Don’t panic with poetry and prós...

It can be really easy for students to panic about the poetry and prós section of Paper II. 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, even in the runup to the exam, but don’t get yourself bogged down in them.

...but know the essentials

While it’s important to remember the low weight that poetry is worth, there are some quick things you should know that can be used to answer almost every question. For every poem, it’s essential you know the theme of the poem, the main emotions in the poem, the message that is portrayed in the poem, any poetic techniques in the poem (for example metaphors, imagery, assonance, repetition, etc) and finally, the life and work of the poet. You NEED to know the poet’s name – it will not be given on the paper, even though the poem is given! Unlike in English, the poem is given to you, so you needn’t go learning quotes. However, like in English, you still need to quote the poem in your response to back up your answer.

Know your genres

In the second of your two comprehensions, part (b) is always stating what kind of literary genre the extract is a part of. There are a couple which it could be; tuairisc (report), insint (telling), plé (discussion), treoir (guide), etc. It’s almost always ruairisc or insint though, so you should be safe enough with knowing both of those. It’s important that you know the difference between them and how to recognise them and their traits, as usually the second part of the question is to identify a trait of that genre that showed you that it is, in fact, that genre. For example, a tuairisc is usually written in the present tense, comes from a news source and is non-personal. Being able to quickly know which genre the comprehension is and backing that up can be an easy place to pick up full marks.

Know your Litríocht Breise

The questions in this section are usually either on a character or on a theme/subject matter, so it’s essential you know all the main characters’ qualities, the order of the story and the themes of the story. Five marks are going for your Irish and 35 marks are going for information, so your answer has to be full of information from the story. This proves you know what you’re talking about. It also has to actually answer the question, so be sure to highlight the keywords in the question.

The above advice is courtesy of study website Studyclix. Irish Country Living has teamed up with studyclix.ie to offer last-minute help to Leaving Cert students the night before their exams.