Irish Oral - Don’t be lost for Words!
Students beware there is a significant change in the allocation of marks for the Oral Exam for Irish , the percentage marks for the Oral in your overall result will be increased from 25% to 40%. This is a massive shift in emphasis and is undoubtedly a great challenge for students and teachers.
The Irish Oral has always been one of the toughest parts of the students exams and preparing for it can be very hard.
These changes will have a great effect on how students prepare for the Irish Leaving Certificate exam. For example the Poetry Reading section of the Oral Exam now carries more marks than the written Poetry Question in Paper 2 (35marks to 30 marks). As a result of these changes there is expected to be a greater concentration on the spoken language in the classroom.
The duration of the Oral Test will still be 15 minutes. It will consist of four parts: Reception (5marks), Poetry Reading (35marks), Description of a Series of Pictures (80 marks) and Conversation (120marks).
The introduction of the Description of a Series of Pictures is the most significant change to the structure of the Oral Irish Exam. There are twenty A4 pages of pictures with a series of six pictures on each page. An A4 page will be chosen at random by the examiner in the exam. Student will be required to describe the series of pictures on the A4 page chosen. The students will be expected to ask the examiner questions based on the pictures in addition to answering questions based on the pictures. The twenty A4 pages have been available to the students since early 2011.
It is clear therefore that Oral proficiency is very important for the Irish exam from 2012 onwards.
Mocks.ie, Ireland’s leading online examination service, is now offering a comprehensive Pre-Oral Course for Irish. This day long face to face course is proving very popular with students all over the country and the first two days were sold out.
The course includes the following:
· Tuition from a qualified and vastly experienced lead tutor
· Comprehensive notes on picture sequences (in written and audio format)
· 5 sample/generic orals (in written and audio format)
· PPT presentation on structure of exam, study strategies and do's and don'ts.
· Group/pair work to allow students to speak/practice
· Advice on the reading section of exam (with a free digital recording of a native speaker reading the poems)
· Each student will have a full oral exam.
· The examiner/teacher will offer oral and written feedback.
· The exam/feedback can be recorded by those who bring a recording device (IPhone etc).
· Group discussion of feedback
Why not guarantee your success in the Irish oral by preparing yourself in an intense one day course provided by some of Irelands top Irish teachers!