Welsh A2 Exam (A level)

Hey!
I'm doing these exams, I am really at a loss for revising it and it's driving me crazy, I just can't get into the right frame of mind! How are you finding revising/how are you revising?

Thanks for making this thread, I was beginning to doubt anyone at all did welsh at A level!

I have no idea about the synoptic, I haven't really thought about it yet. All I think I know is that Cariad has seemed to come up a lot recently (I think? all of my past papers are a bit muddly) so maybe it is more likely to be one of the other two

And as for the short story, my guess is it's most likely to be Pwy fyth a fyddai'n fetel because all the others have come up recently apparently...
Do you have any guesses?

Reply 2

ksully

OP

5

Original post by eleano

Hey!
I'm doing these exams, I am really at a loss for revising it and it's driving me crazy, I just can't get into the right frame of mind! How are you finding revising/how are you revising?

Thanks for making this thread, I was beginning to doubt anyone at all did welsh at A level!

I have no idea about the synoptic, I haven't really thought about it yet. All I think I know is that Cariad has seemed to come up a lot recently (I think? all of my past papers are a bit muddly) so maybe it is more likely to be one of the other two

And as for the short story, my guess is it's most likely to be Pwy fyth a fyddai'n fetel because all the others have come up recently apparently...
Do you have any guesses?

haha i know same, i can barely find anyone who is sitting this exam!
um revision is going okay but its really hard to revise a language so i find just doing loads of past paper questions is best :smile:

what about you?
i reckon the synoptic question might be cymru? as it hasnt come up before.. but then my teacher said its possible for a ddifyg theme to come up aswell, i know they can do diffyg cyfrifoldeb and diffyg cariad but do you know whether diffyg cymru could come up? if so i have no idea what i could write for that....

and for the short stories i reckon it will be ymwelydd as i dont think that has come up yet because the stori ioan kidd stories were only added to the course in 2011
JAN 2012- pe bai (robyn story)
JAN 2011- angladd yn y wlad
JAN 2010- pwy fyth..
so im only going to revise yr ymwelydd & pwy fyth :smile:

Reply 3

Original post by ksully

haha i know same, i can barely find anyone who is sitting this exam!
um revision is going okay but its really hard to revise a language so i find just doing loads of past paper questions is best :smile:

what about you?
i reckon the synoptic question might be cymru? as it hasnt come up before.. but then my teacher said its possible for a ddifyg theme to come up aswell, i know they can do diffyg cyfrifoldeb and diffyg cariad but do you know whether diffyg cymru could come up? if so i have no idea what i could write for that....

and for the short stories i reckon it will be ymwelydd as i dont think that has come up yet because the stori ioan kidd stories were only added to the course in 2011
JAN 2012- pe bai (robyn story)
JAN 2011- angladd yn y wlad
JAN 2010- pwy fyth..
so im only going to revise yr ymwelydd & pwy fyth :smile:

Haha sorry it took me so long to reply! I am stressing because I have english on thursday and then Ca5 only 7 days after and I have done no revision for it properly yet!!!
I didn't even think about diffyg themes! So worried now, I haven't even looked at synoptic stuff yet. I am secretly hoping to just blag it a little bit, although I might need to look up some more about welsh tv and stuff because all I really am familiar with is Gwaith Cartref (the tv show, it's amazing haha) so I'm a bit stuck...

About the past papers, have you seen what came up in June in 2010, 11 and 12? You only mentioned the january ones

Also, how are you feeling about the grammar section of CA6? Have you got the mini "iaith" book from WJEC?" I'm using that and it's really useful but I'm worried it doesn't cover everything!

Reply 4

ksully

OP

5

Original post by eleano

Haha sorry it took me so long to reply! I am stressing because I have english on thursday and then Ca5 only 7 days after and I have done no revision for it properly yet!!!
I didn't even think about diffyg themes! So worried now, I haven't even looked at synoptic stuff yet. I am secretly hoping to just blag it a little bit, although I might need to look up some more about welsh tv and stuff because all I really am familiar with is Gwaith Cartref (the tv show, it's amazing haha) so I'm a bit stuck...

