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How to get a H1 in Leaving Cert Irish

By Eimear Dinneen - 2 minute read

Despite doing Irish for years, students are regularly daunted by the idea of sitting their Leaving Cert Irish exam. With 40% of the total marks now for the Oral Exam, there's more and more emphasis on being able to communicate clearly with Irish. In this guide, Éamonn and Eimear from the Studyclix team talk you through how you can improve your grade in the Oral and Written Irish Exam. 

Play to your strengths

It’s really important that you figure out what areas you like to speak about, and also write about. In your oral exam you can try to steer the conversation in these directions during the comhrá section. Having learnt all of this great content for your oral exam, it'd be a shame to waste it for your written exam. In the Aiste section where you write an essay, it can be really handy to try to bring in some phrases and vocabulary you already know. This can save loads of time when you're prepping for the written exam. That's why it really pays off to put effort in now, because you can use any Irish you learn in both exams! It might be a case of trial and error with your teacher finding out what you can talk about most easily but it’ll be a lot easier to talk (and write) about something that you like!

Don’t Forget the Aural

The Aural (Cluaistiscint) is worth 60 marks and shouldn't be overlooked when studying for Irish. The questions tend to be quite manageable and it can be really nice place to pick up marks if you struggle in other areas. Practice really does make perfect in this section, so make sure you use the Studyclix Aural Revision Tool to practice listening to native speakers. You should also get into the habit of underlining keywords as you read questions. Doing this helps to focus you in on what exactly you're being asked for and might stop you getting sidetracked during the pressure of an exam! 

Don't Panic with Poetry and Prós

It can be really easy for students to panic about the poetry and prós section of Paper Two. Lots of students are overwhelmed by the sheer volume of poems and written pieces that they're expected to know. While there might be a mountain of literature to get through remember that in your written exam poetry and prós are only worth 30 marks! In your oral exam you got more marks simply for reading one of the poems! It's important to study the poems with that mind, spending some time on them, but never getting bogged down and panicking over how much there is to do. 

You can read and print off all of Eimear's tips as a PDF below.

Read guide here

Good Luck, we're sure you'll do great.

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