. She abandoned it and didn't have great things to say about it when I asked her about it. She mentioned that support and feedback from Kilroys college wasn't great. I personally think that a classroom environment is better for repeating Leaving Cert Irish.

You will have to register as an external candidate to sit the Irish exam. I'm sure your local or old secondary school will accommodate you if you ask them. I sat my Irish exam and oral at the school where I was taking my classes. I think I paid about €120 to the Department of Education to sit the exam.

A bit on the Irish exam itself...

Doing well in the oral is very important. It's worth 40% of the total marks. I did conversational Irish classes one evening a week in UCC and found them very useful and enjoyable. If you are near Dublin I'd imagine UCD, DCU or Trinity would run similar conversational Irish classes.

You also have to read poetry aloud during the oral (it's fairly easy and there's Youtube videos of them being read so you can listen to them/practice as much as you want before the exam) and go through a sraith pictiúr. A sraith pictiúr is just a series of images describing an event. There are 20 different scenarios (each with 6 pictures) and you'll get asked about one of the scenarios at random during the oral. At honours level you are looking at 4 to 6 sentences per picture, about 24 to 36 sentences to complete your sraith pictiúr. It's not as bad as it sounds, it's grand. If you google sraith pictiúr 2015 you'll get this years ones.

The listening is worth 10% and if you practice a bit there should be no problem hoovering up a good chunk of that 10%. Between the oral and the listening that's half of the marks accounted for before you even open a written paper.

Paper 1 is worth about 17% and it just comprises the essay. The essay topics are usually about social problems, problems facing the youth of today etc. Generally the topics are broad. We got essays as homework and you can build up a bank of them after a while. There is also loads of time in the exam to write your essay as well.

Paper 2 is worth 33% overall but it is intensive work wise. In paper 2 you have questions on:

2 Comprehensions: (16.5%)
1 Short story: (5%)
1 Poem: (5%)
Novel/Book: (6.5%)

The killer of paper 2 is that the short stories, poetry and novel/book account for 16.5% of the overall marks available in the Irish exam but you spend a disproportionate amount of your time preparing for those questions.

It's all very doable anyway.

nia121

Thanks so much for all of that, great to get somebody elses perspective whos done it before. I've decide to take your advice and get grinds instead of enrolling in a course. Also, thanks for outlinging the structure of the exam, you've been very helpful