The key to my success in Irish was a strong knowledge of the material in both English and Irish. If I knew the basis of the Q2 prose story or a Q3 poem in English, alongside a useful list of vocabulary, then I was prepared to answer every question.

In addition to this, identifying the fundamental point was an intrinsic factor in producing a strong answer – waffling for a page is not exactly giving the right message.

To avoid this, I created a summary page for each poem and prose extract – a series of columns on an A4 page, divided into boxes of various sizes.

I wrote each question title in a box eg. Príomhthéama, and the salient points for the answer were written in one word summaries underneath – if the question was 14 marks, 7 or 8 points would suffice, if it was a 10 mark question then write only 5 points etc. (Each point is worth 2 marks – point and explain).

Furthermore, I used to create lists of words from each poem that I didn't understand, so that when I went into the exam, the poem on the paper provided me with the majority of the information!

For the oral, you don't have to be fluent, or have attended Irish college to do well in this section. The key to this exam is varied tenses, good vocabulary, and maintaining a conversational tone to your answers – the examiner will appreciate that you have learnt passages about where you live and what your past times are, but the delivery is equally important as the content – prepare interesting facts about yourself, so that they remember you for the right reasons!

When I was studying, I used to pretend I was speaking about a subject in English, and then translated the English script into Irish as best as I could – you are more likely to remember the script in Irish, if you naturally recall the information in this order in English.

This idea can also be applied to the picture sequences – practice translating what you observe in English, and translate into Irish!