English is a very tough subject. And it is one of the hardest subjects to get an H1 in.

Only 6.9% of students who sat the higher level English paper in 2024 secured the top mark. That goes to show how difficult it is. But, since 6.4% got it, clearly this isn’t impossible.

In this guide, I will give you the tips and tricks to help you become one of those top scoring students too. I will share pointers that most people don’t know about the exam.

Knowing such nuances and ‘tricks’ will allow you to maximise your marks, so keep reading.

Hopefully you find these tricks useful, and they help you get the must sought after H1!

How to get an H1 in paper 1?

Paper 1 – the language paper. Most people completely disregard this paper because there’s no real learning for it. And that’s the biggest mistake you can make in this subject.

Paper 1 has to be your higher scoring paper, since paper 2 is certainly more taxing. But in order to do that, you need to practise, practise and practise!

Paper 1 can be broken down into 3 categories – the comprehension, the question B, and the big one, the essay question (composition).

I will deal with all 3 sections individually, because you need to master all of them to even get close to the top mark.

How to get an H1 in the comprehensions (Question A)?

This will be the first question you do in your entire leaving cert. And it can be a make or break. The comprehension seems quite straightforward – it’s just gathering information from a text. You practically have the answers.

And, really, that’s all the comprehension is. Yet, people don’t do good in it. Why? Because they read the excerpt and quickly jump into writing their answers. As a result, they don’t have good points to make and then it is impossible to get even over 40 marks (out of 50).

Before I get into the correct strategy for answering, here’s an in-depth look at the style of questions. Before going into the exam, you must be really familiar with this.

The questions:

• Part one has always been (so far!) a read and collect type question, where you are asked to identify 3 things from the text.
• Part 2 tends to be the ‘personal opinion’ question. Remember, paper 1 is all about YOU. So this question is important. This question requires you to personally engage with the ‘concept’ of the text, and give your opinion on it.
• Part 3 tends to be the language questions, where you are asked to analyse the writer’s language style. This part is worth the most marks of Question A.

The approach:

(i). Before you even start this question, read the entire excerpt and highlight potential points you can make. Remember, you need to make 3 (or the specified number in the question!) unique points. If two points are the same you will only get marks for one. Choose carefully and structure properly!

(ii). Just speak your mind for this one. Try stick to the magic number 3 – make 3 unique points expressing YOUR opinion. Pro tip: Reference the text a few times, you’ll get some brownie points because no one else does this!

(iii). Again, when your reading the excerpt, highlight the points you will make beforehand. Remember, one unique point in each paragraph. If the question is about language techniques or writer’s style, try look for language devices, rhetorical questions, tone, vocabulary etc.

Pro tip: Structure your answers carefully. For every part, you should have a small introduction, a proper middle and a nice conclusion. That’s where the H1 is at.

Timing for Question A of comprehension:

Reading and choosing the comprehension should take you no more than 20 mins. Remember, you must make notes when reading and highlight key points that you may be able to use in your answers.

Aim to spend no more than 10 – 15 mins for part 1 and 2, and then try spending 20 mins for part 3.

So in total, you have about 45 – 50 mins for Question A. That’s do-able, trust me.

How to get an H1 in Question B:

Question B is the technical writing question. It is assessing your ability to use the language in a smart and proficient manner. The tasks tend to be extremely relevant to the real world – like draft an email or write a speech.

The trick with QB is to be concise. The examiner wants to see if you are able to answer all the subparts of the question in a short and sweet manner.

Pro tip: As soon as you open the paper, choose your QB first. Since you have to answer QA and QB on a different text, choosing your QB first will mean you can cross out that comprehension saving you time!

The structure of the question:

Question Bs tend to be very wordy. The trick is to filter the question, and focus on the parts you need to write on. Look at the picture below for a sample.

Structure of your answer:

Remember, get to the point quickly. Your answer should be no more than 2 pages (roughly 500 words). If you exceed this limit the H1 is essentially gone, because you have missed the point of the question then.

You must have a small introduction, introducing the answer, individual paragraphs addressing each subpart of the question, and finally a conclusion.

Also, follow the style of the question. For example, if you are asked to write a formal speech, your language must be formal, and you would be writing in first person. This is very important!

Timing for Question B:

You should spend no more than 45 – 50 minutes doing question B. Even though you are only writing 2 pages, you need to spend ample time preparing so your answer is H1 worthy!

How to get an H1 in the composition?

This is the biggest question of both papers, and worth the most marks. People who get an overall H1 more than likely get an H1 in the essay. So, how to do it.

There will be around 7/8 questions (depending on year) to choose from. And the genre/style of questions are always the same. These 8 essay types include personal essays, descriptive writing, short story, speech/debate etc.

Choose your genre before you even go into the exam, and then stick to that genre no matter what. DO NOT attempt a descriptive writing essay in the exam if you’ve never practised it.

Choose a type, and practise it over and over again. You have tons of exam questions to practise from.

The most popular is personal essays, so definitely try having that as an option!

LAST TIP: The trick to getting an H1 in paper 1 is originality. The examiner wants to see something new. They want to see YOU in your writing. Write your personality on the page, and the H1 will follow.

How to get an H1 in paper 21?