About the past papers, have you seen what came up in June in 2010, 11 and 12? You only mentioned the january ones

Also, how are you feeling about the grammar section of CA6? Have you got the mini "iaith" book from WJEC?" I'm using that and it's really useful but I'm worried it doesn't cover everything!

haha dont worry its fine, im so unprepared for these exams its insane they're coming round so fast! omg i love that show! haha, yeah im going to use alot of stuff from my welsh oral aswell :smile:

oh sorry they are the june ones, cause they dont do january exams for welsh :smile:

um i probably find the grammar section the easiest although im terrible at mutations, and no i dont think thats the book i have, mine is 'Y Chwiliadur Iaith' by Non Ap Emlyn?
for gramma i write the rules down that i need to know like mutations and stuff and then im going to do loads of past paper questions because usualy the questions are really similar :smile:

good luck for thursday :smile:

xxx

Reply 5

welsh speakers... Wish I knew about you guys before I sat my GCSE exam (which I've probably failed)

Pob lwc!

Reply 6

Original post by ksully

haha dont worry its fine, im so unprepared for these exams its insane they're coming round so fast! omg i love that show! haha, yeah im going to use alot of stuff from my welsh oral aswell :smile:

oh sorry they are the june ones, cause they dont do january exams for welsh :smile:

um i probably find the grammar section the easiest although im terrible at mutations, and no i dont think thats the book i have, mine is 'Y Chwiliadur Iaith' by Non Ap Emlyn?
for gramma i write the rules down that i need to know like mutations and stuff and then im going to do loads of past paper questions because usualy the questions are really similar :smile:

good luck for thursday :smile:

xxx

Aaah I see! sorry aha, that's how uninformed I am about this exam! For grammar I've made like a big poster and simlified all the rules, I think it's helped a bit but I know I'll rush it and make the tiniest mistake, for which they will obviously deduct marks haha
Oh right the book I have is "Golwg are iaith" by the same author, I imagine it's probably got the same content though :smile:

Oh yeah true I haven't realy thought about Hedd Wyn or Siwan in ages, I threw away those notes as soon as my exam was over haha, I can remember stuff though so that's ok!
And same! Mutations are hell! It's so difficult to know which nouns are like masculine and feminine as well it drives me crazy!

Reply 7

kelseyclarke

I'm also doing these exams - aaah :-(
I think it'll be yr ymwelydd also! I haven't even looked at it yet because I've been so busy revising RE and English Lit haha

Reply 8

Hey! I've come back to this thread because I've run out of ideas for revision! I'm planning to do a story a day (being there are 4 days till the exam) and just read the story closely, learn any new vocab and make notes. After that, I don't know what to do! I don't want to overdo the whole past papers thing because I think it's more valuable to learn the facts, and I'm too lazy to write for ages when it doesn't really improve me in any way.

How are other people revising?
Also how is anyone meant to prepare for Trawsieithu???
MORE IMPORTANTLY, I would love to know how people actually tackle this question, I've been given really mixed messages from teachers, do you use a particular structure or do you just go with the flow?

I'm having problems with this course because usually I analyse and analyse all the mark schemes and examiner's reports but of course these are in welsh and like hwo has the time to translate all of that lol

Reply 9

ksully

OP

5

Original post by Beths_7

Hi guys, just found this thread!

I'm siting these exams too and I really don't know how to revise!

I've just finished my other exams and now only welsh is left..and I haven't started revising yet!

As yr ymwelydd is the only story that hasn't come up that's the one I'm going to learn. I'm just hoping the wjec don't throw a curveball and do the same as last year or something..

Have you guys got any tips for revising? I don't think my teacher has really taught this very well, and there are no online resources for welsh second language so I'm a bit stuck :frown:

Posted from TSR Mobile

Original post by kelseyclarke

I'm also doing these exams - aaah :-(
I think it'll be yr ymwelydd also! I haven't even looked at it yet because I've been so busy revising RE and English Lit haha

yeah i've given up revising pwy fyth and im just going to focus on yr ymwelydd too :smile:

im so unprepared for the trawsiethu part of the exam :frown:

yeah it is really hard to revise for welsh so i usually write down lie key words or sentences in a grid & do a flow diagram of the story :smile:

i am dreading the CA6 poetry part of the exam though...
i havent done any of my exams yet! my exam timetable couldnt get any worse 11th, 12th then two on the 17th!!
4 exams in 6 days is going to be the death of me, haha!

