Curricular exams
 Irish, English, Ancient Greek, Arabic,
French, German, Hebrew Studies,
Italian, Japanese, Spanish and Russian.
Non Curricular Exams
 Latvian, Lithuanian, Romanian,
Modern Greek, Finnish, Polish,
Estonian, Slovakian, Swedish, Czech,
Bulgarian, Hungarian, Portuguese,
Danish, and Dutch.
Curricular
 Prepared in school by
qualified teachers.
Non
curricular
 Prepared outside school.
Anyone can prepare
students for the exam.
 Course books are
available for teachers
to follow.
 No course books or
materials. Past papers
and marking schemes
available online.
www.examinations.ie
Curricular
Non curricular
 2 levels: Hons and
Pass.
 One common level for
all. You can get 100
points for an A1.
 Not mother tongue.
 Must be mother tongue
 Listening and speaking  Reading and writing
only. No speaking or
exams as well as
listening.
reading and writing
The exam format
The examination is a 3 hour written examination
paper. It consists of 3 parts:
 Part I consists of a test of reading and understanding
based on a passage of approximately 500
words. (30%)
 Part II is based on the passage in Part I. (30%)
 Part III is an essay (personal writing) on a choice of 2
topics. (40%)
The rules:
You must:
 Speak the language natively
 Be taking Leaving Certificate English
 Be taking only one non-curricular EU language
 Be from a member state of the European Union
 Have followed a programme of study leading to the
Leaving Certificate
 Your school will register you for the exam. Inform the
Examinations Secretary in early March if you wish to
sit the Leaving Cert in your mother tongue.
 For 2013, Non-curricular languages will be examined
on Wednesday 19th June 2013 from 9.30am to 12.30pm.
 If this day and time clashes with other exams your
school can accommodate this.
Use of bilingual
translation dictionaries in
the Leaving Cert
 If English is not your first language, you can use a
bilingual translation dictionary in the Leaving cert.
 A bilingual translation dictionary is a dictionary which
does not give explanations of terms or
definitions. Very important: This may be a different
type of dictionary to the one you usually use.
 You cannot use electronic bilingual dictionaries,
translators, wordlists or glossaries.
Subjects in which the use of
dictionaries is not permitted
 For an exam which is your first language. Eg. A
candidate whose first language is French cannot use a
French dictionary in the French exam.
 English
 Irish
 A language closely related to your first language.
 You must supply your own dictionary. Remember to
order it well in advance. www.internationalbooks.ie
 You must inform the school Examinations Secretary in
early March that you want to use it in the Leaving Cert.
the school has to fill in a form and ask for permission
for you to use a bilingual translation dictionary.
 You must not have any notes written in the dictionary.
The dictionaries will be inspected at the beginning of
each exam.