Paper 1 is tough because it ultimately comes down to what the examiner thinks of your writing ability. Are you able to make a connect with the examiner is the real question.

Paper 2 is tough because you need to memorise a lot, make the right points, follow a right structure, and if that wasn’t enough, time is really tight.

There are 4 parts to the exam – the Shakespearean play, the comparative, poetry and unseen poetry. Let’s tackle them individually.

How to get an H1 in the Shakespearean play?

If you’re the class of 2025, your play is King Lear. You need to know this play inside and out. What happens in every scene? What are the character profiles? What are the character relationships? Turning points? You need to know it all.

Most importantly, you need to learn the important quotes from each scene. You need to drop in these quotes to support your answer.

The structure:

You must always have an introduction, middle and conclusion. I’m not going to say this again!

Each paragraph in the body must have a unique point. Introduce that point in the starting sentence of the paragraph. Develop that point with quotes. Then summarise that point and link to the next point at the end. Done.

There’s no need overwriting or overexplaining the story. The examiner knows it. You need to back up your explanations and opinions with quotes.

Timing for the play:

You have about 50 minutes for this question. But it really depends on how long you will spend on the others. But you should try to get this question done a little quickly, leaving time for other questios=ns.

PRO TIP: To really impress the examiner, use the language of plays. For example, don’t say “in the act 3 scene 1”. Say, “in the first scene of the climax” (assuming act 3 is the climax). Using language of ‘plays’ is showing-off, and you need that in English.

How to get an H1 in the comparative?

The comparative is a study of multiple prescribed texts (2 – 3), in which you compare and contrast the different worlds and characters of the texts.

The way the comparative is marked is that the examiner is looking for how many comparisons and contrasts you make in each paragraph. The more you compare, the better your marks.

Also, there are different types of questions. For example, you have cultural context, language etc. Choose your genre wisely!

For simplicity sake, I will talk about the cultural context, but the format will be similar for other genres too.

How to structure the comparative answer?

This is the biggest part of the question. You need to have a solid structure. Here’s the break down.

Introduction: As part of the introduction, you must do the following:

• Have an opening line introducing what the cultural context is. This could your interpretation of the idea of the cultural context. This will make your answer stand out.
• Then introduce the question. Basically rephrase it, keeping the cultural context in mind.
• Next, introduce your texts and the writers.
• Finally, introduce the values you will be comparing and contrasting. In the comparative, it is easy to compare certain values from each text. For example, you could compare how the value of ‘education’ is approached in each text.

The body: The way I answered the cultural context question is that I would have 3 (one page long) paragraphs. In each paragraph, I would discuss one new value (like money, education, love etc). Remember, you need to make constant comparisons.

I would recommend reading this article by 625points to further understand how your paragraphs must be laid out and how to answer the comparative question

Conclusion: Summarise everything you have said, and throw in a few more comparisons.

PRO TIP: never summarise the text. The examiner knows your text inside out, and expects you do to. The goal is to answer the question, and to give your opinion. That’s the driving force of this question (both papers really) is YOUR OPINION.

How to get an H1 in poetry?

The prescribed poets vary from year to year. But the questions are always the same.

Look at the poets you have, and then search for past exam questions on these poets. Studyclix is a really good way to do this. An alternative would be to look through all exam questions from year to year, which you can find here.

All poetry questions, at some capacity, are essentially asking you this: “Analyse the poet’s style, the themes, and explain how the different poems make YOU feel”. That’s pretty much the driving force of all poetry questions – you follow this, and then link it into the precise question being asked.

To get the H1 in poetry, your answer must contain the following elements:

• Analysis of language techniques
• Use of the language of poetry in your answer
• Analysis of themes
• Relevant quotes
• What did you feel after the reading the poem?
• A good structure
• Reference the precise question asked, and link it in with all the above.

And that’s the H1.

Timing for poetry:

I personally would spend close to a full hour doing the poetry question. As a result, I would try being a little faster in the other questions. But this can vary from person to person. You need to find your own pace.

How to get an H1 in the unseen poetry:

This was the last question I answered on the paper. By the time you’ll get to this question, you’ll be exhausted, and would hopefully have 15 – 20mins to spare.

To get the H1 in unseen poetry, you need to use the language of poetry throughout. This means talk about the tone, the style, the language techniques used etc.

Remember, its not important for you to understand the poem. I didn’t understand the poem I got. What I did though, was highlight aspects that are present in all good poems, and act like I know what the poem means

This approach is correct, because there is no correct approach to poetry. It’s about how you feel. If you can put your thoughts on a page, in a good way, you will get the H1.

Conclusion:

Getting the H1 in English is extremely difficult. You have two papers, both of which are strictly marked. To make things worse, your writing is compared to all other students.

But, with a solid plan, getting an H1 isn’t that difficult. In this article, I outlined the exact mindset I used when answering the questions, and the structure I used.

All of this worked for me. For English, you need to practise, and find what’ll work for you.

Hopefully, this article has given you a start, and you have picked up some tips and tricks.

Also, make sure to check out our other Leaving Cert focused aritcles to help you get the best marks you can!

• How to get an H1 in maths?
• How to get 62 points?
• How to get an H1 in every subject?

Good luck!