Updated May 2024

Long story short: there are no guarantees with the Leaving Cert, and for the last few years it has been particularly hard to predict the poets. I would do four of Ní Chuilleanáin, Plath, Heaney, Hopkins (in that order). All of these are covered in this year’s Complete Guide: H1 Leaving Cert English Notes and Sample Answers.

For 2024: COVID-19 Update

Please note that the choice of questions has been expanded with adjustments.

Students will get away with knowing a lesser portion of the Higher Level English course:

Comparative:

– one Mode of Comparison of three rather than two of three (for example, you can just know Cultural Context rather than Cultural Context and Theme or Issue)

– two Comparative texts of three rather than three of three if you plan to do the one part Comparative question

Since 2023, the obligation to answer on Shakespeare is back.

Poetry:

– it is now necessary to learn four poets of eight rather than five of eight

The rest remains the same and is detailed below.

Introduction

There appears to be a logic to how the SEC structures papers. For HL English poetry, a woman, an Irish person, somebody who hasn’t come up in a while… Yes, that’s right – there appears to be a logic to SEC decisions, but they don’t make any promises.

Are these patterns are too broad to lead to a definite conclusion? Let’s see. Our advice is that you can take risks, but don’t ever risk complete ruin. How to do that? Read on.

The below is based on experience, and it’s not gospel. How you handle your exam is ultimately your decision because you’re the one who will be opening your results in August. Do whatever you feel is best given the full context of the guidance you’ve been given.

The day after the English Papers are finished, there’s always an article in some Irish newspaper or blog saying that the paper wasn’t fair. The only way the paper wouldn’t be fair is if you felt it owed you something. It doesn’t. We are all in the same boat, and what will definitely come up on the exam is unknowable (unless you want to try and infiltrate the SEC – I think they are in Westmeath).

Track record

To give you some idea, we don’t predict all 4 poets every year because of the exact dynamics of the paper and course.

We predicted

Durcan in 2016,

Boland in 2017,

Ní Chuilleanáin and Montague in 2018 and

Seamus Heaney, W.B. Yeats, Brendan Kennelly and Sylvia Plath in 2019.

Rich, Wordsworth, Boland and Ní Chuilleanáin in 2020.

Durcan, Heaney, Plath and Bishop is 2021.

Yeats, Kennelly, Dickinson and Rich in 2022.

Meehan, Mahon, Kavanagh and Bishop in 2023.

All of these were spot on except Bishop took Heaney’s place in 2019, Dickinson Durcan’s in 2020 and Boland Bishop’s in 2021.

Revise five (in 2024 – four) poets well

Limit it to women or Irish men if you’re a badass. No promises though. There is no official rule that a female poet must come up. It’s not like you’ll be able to take the SEC to court for sexism/racism should they decide to change up their poetry selection!

Having said that, the SEC probably doesn’t want to be crucified by virtually every newspaper in this country who undoubtedly will take the opportunity to accuse them of setting the paper unfairly should the paper not contain someone Irish or female. Alas, it is a political issue (it is the State examining us after all). Or will they be praised for making the dreaded Leaving Cert less predictable? Or will it be seen as unfair? It’s hard to know and ultimately it is a personal decision that depends on your tolerance for risk: a bit like if you were buying stocks and bonds.

What are the risks like if you go below 5 poets (in a normal year, not 2024)

Even if we assume that each poet is equally likely to come up:

If you only do 4 poets, there is a 1/70 (1.4%) chance that one of the poets you studied doesn’t come up. That’s a ~98.5% chance that you will be fine.

If you only do 3 poets, there is a 1/14 (7.1%) chance that one of the poets you studied doesn’t come up.

If you only do 2 poets, there is a 3/14 (21.4%) chance that one of the poets you studied doesn’t come up.

If you only do 1 poet, there is a 1/2 (50%) chance that the poet you studied doesn’t come up.

When you think about it, the odds aren’t against you no matter what way you play it. It’s a personal decision. Everyone who writes for 625points revised five. Just saying.

Should you do the poet everyone else is doing

Another important point to consider is that everyone is hoping for the same poet. For example, in 2021 everyone wanted Plath to come up. She did. So most examiners were correcting possibly 4 or 5 Plath essays for every non-Plath essay. What does that do?

