Cillian Fahey, who got straight As in his Leaving Cert, made headlines when he sold his exam notes on eBay for €3,000. In this continuing series he shares his study experience with readers, today offering advice to fifth- and sixth-year students on Leaving Cert Irish
While I studied higher-level Irish, I think these study guidelines work for Irish at any level. I believe that many people approach the study of Irish in the wrong way, wasting a great deal of time and effort on work that won’t stand to them in the exam. This is how I went about it.
ESSAY AND COMPREHENSION
Essay: a lottery?
It can all depend on what comes up and what you’ve written before. The essay is a bit of a lottery, so make sure you have the right ticket.
Here’s how:
1) Keep up with the news by watching the big stories between September and December. For example, the vote on the Lisbon Treaty took place in October last year and the EU was on this year’s paper. In the previous year, Barack Obama was elected US president in November 2008 and ended up on the 2009 paper. Prepare some vocabulary on current stories in advance. It might be worth squirrelling away a few phrases on banking, budgets and economics this winter.
2) Use great grammar. It’s important to realise that grammar accounts for 80 per cent of the essay mark. No matter how good your ideas are, it’s all about the quality of Irish you use. If you learn a number of general phrases you can learn Irish grammar through them and adapt them on the day.
3) Don’t rush. Time is not a problem here, so don’t turn it into one. Unless you’re a very slow writer you should have enough time to reach 600 words or so with ease.
4) Consider your options. Some people think that you can only write an essay for this question. That’s not true. You can write a story, a debate piece or a newspaper article instead. You just need to learn set openings and conclusions for the debate. Do this and you increase your chances of holding a winning ticket.
Comprehensions: take advantage
They’re worth 70 marks, only 30 marks less than the essay, but they can be much easier to do well in. It’s important that you develop your skills here.
Here’s how:
1) Get out a dictionary. There’s a myth that says you can’t do well at comprehensions unless you develop your overall ability in Irish. Not true! Every time you do an exam comprehension you should highlight the words you don’t understand, get out a dictionary and learn them.
2) You don’t need to understand everything, you just need to get the gist of what is being said. There are always going to be words you don’t understand, but that’s the same for everyone, so have confidence and don’t be daunted by long or technical words. In the end they may not be important.
3) Use your own Irish. Even if you don’t have great Irish you should try and focus on re-wording the answers rather than repeating the text. A small change in wording is all you will need to get more marks. However, it’s better to quote directly from the text than leave an answer blank.
4) Hone your technique. There’s a technique to answering these questions which can really benefit you on the day of the exam.
First, read the questions. Next, read the comprehension. Using a coloured highlighter, highlight the sentences where you think the answers are. Then reread the questions, which will tell you which paragraph the answer is in. Look closely at that paragraph and the question.
Pay particular attention to the words of the question. There might be a noun or verb there that also features in the paragraph, which might signal that the answer is there.
Although what you have highlighted in the beginning may be right, don’t be afraid to change your mind after careful consideration.
AURAL
Listen up
The aural is a question that can cause students a lot of trouble, but there are a few tricks you can use to top up your mark.
Here’s how:
1) Practice makes perfect. The Irish aural is usually hard at first. If you have trouble doing these tests, keep on practising and you will improve. Get used to scanning what you hear closely and managing how you deal with the questions. More so than with any other section of the exams, this skill comes with practice.
2) Remember that vocabulary always repeats. It’s important that you listen closely to everything that is said when you practice these tests. Don’t just write down the answers that you hear. If you hear a word you don’t understand, write it down phonetically and look it up later in a dictionary or ask your teacher. Vocabulary repeats regularly in exams, so what might just sound like a weird word last year might be an answer next year.
3) Know your place. If you ever hear an Irish place name, make sure to write it down and learn how to spell it. These are regular features of the aural, so you should be prepared to tackle them. That way you will find it easy to recognise them and will not lose any marks for spelling them wrong.
4) Remember it’s all in the question. The question will guide and direct you to the answer if you use it properly. It’s more important to understand all aspects of the question than it is to understand every word you hear. It is vital that when you complete an Irish aural exam paper you review the questions again and ensure that you understand every word in every question.
5) Testing testing . . . Whenever you practise, always treat your work as an exam. Only allow yourself to listen the allocated number of times for each section. This way you will learn how much time you have before the next hearing and when it is best to write down the answer to a question. Try to view this method as less stressful than studying, as all you have to do is listen and write. Don’t forget this will benefit your oral Irish too.
Oral
Walking the talk
Dreaded by many and feared by the rest, the oral exam is the cause of many a restless night for the average Leaving Cert student. But it shouldn’t be! The only way to stop feeling like you don’t have control is to take control.
Here’s how:
1) Practise with friends. Speaking Irish outside the classroom may not be cool, but it’s a great way to get your marks up. Your friends are probably as nervous about the Irish oral as you are and you can help each other out by talking Irish together. It is even more effective if you focus on running mock oral tests rather than just speaking Irish. This allows the person asking the questions to get into the mindset of an examiner, which is an important skill to develop.
2) Increase your vocabulary. Learning vocabulary and phrases is vital for the oral. You will find that using a limited number of phrases you can answer a fairly large range of question. Having vocabulary that focuses precisely on the areas that tend to be discussed in the oral is important. This does require some work, both in coming up with the phrases and assembling the vocabulary, but it will pay off in the end.
