By Eimear Dinneen - 2 minute readThe New Junior Cycle English exam is very different to the old course, however, this doesn’t make it any more difficult to prepare for, thanks to the new CBAs and Assessment Tasks. This guide will give you a broader understanding of the aims of the new exam, and how to do well in it! At the end of the day, it’s an English exam, so you’ll do well so long as you can write!
The exam is 120 minutes long and is marked out of 180 so you should spend no more than 3 minutes on a 5-marker, or 10 minutes on a 30-mark question, etc. Additional time should be used to improve answers. This is what I did, and happy I did so rather than leaving early, like my peers. Marks can only be got in the exam hall!
Don’t write too little OR too much – you can be penalised for both. Fortunately, the new exam has as-signed writing space – so you should only need more paper if you have huge writing. Don’t neglect other sections just because you have loads to write in one!
Have a few pens on you - but only blue or black. No pencil. And don’t fill in the barcodes or doodle with your pen– your exam will be scanned for marking, so the barcode is needed. No Tippex should be used either, as it takes too long to dry and will create errors in the scanning process.
I would go to Responding to Stimulus Material questions first, to read the text only, so you can be thinking about it in the back of your mind as you tackle the studied text questions after. Then, proceed to answer the stimuli, and finally, the writing questions. This is how I tackled the exam; I left all my time till the end for writing a script! This prevents rushing the writing section. Answer every question, even if you have to leave some unfinished!
Ask the supervisor for help with understanding a question if you need to. They won’t answer it, nor give you a definition to a word – but they will clarify certain things if they are generally misleading.
Work hard on your CBAs because it will pay off. The Assessment Task also requires attention for 20 marks out of 200.
In English, you don’t lose marks; you earn them. Work hard and practice and you’ll do superb.
To read Eve's full list of tips click the attachment below.
If you'd like to listen to some extra tips from an experienced English teacher, check out the podcast below! Jamie Dockery gives his best tips for improving in English, from the CBAs to poetry.
