Poetry
This is often the most controversial section of the exam, with Higher Level students desperately hoping for a particular poet to appear. You cannot afford to bank on a single poet. As there are eight poets assigned on any particular year, of which four will appear, you must be comfortable writing about at least five of your poets. The annual predictions are becoming less and less reliable, so rather than trying to game the system, put in a bit of extra work and save yourself the heartbreak of trying to cobble together a sub-par answer on a poet you really don't remember.
In recent years, the questions for Higher Level have become increasingly specific. Gone are the days of 'Write a personal response to the poetry of ...' type questions. They have been replaced by much more focused questions, such as 2012's question on Patrick Kavanagh:
“Aspects of Kavanagh’s poetry could be seen as dated and irrelevant, but his unique poetic language has enduring appeal.”
Do you agree with this assessment of his poetry? Support your points with suitable reference to the poetry of Patrick Kavanagh on your course.
A rambling essay on Monaghan and mothers would score very poorly here. A successful answer would have tackled the issues of relevance and 'unique poetic language' head on. For this reason, it is very important to be able to write on more than one poet. If you are hoping for a single poet, but the question is awkwardly phrased, or doesn't allow you to demonstrate what you have studied, you must be able to tackle a more approachable question instead.
For Ordinary Level students, this is a more manageable section of the paper. The questions relate to specific poems, rather than a poet, and the poem will be printed on the page. However, this does not mean you can simply ignore poetry when studying, and approach the entire section as if it were all 'unseen'. The questions invariable ask you to explain in your own words the most challenging lines of the poem, so you must have worked through the poem, line by line, in class.
This is often the most controversial section of the exam, with Higher Level students desperately hoping for a particular poet to appear. You cannot afford to bank on a single poet. As there are eight poets assigned on any particular year, of which four will appear, you must be comfortable writing about at least five of your poets. The annual predictions are becoming less and less reliable, so rather than trying to game the system, put in a bit of extra work and save yourself the heartbreak of trying to cobble together a sub-par answer on a poet you really don't remember.
In recent years, the questions for Higher Level have become increasingly specific. Gone are the days of 'Write a personal response to the poetry of ...' type questions. They have been replaced by much more focused questions, such as 2012's question on Patrick Kavanagh:
“Aspects of Kavanagh’s poetry could be seen as dated and irrelevant, but his unique poetic language has enduring appeal.”
Do you agree with this assessment of his poetry? Support your points with suitable reference to the poetry of Patrick Kavanagh on your course.
A rambling essay on Monaghan and mothers would score very poorly here. A successful answer would have tackled the issues of relevance and 'unique poetic language' head on. For this reason, it is very important to be able to write on more than one poet. If you are hoping for a single poet, but the question is awkwardly phrased, or doesn't allow you to demonstrate what you have studied, you must be able to tackle a more approachable question instead.
For Ordinary Level students, this is a more manageable section of the paper. The questions relate to specific poems, rather than a poet, and the poem will be printed on the page. However, this does not mean you can simply ignore poetry when studying, and approach the entire section as if it were all 'unseen'. The questions invariable ask you to explain in your own words the most challenging lines of the poem, so you must have worked through the poem, line by line, in class.