Knowing how the grades are distributed will help you plan your time effectively if you want to maximize the grade you receive on the oral portion of the leaving cert.
You will also have the option to prepare for a significant amount of the assessment in advance of the big day as part of your leaving cert Irish oral exam.
Students should take advantage of this excellent opportunity to practice a certain area or topic because they may be sure that it will come up in their chat with your examiner.
This should be your top priority once you have a solid command of the language. Your time would be better spent practising what you are going to say more generally rather than memorizing responses to questions that might not even come up in discussion.
If you are interested in anything in particular, this is one method to guarantee that it will come up in conversation—especially if it is something that is unlikely to come up in a short conversation.
Additionally, since the oral portion of the exam makes up 40% of the exam, you should spend time studying for it.
Naturally, if you are studying a second language in addition to Irish, you should be sure to allow yourself adequate time to practice so that your grade in that module doesn't suffer.
Don’t be afraid to reach out to some of the past students of your school to get some information on studying an Irish course after you leave school and start your university education.
The Irish leaving cert oral exams can also be practised online. Going through the questions which most commonly feature on the day is a great way of spending your time and revision throughout the year. Consider keeping a separate book for your Irish leaving cert oral exam revision. That way you can study the appropriate language the day before.
Given that the oral assessments are generally scheduled for dates that are relatively close to each other in the leaving certificate academic calendar, you should definitely not let your study for one language subtract from the other!
If you are wondering how to improve your grades in Irish then you should explore all of the different avenues to accomplishing just that!
Practising the sráith pictúr
As part of the leaving cert Irish syllabus, you will be required to learn a series of stories. There are 20 stories in total, each having an average of six pictures or graphics describing the events that are taking place.
In your leaving cert Irish exam you will be required to select one of these stories at random and describe it to your examiner. Given that there is no text on these sheets, you will need to describe what you see on the paper in front of you.
This part of the assessment is required at both higher and ordinary levels of the subject. Let’s look at a few pointers that might just help you to achieve the mark you deserve in the assessment.
Make sure you don't sound like you know everything by heart. The examiner will find it tedious to listen to, and you won't receive many points for speaking like a robot. Speak as naturally as you can.
The best approach to accomplish this is to master essential vocabulary and concepts, but avoid learning lengthy sentences. As a result, you may make up phrases as you go along and still sound fluent and have a wide range of vocabulary.
The examiner is not there to deduct points from your score. Give them the chance to grade you as high as they can if they wish! Take a few deep breaths and demonstrate your knowledge of the language. You've had ample time to study for this, and your diligence will be rewarded.
You should be well prepared for this exam because you will have plenty of time to study. Just be sure to be familiar with the Sráith Pictúr, the poetry, and the most often-asked questions. The examiner shouldn't ask you any questions throughout the exam that you haven't thought about. Easy as pie.
The Irish leaving cert oral exam is a great avenue for students who are looking to achieve a high grade in the language. You should give the oral exam the time that it deserves considering it is worth 40% of the paper. The oral exam will also take place on a different day far in advance of the written exam so you can study for each separately.
Nailing this portion of the Irish oral exam will set you up nicely for achieving a high grade in the exam!
Students can study the Irish language outside of school by talking amongst friends or taking a trip to one of the Irish-speaking regions on the island.
Practising for the Irish listening exam is essential if you want to achieve the highest grade possible.
Tips for a successful oral exam
One of the best thoughts you should keep in the back of your mind when studying for the Irish oral exam is how the examiner thinks.
Given that this is the person that will be grading your paper, it is important to consider a number of different factors that might inherently influence the grade you receive.
Remember, your examiner will likely have to sit in their examination hall or room for the entirety of each day that they spend at your respective school. Sitting in a chair all day is exhausting, however relaxing it might sound. Particularly when you consider that they will be having more or less the same conversation over and over again with each student that enters through the door.
Why is this an important question to ask yourself when preparing for the Irish oral exam you might ask?
Because, by doing what you can to make sure that your conversation stands out or is more memorable or engaging than the other candidates that walk through the door, particularly those who come immediately before and after you, you will be sure to earn some more marks.
You can achieve this in a number of different ways. While the examiner will read through the same list of questions in order to prompt conversation you can always steer the conversation towards an area of interest.
You can even have your conversation prepared in advance if that puts your mind at ease.
For example, you know that you will be asked about your home or the area where you live, so you could immediately have your examiner falling out of their seat when you begin talking about the housing crisis or the increased rates of inflation.
Take the sráith pictúr section, for example, most of the students in your class will likely have the same story and phrases memorised for each story. Even having a few extra sentences prepared to describe the events that unfolded in the pictures will indicate to the examiner that you are a level above the competition.
Proving to your examiner that you are a H1 level Irish student, even if just for the duration of your oral exam conversation, then you will have a good chance of being awarded a grade to accompany it.
Expanding your Irish vocabulary is a great way to show off your ability to an examiner.
Learning Irish with a tutor from Superprof
If you ask any past leaving cert student, with hindsight what would they have done differently in their leaving cert preparations and in Irish more specifically, they will likely give you three answers.
That they wished that they had begun preparing sooner, that they had given the oral section of the exam more attention or they had utilised a personal tutor to rehearse with.
The students that achieved high marks and are satisfied with the grade that they achieved in their exams to this day are likely the same students that managed to implement these three key insights.
There is a positive correlation that exists between the hours that a student spends with a private tutor and the grade that they receive in the respective subject. By choosing to cite your sráith pictúr stories and run over the different tenses alongside an Irish tutor you will be elevating your grade in the subject.
The numbers don’t lie, so why not join the highest-achieving students and start working with a private tutor sooner rather than later?
If you are unsure about what the most efficient process is to find a suitable tutor to work through your Irish oral preparations with, then take a look at Superprof.
The platform hosts an expansive list of qualified language tutors and Irish is certainly no exception to this. You will find countless Irish teachers offering their services outside of the classroom. The beauty is that these tutors will be scattered across the country, with many of them offering online alternatives for learning.
This makes it all the more simple for those of you that live in rural areas and don’t fancy letting your commute cut into your study schedule.
Practising your conversational skills and completing mock oral exams will ensure that you are familiar with the format of the assessment before you step foot into the exam hall with your Irish oral examiner.
Both ordinary and higher-level Irish students should start to think about what university they would like to continue their education at. If you think you will achieve enough points from your grades then no school or university should be out of your reach. Start learning with an Irish tutor from the Superprof learning platform today!
The opportunities for Irish language students are plentiful, take a look at some potential career paths.
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