LC German

ISSU Commentary (Higher Level)

Glück appears to have been on the side of Leaving Cert Higher Level Deutsch students this morning as they sat down to their aural and written papers. The majority of students will have been happy with the aural element of the exam which some have declared as being one of the easiest tapes in years.The written paper got off to a good start with a fairly straightforward first reading comprehension although the second comprehension on solar powered cinemas may have proved tricky for some in parts. However, overall, the comprehension section was approachable with a nice "Angewandte Grammatik" exercise with a particularly straighforward question on rewriting a section in the Präsens (present tense).The written compostion section was also very manageable, however, the final point of the letter option which required students to refer to dance lessons many have been difficult for some to expand on.On a whole, it was a very fair paper which well prepared students will have been delighted with - let's just hope this isn't reflected too much in the marking scheme.

JC Irish Paper 1 & 2

Roisin (Higher Level Irish)

Today we had Irish, papers one and two. They weren't terrible, but they weren't exactly easy either!Paper one started with the listening comprehension, which I felt went pretty well. It was a nice surprise! The first section of the rest of the paper was the reading comprehension, which was, for the most part, pretty straightforward. I was able to understand all the questions and had a good shot at answering them all! The second comprehension was a little bit harder, and I wasn't sure of all the answers. The question where you got a paragraph and had to transpose it in to a different tense was fine because we just had to change it to the nice, easy past tense! The fill-in-the-blanks question was pretty easy too; I was able to put in a word that made sense each time. For the last section, I chose the story about a party. It wasn't a very imaginative or exciting story, but it was a page and a half with some (hopefully) good phrases so hopefully it'll be fine!Paper two was in the afternoon. It started with the ever-dreaded unseen story. It was hard as usual, probably the worst section of the whole subject for me! I chose B for the studied story, and wrote about 'An t-Adh' under the heading of 'saol faoin tuath'. I think I answered it pretty well because I had a good prepared answer. The unseen poetry was next, and I found it easier than usual. One of the poems was about a poodle! I wrote about 'Subh Milis' for the studied poetry, under the heading 'duine uaignach'. I had a good prepared answer for this as well, and I think it was fine. The last section was the letter. I chose B, the one about being away on holiday. Again, it wasn't very imaginative but I think I managed to answer all the requirements, so hopefully it will be okay!Tomorrow we have geography, which needs some looking over, and maths paper 1, which is definitely the easier of the two maths papers, so it won’t be too bad a night!

James (Higher Level Irish)

Today was the second day of the exams. This morning I was quietly confident that the day would go well as I was happy with my two English papers yesterday. I had my two higher level Irish papers to complete today.Paper 1 suited me and I managed to answer everything well. We had a long break of more than 3 hours until Paper 2 started.I thought that this paper was more challenging than the first paper and with duration of just an hour and a half, there was more to write in a shorter length of time. However, it went well and I answered all questions. I think the toughest question of the exam was the unseen poetry on Paper 2.Overall, I'm happy with my Irish exam.

ISSU Commentary (Ordinary Level Irish)

Today’s Junior Cert Ordinary Level Irish paper shouldn’t have posed too many problems for students with some nice questions based on a very clear delivered aural tape.The comprehension section was also extremely fair with a straightforward matching pictures with advertisements exercise followed by question two which consisted of on an advertisement for the National Gallery of Ireland, a safety notice for Bord Gáis and an advertisement for dolphin-spotting boat excursions and question 3 which required students to answer questions on extracts about singer and actress, Miley Cyrus, and the author of The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, John Boyne.The final section on composition was very predictable with candidates asked to write a post card home to their parents from a foreign holiday followed by an email to their father about an invite that they had received to a party.All in all, a nice paper!