Bláthnaid Ní Chofaigh will launch a new RTÉ Raidió na Gaeltachta series to help students prepare for the Oral Irish Leaving Cert exam at the BT Young Scientist & Technology Exhibition this Friday.
The launch will take place during the live broadcast of the Rónán Beo @3 programme from 3 pm – 5 pm.
Since 2012, the percentage of marks for the oral Irish exam has increased from 25% to 40%. Gaeilge na hArdteiste, presented by Bláthnaid, will be broadcast on RTÉ Raidió na Gaeltachta at the start of March. It will provide practical help to students, covering all aspects of the oral exam, and also covering aspects of the written Irish exam.
The series will include sample oral exam scenarios, followed by advice from qualified Irish-language teachers indicating where students in the sample interviews could have improved their answers, what mistakes they made, and pitfalls to be avoided.
The series will also cover the picture series element of the exam, and help with the general conversation segment that accounts for 50% of the marks.
It will help students to build on their vocabulary, and give them ideas about questions they may be asked.
As well as covering the oral exam, the series will help students with the literature element, which forms part of the oral exam, but is a big part also of the written test, with advice, explanations and analysis of the prose and poetry.
The half hour programmes will be broadcast over 6 days, from Sunday 1 March to Friday 6 March, from 8.30 pm – 9 pm, and will be available to download.