Well, the examiner (a human being, ultimately) will get tired of hearing the same thing over and over. While a great essay is still a great essay, the people who usually get 70-80% may get lower grades. It’s just harder to engage the examiner if you are (inadvertently) repeating what they have already read 5 times earlier that day. This shouldn’t be the deciding factor in your choice of poet: even if you do an obscure poet, you still need to be excellent to get a high grade.

If all other things are equal, however, go for it. For example, I, the author of the guide, know all eight poets equally well and if one of the more obscure ones came up, I would definitely do one of them. Why? Because I know that their poetry is full of obscure features that are lost on most people and this gives me an advantage. (This year, this logic isn’t as important because the paper is much less predictable than in, say, 2018 or 2017.)

Having said that, don’t do a poet you find annoying for the sake of doing a more “exotic” poet. Your lack of interest is much harder to hide than you might think.

Can a poet come up two years in a row

Yes, though it happened only three times in the above sample of 10 years.

Should you be worried about new essay titles

Almost all LC essay titles are slightly mutated clones of each other. Don’t be thrown. Every single poetry essay title asks you to discuss two things in the broadest sense: imagery (how things are described) and themes (what is described and what does it mean). You know what to say. You’ve done it before. Lakes-birds-metaphors-alliteration-iambic-pentameter and love-country-childhood-loneliness-satire-philosophy… Ok, there’s more finesse to it, but you won’t be asked to split the atom.

Don’t all these titles below look quite alike?

Obviously, the exact “adjectives” are important, but they aren’t game changing. Durcan isn’t on this year, but the logic still applies, if you want to read more detail on this: Paul Durcan: what to expect on the paper.

Try* to mention six poems

*This depends on the poet. In my actual LC I wrote about four of Eliot’s poems. It depends on the depth you go into.

However, the marking scheme does say: “Normally the study of at least six poems by each poet would be expected. (DES English Syllabus, 6.3)”. “Study”, not “mention”, but by and large, six is a good guide.

Don’t write a paragraph about a poet’s life and so on without talking about a specific poem. The context is important: Plath’s failed marriage, Bishop’s troubled childhood, etc. The context is only a supporting part. The main focus is on the poem. 

As for single texts, there really isn’t much point in trying to predict it.

Is a character question guaranteed every year

No. Sorry.

However, there are almost always somewhat different angles on the same core themes.

Types of questions

There may be a a very specific question that requires in depth knowledge of a character and relevant quotation and at least one broad question that mostly tests your writing skill rather than your knowledge. We go into depth on that in the Complete Revision Guides for this year and next year.

“Hamlet”

For people asking for predictions on “Hamlet”:

A broad question can be about general themes and dramatic techniques, loyalty, power, pride, kingship, appearance vs reality, imagery, a key character such as Claudius.

A specific question could be anything really: for example, the role of women in the play, a specific type of imagery or some other very particular question like that. I typically would steer away from the specific question unless it’s very appealing to you – which is fine too of course.

As long as you know 4-5 key themes, aspects of imagery and characters, you will manage just fine with the broad questions. So know the basics and you will be ? Oh, and don’t forget the quotations! They are key!

Comparative

Is one mode enough – in 2024, yes.

In other years, no. More detail below:

General Vision and Viewpoint (GVV), Literary Genre (LG), Theme or Issue (TI) and Cultural Context (CC) are modes. Three are on every year. Two are asked usually, but all three will get asked in 2022 to give you more choice. 

Which 2 modes? Usually, CC, GVV and TI are “better” than LG.

LG is a lot more technical (you definitely cannot “waffle” there), so it’s usually preferred by people who really like the subject. It’s not harder, it’s just different in a way that may not suit people who don’t enjoy studying English. If you do like your camera angles, soundtracks, metaphors and symbols – absolutely, go ahead, no reason not to do it.

Because the modes on the syllabus change, I don’t think you can narrow it down much more than that by pouring over past papers. Plus, if you did, you would be risking not being able to do a question. So pick one that you prefer, and no point in worrying after that.

Note that TI, LG and CC are on for 2024.

Paper 1

What’s the theme going to be

What difference will it really make if I told you the theme was going to be Peace, Change, Choice or Diversity, or whatever? Your writing skill and ability to draw on your reading of the texts and previous experiences won’t be much enhanced if you spend 4 weeks thinking about a specific theme.

Is personal essay/short story guaranteed on the paper

Nothing is guaranteed, but do judge for yourself:

Best of luck.

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