Irish Paper 1 Reaction
Failte Romhat, Séadhan de Poire anseo.
So we're gonna have a look at the Irish Paper One and I'm gonna give my opinion on the paper. So to start off with the cluastuiscint, obviously the tape file or the CD file or whatever you want to call it hasn't actually been released yet at the time of writing. So the only thing that I've been able to do, so far, is to look at the questions and speak to my own students obviously that came out of the exam. My overall feeling speaking to students and actually looking at the questions that were put in sections A, B, and C, was that, you know, it was probably easier than last year. I don't think it could be any more difficult. I think last year's cluastuiscint was very, very challenging and students found it very, very difficult.
I don't think anyone came out with a hugely negative experience of it. There were some difficult questions there where I was told that, you know, the second part of C was a little bit challenging, but overall, students felt that it was fair, it was manageable and that, you know, they were able to make a good attempt at it. Don't worry, I think with the listenings, the cluastuiscint, students often feel they do worse than they actually did just because you're unsure of what you're listening to and it's different every single time so don't worry! So that's kind of all I really can give you on the listening for now.
Moving to the composing section, an ceapadóireacht, which is then the only other question really on Paper One. We're looking at the five different essay titles. So A was; an costas maireachtála in éirinn, is the cost of living in Ireland, which was a very fair essay title. I think students who would have prepared that question would be very happy to see that question being asked. Obviously, there's loads of different ways you can ask topics that saw the topic of the cost of living in Ireland. That was probably the easiest way to ask it. There was no kind of little, you know, bit added on to it like how it's impacting people or families. So it's just; cost of living in Ireland: discuss. So if you wrote about, the cost of houses, the cost of rent, electricity, oil, petrol, and you know, anything like bills, then you'd be right on topic. It's going to be marked and you've done very well there. That was probably the nicest of all the essay questions.
Number two, fadhb na ndrugaí sa lá atá inniu ann, you have the problem of drugs today. Again, it's a nice title but I wouldn't be so sure that many students would have had essays prepared on this. The last time it came up word for word like that, there was a question in 2015 on alcohol and drugs, so I don't feel although it was a very easy title, I don't think a lot of students would have been overly well prepared for it, so I can't seeing it being a very popular choice, students are good at writing maybe a paragraph or two about drugs, but if you didn't have a full essay on drugs, and I don't think students would have attempted it.
‘Daoine Cáiliúla’, an essay titled famous people in life today. I feel that the title right now has become a little bit more popular in recent years as a trend and if you had an essay prepared on that about famous people within Ireland around the world, again, it's a nice title. It's easy to understand if you had your preparation done and you practise something like that in school, a really nice topic to do. Again, it probably wouldn't be a very, very popular title. To do during the year so I'm not too certain how many people would have done that.
The next one was D, an éagóir an sa saol inniu you again, lot of things about life today and éagóir is an inequality or an injustice, which I know a lot of students this year wanted an essay to come up on the housing crisis and I feel that was probably your best opportunity. You could have fit some of your essay in, the cost of living but an injustice and unfairness and inequality in life today would be housing the way that so many people, you know, in Ireland can't afford to buy for whatever reason, you know, there's a lack of supply there. So that is the one that a lot of students would have wanted to come up.
If you would have understood the word éagóir, they've asked it before as a fadhb, problem, and they've asked it as a géarchéim as a crisis, but they've never used it or an éagóir before, so that may have thrown people off the scent. So I think a lot of students would have liked to answer that question but maybe, didn't because they weren't sure what the meaning of the word was. Last one for the essay was, Í na rudaí a chuireann isteach ar shláinte an duine, the things, plural, rudaí is more than one thing so the things that bother or annoy the health of a person. Similar to like, life of a teenager essay maybe if you prepped that before the negatives to do with that. Couple of things I jotted down was maybe if you wrote about pressure, if you wrote about unemployment, if you wrote about poverty, exams, money, alcohol, drugs. So your typical topics that you would be preparing anyway for talking about teenage years except they said a life of a person instead of a teenager.
Same issues apply with alcohol, drugs and unemployment to poverty. It's the same things that would be of bother to a person. So overall, you know, I think that will be a very popular essay choice this year. I would say a lot of students will have gone for A or for E, that would be my guess of what essays will be most popular for this year's exam.
As for the stories:
A: Misneach, courage, and B: Níl aon tinteán mar do thinteán féin, there's no place like home, two probably difficult words. Misneach, I don't think everyone would understand and relatively simple shanuckle that most people would understand. And if you did the story there, it depends on what you've done in advance. It's not a question I tend to teach. So my own students, I couldn't get the feedback after really to see if they did it or not, I wouldn't say there will be too many students attending those.
And lastly, the debate or the speech The first one is, 'Irish is alive and kicking alive and well in this digital era' and so it's not just an essay about the Irish language, obviously you wanna say it's alive and well as you would. So you'll be talking about TG4, you'll be talking about how it's being used in social media, you know, anything to do with digital or how the pop up Gaeltachts are organised through social media, things like that, you know, it's not just about the Irish language and, how you could go to the Gaeltachts through through Zoom over the last couple of years and stuff like that. So anything to do with the Irish language but that it's online as opposed to just in person. And the last one was the good work that a charity, organisations do or charity organisations do.
Again, a question that has never been asked before, so can't see it being very popular. I feel the theme of this paper was, they put a lot of I suppose, topics on the paper that students would have prepared and would have looked at, but they asked questions in a new way.
So I kind of felt that although students came out feeling like they had something they could answer on, they had something they could do. I don't think many came out absolutely thrilled either mind you.
But look, That's done. Move on to Paper Two and have a look over your material tonight. I wish you the very best of luck and I'll see you again tomorrow. Thanks, Slán.