ISSU 13/06/2012 ISSU 13/06/2012

Junior Cert French

Clara - Higher Level

Well,that was a little beauty of a paper! Honestly-the hardest part of this morning so far has been getting out of bed after going to see a concert last night :P Let's dive right in and get down to the specifics:Aural: This was one of the easiest I've come across to be frank. Even the most difficult section (Section E I thought) was not overly challenging and was pleasant to listen to.Comprehensions: Again,this was child's play! Very basic with the usual format of 9 pieces with some questions at the bottom. These were interesting and the questions were very good for the most part - although there were a few more difficult ones peeping through. Nothing impossible.Written section: Postcards! Nooooooo!!! I had anticipated a note so when I saw this it was a moment of sheer panic. However, I told myself to calm down and re-read. I coped on that I DID know what to say and got writing. Very stereo-typical,"you're on holidays" postcard to a French pen-pal. Some of the points were a little unusual though, the one about celebrating your mother's birthday? No matter! Onwards to the letter I went. I wasn't surprised to see a formal and informal letter - I had studied both and therefore had a real choice here but in the end I went for the informal one. I was really happy with the letter I produced, the points were more like previous years here thankfully!The only thing there is, anyone reading this who really struggles with French will completely disagree - keep in mind it's one of my favourite subjects and I was therefore almost looking forward to this exam.Overall, I found this paper fun and easy. Au revoir and bonne chance avec l'histoire!

Shahed - Higher Level

Le Français? C'est très, très facile!I was both nervous and calm going into this exam. I had done very little French revision lately (I was mostly focusing on History), but after reading through the whole paper, I was relieved - it looked like a piece of cake!The first section of the exam was the listening comprehension. This has always been my favourite part of French exams, I do quite well on it. It was quite straightforward, nothing difficult at all.The next section was the reading comprehensions. This was incredibly easy, which is a little unusual. There are always some very difficult questions in most years, but this time, there was only one or two which were a little tricky. All in all, this was an easy section.Finally, the written section. This was the section that I had been dreading the most. There was a postcard and then either a formal or informal letter. The postcard was like every other year, nothing too unusual. For the letter, I chose to do an informal letter; I don't know formal letters very well, we hadn't done them much. I was so relieved when I saw informal letter. One of the points I had revised just before going into the exam had come up! This helped to put me at ease for the rest of the exam.As a whole, this was a straightforward exam. I was finished with about an hour left over, though I stayed and went over everything. I was quite happy coming out of it. That's another exam to tick off the list!

Please note: blog posts reflect the opinion of the author and not necessarily the opinion of the Irish Second-Level Students’ Union. Blogs are updated daily by 6.30 pm on scheduled examination dates.

ISSU 07/06/2012 ISSU 07/06/2012

Junior Cert Irish

Clara - Higher Level

Paper 1

Well, actually it wasn't a bad little paper in my opinion! The underlying theme seemed to be the Olympics in London this summer with the grammar section (A) being all about this and there was a further mention in the aural test. Steaming right on ahead though...Aural: I found the first and last sections to be a lot easier than the middle section. I think Cuid A was very well answered on my part and I reckon it wasn't too hard. Cuid B was by far more difficult, but not completely impossible. Cuid C contained one fine piece and one that to me was almost completely incomprehensible - I am dreadful with Munster dialects.Comprehensions: To be honest it was pretty much the same as any year so far and the Justin Bieber one was fairly similar to my mock so I was ok with them. I found some of the language difficult in both pieces but didn't seem unreasonable - it is Higher Level.Grammar: This was again, predictable.I hope every one guessed and studied the Aimsir Fhaistineach as it was Laithreach last year and Caite the year before! I was silently rejoicing at section A therefore although the irregular verbs were... well, irregular! Section B was something I was less prepared for. I've had little practice but think I've made some sensible guesses and will pick up a few marks at least.Ceapadoireacht: I glanced over the page here, taking heed that I would be writing this when I got home even though I knew going into the exam the only ones I would be attempting were scealta or an eachtra.I found the essays (Section A - Aiste) a little challenging, as with Sections C and D but I supposed this is not a format of writing I've ever used and if you were prepared it was probably quite simple and accessible.Overall, a good and fair paper. I hope I'm writing the same when I post about Paper 2 tonight... wish me luck!
Paper 2

I genuinely thought this paper was quite difficult.Why you ask? Well: Pros: The unseen was complete double dutch to me! Fortionately I at least understood all the questions and was able to go through the piece searching for key words from them and make reasonably sensible guesses. I was much happier with Section B here and had enough knowledge to write a summary of a story that fit one of the topics well.Filiocht: Again with the REALLY difficult unseen section! I had even more difficulty with this than the pros but again... some sensible guesswork was done and I'm hoping that it wasn't dreadful. Studied section was fine yet again.Litireacha: Actually,this was the easiest part of the paper in my opinion! Although the topics were nothing like I had prepared in class or studied at home I was able to use my own head and come up with the Irish I needed. I think B was a bit more difficult than A, the one I chose, but overall this section was not offensive and I reckon most people will be pretty happy with it.I'm glad that his paper is behind me - overall I was not expecting it to be easy. As I said earlier - it's Higher Level and it "does what it says on the tin" so to speak. Go n-eiri an bothar leat with the rest of the exams! Talk to you guys tomorrow :)

Lorraine - Ordinary Level

Hey guys! :) Lorraine here! I did Irish this morning! I'm doing ordinary level so I only have one paper thank the Lord!The listening competition was grand! For pass there is A,B and C. A was just 2 boxes with i,ii,iii on each and you just had to answer the questions in Irish. B and C was grand! Its literally where you write a,b,c or d into a box and then the second bit is ticking which word you hear! :D I was delighted with that it seemed easy enough! The listening only lasted 15 minutes! Then it was quarter to 10 when I started all the comprehensions and stuff!The first bit on the paper was the match all, simple! The next few bits was the reading comprehensions- Jedward and Trappatoni came up, a summer camp and piece about a shopping sale. The postcard was on the Gaeltacht and the letter was about a summer job you got. The Alt/Cuntas I found pretty impossible. I couldn't understand what I needed to do and the pictures were about a boy and a girl running for the bus when the school bag splits and they miss the bus because there picking up the books and then they walk home and get soaked. I just didn't have the vocab to answer it!I had a blog to do then which I wasn't expecting as the only things we've done for that section in class is ''I was doing my home work when Una rang me. She invited me to.... I have gone. I will be back at...'' but the blog was about a girl coming over to your house and you watch TV and listen to music etc - I just wasn't expecting it! Overall, I definitely think I passed. There were 18 in my room and at the end there were 2 of us left.The exam started at half 9 and ended at half 11. I stayed till the end and so did a girl out of honours but that was it in our room! From speaking to others about the exam, I know I'm not alone in thinking the exam was pretty doable. I finished it at 10 to 11 and I just kept reading over what I had wrote fixing mistakes and such till half 11. Pass Irish = a very happy student!