Reply 10

Also quick question just out of interest - would any of you class yourself as first language speakers? There's a boy in my class who speaks welsh with his family an so has been speaking it for a long as he's been speaking English. He's allowed to sit this subject though because he hasn't been to a welsh school, so he has a huge advantage over the rest of us :frown:

Posted from TSR Mobile

I am definitely second language. I'm really proud of it as well. My family is English and I feel I've worked harder learning this language than people put in welsh medium schools at age 4.

Oh god I'd definitely say he should sit first language! I suppose it kinda depends on what resources the school has for teaching first/second language.
IT's all very difficult because how can you really distinguish it? In my high school (english medium obvo) there was a guy who came from a welsh medium school at age 15 and studied first language welsh even though he hadn't been preparing for it. He had only started learning welsh at age 10 though in his welsh medium school.
Anyway he sat in our second language welsh GCSE class and just sat the first language paper, without having any teaching for it (I don't really know how he managed it but I jknow he passed)

But then at my sixth form, in the year above, there was a guy who was in the same situation as the person you mentioned and sat the second language paper. Apparently he was predicted an A* at A level but actually got a C or something because he made a lot of grammar mstakes and stuff.

I suppose that, although this course is clearly designed for people only just learning welsh, it's not necessarily that advantageous to already know the language fluently because that's not actually what they're measuring you on, they're grading you on your ability to be accurate and to think about literature and stuff... maybe. although I am jealous and kinda wish I was already fluent.

Another question, does anyone have any resources for trawsieithu? All year we've done past paper after past paper but none have ever been given a mark, I don't know where I am with them but this question is worth 50% of the whole exam so I'm a bit worried really.
Do you have any examples of trawsieithu work that's scored really well?

Reply 11

kelseyclarke

Out of curiosity, what did you guys get at AS? I've been working out how badly I could do and still get into uni :')

Reply 12

Original post by kelseyclarke

Out of curiosity, what did you guys get at AS? I've been working out how badly I could do and still get into uni :')

I got 245 or something, just enough to get an A... I'm not going to uni next year, I'm doing a gap year then hopefully going onto a performance conservertoire (enterance by audition but you need 2 Es at A level) so I'm in a really nice position uni-wise. However I still want to kep my A, although it looks like it's going to be really difficult :\

How did you do? What grade do you need?

Reply 13

Original post by Beths_7

So how long have you been learning welsh for then? :smile:

I suppose I have grown up with it a lot more than I realise - none of my family speak it but I have been learning it since I was four.

Posted from TSR Mobile

Well only properly learning since doing full course at GCSE, I would say that was 4 years properly, but you're right in that I've grown up in Wales, around welsh. However I am from Cardiff and haven't really ever mixed with a fluent welsh speaker

And you are right about already speaking it fluently, obviously you can work a lot faster and there's a lot less to worry about, so you are right really :smile:

Thanks so much for that trawsieithu! that's so useful!

Reply 14

Original post by eleano

x

Which school in Cardiff? :eek:

Dydw i ddim yn gwybod (bod?) mae'r ysgol... Okay I won't bother but, where do you go?

St.David's? Cardiff? Whitchurch? :tongue:

I had to do the GCSE with no preparation tbh

Reply 15

Original post by L'Evil Fish

Which school in Cardiff? :eek:

Dydw i ddim yn gwybod (bod?) mae'r ysgol... Okay I won't bother but, where do you go?

St.David's? Cardiff? Whitchurch? :tongue:

I had to do the GCSE with no preparation tbh

I went to Fitzalan and now I go to Bishop of Llandaff for sixth form, why do you ask? Are you from cardiff?

Reply 16

Original post by eleano

I went to Fitzalan and now I go to Bishop of Llandaff for sixth form, why do you ask? Are you from cardiff?

Aaaah, I see! Yes I am :yep:

Cathays high here :afraid:

although, St.David's next year.

Reply 17