3) Focus on quality over quantity. Try to focus less on developing a large number of answers and more on how detailed you can be in your answers. The oral examiner is more likely to stay on the same subject for a period of time than jump from topic to topic, so make sure that you are able to go into detail.
4) Interlink. Try to connect all your answers to one another. This will enable you to prompt the examiner to discuss a particular topic that you are well prepared for. At the very least it will reduce the likeliness of the examiner going into an area you haven’t discussed before.
5) Take advantage of Irish courses. Many schools run Easter courses which prepare students directly for their oral exams. These can be invaluable and can offer you a break from your usual study routine. All fifth-year students should strongly consider booking a course this summer too. But do so early as they tend to fill up quick.
PROSE
Focus on the basics
The prose question requires proper attention to the basics. You need to ensure that you don’t let your focus slip here.
Here’s how:
1) Don’t lose the plot. Rewrite the plot of a set text in English, from memory, to check whether you know it exactly. The trick to doing well here is having a clear idea of what happens in each and every story. It is enough to make points, as long as they’re relevant to what occurs in the story, and because of this, knowing the plot is vital.
2) Look back. More so than with any other question you should review past prose papers. Unlike with the poetry you will not have the text in front of you on the day (this means, however, that the range of questions asked on each story is limited). Take a look at all the past questions and make sure you can answer them.
3) Plan your answer. Organisation and presentation are important for every exam. Plan your prose answers in English. This will enable you to see which question you would write the best answer for and will offer you direction when writing that answer.
4) Use one-liners. You’re not really expected to reference and quote from the text for this question, but you can generally find a small number of quotes in each piece of prose which are suitable for every answer. These quotes may just be short one-liners but they will impress the examiner and add another element to your answer.
POETRY
Learning to enjoy
There are many misconceptions about the Irish exam, and the biggest one is that you have to learn vast amounts of material to answer the poetry questions. This is simply not true; in fact, if you go about it the right way you may find that the Irish poetry question is something you can enjoy.
Here’s how:
1) Don’t make time an issue. Don’t worry about your watch for this paper. You will find that you have ample time to present your answers as long as you don’t get stuck on a question. It is easier to get stuck on the poetry question due to the amount of choice, so ensure that you don’t spend too long deliberating.
2) Keep it simple. In this question “Gaeilge simplí” is all you need. Remember that the poem is printed in front of you. If you learn a simple Irish translation of each poem, you can answer any question. You’re required to do this for six marks in the higher-level poetry, but you can make learning off the Gaeilge simplí worth 35 marks if you use it properly.
Each paragraph should follow a simple format. Begin each one by making reference to the question, then quote from the poem in front of you. Next write down the Gaeilge simplí explaining that quote, then point out why it’s relevant. Finish off by referring back to the question.
The only two questions where the Gaeilge simplí will not work is for those on meadaracht in Úirchill an Chreagáinand Bímse Buan ar Buairt Gach Ló. You will need to learn that separately for these two poems.
STAIR NA GAEILGE
Knowing your strategy
With these, you either know them or you don’t. So make sure you know them. In this section there is a lot to learn, but if you have a strategy to tackle them there shouldn’t be a problem.
Here’s how:
1) Do these first. Stair na Gaeilge should be your first port of call in the exam. They’re quick, so it’s best to get them out of the way rather than forgetting about them at the end.
2) Keep them short and sweet. You will be required to mention three points for each, but it’s best to make five brief points that are concise and exact. All these points need to be in some way factual. Don’t learn off long points as you will simply give yourself more work than is needed.
3) Don’t cut corners. Sometimes you might think that if it came up last year then you don’t have to do it this year. If you do that in this question it can prove fatal. Take a look at the 2008 and 2009 Stair na Gaeilge questions. Notice any similarities? That’s right: they are exactly the same questions. Don’t cut corners here or it could cost you in the exam.
4) On your marks. It’s important that you start learning these early as there are a lot to get through. If you spread the learning out from now until June you will find it manageable in the exam and it will be a handy thirty marks.
An Triail
A trial indeed
This question is very long and requires the use of a large amount of information. What is perhaps most difficult is finding enough information to write about, but by using some simple steps you can do very well here.
Here’s how:
1) Know the storyline. It’s important that you actually know what happens. Be able to write out from memory the sequence of all the events in the play. Don’t overlook the simple things.
2) Learn the vocabulary. An Triailcontains some words that you may never have seen before. It's important that you highlight these and learn them; you may well need them in the exam. You should keep an organised list of words, so you can review them before you go into the exam.
3) He said, she said. Quotes aren’t expected in this question, which is why the examiner will be impressed if you use them. I learned 30 brief quotations from the play for my Leaving Cert. Because this is such a long question it can be difficult finding enough to write, but you can use quotes to solve that problem and to give your answer direction.
4) Remember that content counts. In a way, this paper is the opposite of the essay. It focuses on your content and ideas and less on your use of Irish. While both are still important you can make mistakes without losing too many marks. But, at the same time, if the examiner can’t understand what you are saying then the point can’t count either. Focus on making a large number of clear and simple points.
Cillian Fahey’s guide to study skills is available at irishtimes.com.
Next month: how to cope with Leaving Cert maths
