Áine Queenan
I studied higher level English all through secondary school until my final term of 6th year when I decided I would do the ordinary level paper for my Leaving Cert. I enjoyed Junior Cert English and was good at it. However, I found higher level Leaving Cert English to be the most time-consuming subject out of the seven subjects I sat for my Leaving Cert. It’s a huge course which requires consistent creativity and a large amount of content to be learned, not to mention the race for time in the exam.
When I started ordinary level English, I began to enjoy English again and my workload was cut in half. I found the 2017 papers were very manageable for those who were well prepared. Paper one had questions regarding school in the past, present and future giving a lot of options to choose from as did the composition questions. Paper Two also had relevant topics such as the Hero, Heroine and Villain question for the comparative. There was no surprise on either paper overall and I was pleased with both. Despite the fact that the ordinary level paper does not have as much learning as the higher level English paper, it’s still harder to receive an O1 than a H1 with only 1.6% of 15,389 students receiving an O1 last year. To achieve a high grade at ordinary English, I believe you need to know your studied material extremely well.
Practising exam questions is essential to become familiar with the papers’ layout and timing. The first paper is divided into two sections; comprehending and composing. It tests your language skills as you have two comprehensions and creative writing such as a diary entry. There are seven choices for the composition and you choose one. The composition is centred around the different language categories you learn for Leaving Cert - narrative, persuasive, informative, argumentative and the aesthetic use of language. Staying relevant to what is being asked and sticking to the language genre whilst keeping a good structure will ensure you receive high marks. The second paper examines your knowledge of the literary texts you have studied. There is also an unseen poem with a short question. The key to doing well on the second paper is knowing your studied material very well, being able to quote, along with identifying key themes and relationships. The poem is printed on the paper for studied poetry so you do not have to learn the quotes but you must be able to identify the theme and language techniques such as alliteration.
Áine Queenan is applying to study Occupational Therapy through the UCAS system. She also works part time as one of Studyclix.ie customer service agents.