Summary
Highlights
Irish Paper 2 consists of two reading comprehensions (Khain), a prose section (Kho), poetry (He's Ira), and an extra literature question (Litriok of Russia). The reading comprehension is the most crucial part, accounting for a significant portion of the marks.
This section is generally straightforward. For questions 1-5, simply copy and paste direct answers from the text. For question 6B, which asks for an opinion, use your own Irish and avoid direct copying. This section is worth 100 marks and should be tackled first, allotting 45 minutes for each comprehension.
Students should study four out of five prose pieces, as there is choice. Focus on 'Her Lama book', 'Tieranog', and 'Kauilish'. Avoid 'Garwood' and 'Dish' due to recent appearances. The 30-mark question requires 25 minutes of writing, filling 1.5 to 2 pages. Emphasize character analysis and behavior with examples, not just summaries.
The poetry section is typically split into a 15-mark question (focusing on images, contrast, or theme), a 6-mark question (on impact, emotion, or title), and a 9-mark question (on the poet's life and works). Kulscara is highly tipped to appear. Allocate 30 minutes for this section, writing about 1.5 pages for the 15-mark question and six sentences for the others.
For the additional literature question, 'on trial' and 'a hai' are popular options. For 'on trial', focus on Moara's life and character arc, societal hypocrisy, and Poric's role. For 'a hai', discuss themes like music, sport, youth, school, and Gaelic life. Always provide examples of character behavior rather than summaries.
While not as heavily weighted as Paper 1, grammar accounts for five hidden marks in questions 2, 3, and 4. Incorrect sentence structure is the biggest detractor from marks, more so than minor spelling errors. Focus on clear, understandable sentence construction.
For each prose or poetry piece, learn 20 key nouns and 10 adjectives to help construct sentences and answer questions effectively. Always start with the reading comprehensions due to their high mark value. After that, tackle questions in the order you feel most confident, but ensure all questions are attempted within the allotted time.