Comprehension proves a tough task

STRUGGLES with the questions on comprehension were widely mentioned by Leaving Certificate Irish students.

One Dublin student, who took the ordinary level paper because he didn't need the points, breezed through his paper and finished with an hour to spare.

At Dublin's CUS College Richard Swaziland, who chose the higher level, said he did not like languages but he thought the Irish was fairly easy.

One of the comprehensions, dealing with the Irish Army involvement with the UN, he felt was okay. He chose the essay on misunderstanding as it gave him more scope than the alternative essay.

Helen O'Moore came from the exam hall and proclaimed her higher level Irish test was "horrible."

She explained: "I'm fluent in Irish and I found it very hard. The comprehension was far too difficult, especially the second one"

The essay on whether we should have an army or not was also difficult. She found the questions extremely testing, even for higher level students.

She felt the aural was quite good as she would always choose to speak to her Gaeltacht friends in Irish.

Sarah Pritchard, who took the higher-level paper, thought it was great. Her exam went really well and the aural was really good.

"I answered all the questions and that's what matters," she added.

Higher-level student James Moran admitted struggling with the written comprehension.

"The words were quite unusual; I never heard of some of the words before," he said.

Ronan Hurley, who did the ordinary level paper, thought the tape was a lot easier than expected. They had done a lot of last year's tapes in class and he was happy.