Well, there’s an interesting thought. If you’d like, we could pick a book, read it independently, and then discuss it on Skype. I’d be completely willing to help you with that. I’m reading Welsh books now, anyway; and I used to teach literature at a post secondary level years ago. Would that be helpful, @Novem? Let’s discuss on our Skype this week. 
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Ooh, sure thank you!
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I had As in Maths and English at GCSE, a degree in history and a post-grad diploma in HR management before applying for physiotherapy. Guess what? because the GCSEs were over 5 years old I had to resit them before they’d consider my application. Now as a qualified physio I can safely say I never use maths in the work place. The closest is joint angles which I have a measuring device with numbers on (if I’m not professionally guessing). Tick boxes! An absolute joke!
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Flippin’ Nora! (Mine were O levels, so that shows you how long ago they were - not sure I could pass a maths GCSE now!)
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Goodness. You would think it would be worth their while (not sure who “they” is) in setting up their own kind of entrance exam, specifically designed to test for the kind of skills, qualities and potential that they actually need, rather than depend on some arbitrary academic qualifications aimed at 16-year olds.
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Update: Student counsellor told me to talk to the IB coordinator.
I’ve just finished talking to the IB coordinator and at the beginning she said no, but let me explain. She later agreed to seriously consider it and look at the IB guidelines to see if I’m allowed. If the guidelines say it’s fine, I can do it. She said she’ll get back to me in a week
I’m scared 
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You’ve got a lot of friends - llawer o ffrindiau - here hoping for the best for you!! 
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I’m sure you’ve seen this @Novem, but it 100% fits what you can achieve in 2 years, with what you have already done and the upcoming bootcamp. Use this, if you haven’t already, if you need to discuss this further with your IB co-ordinator.
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Thanks, but I’m afraid that’s the language aquisition course which is not available as self-taught in our school. I would have chosen that without hesitation if it was 
This is more like what I would have to choose:
(It looks a lot more intimidating)
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It does look more intimidating, but is it worth going for if it’s too easy? But you have done amazingly well so far and I have no doubt you can continue to do so.
What SSIW has given you, and you have seized with both hands, is the ability to speak and understand Welsh. You may have to go elsewhere for the written skills needed as most of the assessment seems to be in written form.
In arguing your case with the IB co-ordinator I would imagine you would need to be able to explain how you will do that.
You have said before that you have been reading Roald Dahl and on line News articles. Can I suggest that you raise your sights to the more difficult, possibly political stuff you might find in something like Barn, https://barn.cymru/. If at present you don’t find stuff too difficult you probably need to stretch yourself a bit.
You also said that you have been keeping a diary recently. Like most diaries I am sure it is private and I’m not suggesting that you publish it. However you probably do need to get your written Welsh checked over by other people. Probably not on this site, pretty definitely not on the site. But if you can find a positive, supportive, well informed person or people, you may get a more impartial idea about how good your written Welsh is at the moment.
Are you familiar with https://www.bangor.ac.uk/cymorthcymraeg/cysill_ar_lein.php.en ?
It’s a very good grammar checker. I tend to write my Welsh homework in Welsh first. I then tend to put it through Google translate from Welsh to English to see if it more or less makes sense, and I then put it through the grammar checker above. It corrects mutations, prepositions. It knows if nouns are masculine or feminine and can deal with numbers. Well, actually, it doesn’t correct mutations, but it offers suggestions which you can accept or reject as you like.
I hope this is useful.
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Thanks, I didn’t know about that website! I looked at it and it seems fine. Some new vocabulary but I can still understand it from context. I have been thinking about ordering some more books soon. I don’t think they’re going to be children’s books
It’s not actually very private, which I guess is one reason I hesitate to call it a diary. I’ve just been trying to write something every day. Though I don’t really feel like that’s what I want people to judge my written Welsh off. They’re just quick entries where I don’t worry about spelling mistakes or making sense at all. I always notice mistakes as soon as I press “done” but I’ve tried to keep myself from fixing anything.
I’ve been thinking about translating some of my old essays into Welsh to see how much vocabulary I’m missing. Maybe I could show those to someone if I end up doing it.
I wasn’t, thank you
Everything you’ve said has been extremely useful and encouraging, thank you so much 
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See if you can translate it. That’s when we realise how much we rely on context but miss the nuances. And when we learn idioms.
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I’m butting in here, without reading the last two posts, because it is clear that @Novem in Finland, wanting to study and be examined in Welsh Literature, really needs some expert help! Now, @garethrking, i’m not asking you tutor her, honestly, not least because your field is grammar, not literature, but, if you have time to read this thread, have you any advice for her. She is 15/16.
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My advice to her is what a number of other friends on here have already said:
- follow your passion - you will do well in something you are keen on and engaged in
- read lots - doesn’t matter what it is as long as it’s aimed at native speakers. I taught myself loads of Spanish virtually from scratch by reading a novel (Hundred Years of Solitude) in English, then immediately reading it again in Spanish, and not being too laborious about it, i.e. keeping the speed up even if I didn’t get everything. I also had a nice Spanish basic grammar which I read through first, and kept by my side.
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Thank you, I guess one thing I should do soon is try to find a more difficult book that can be found in English and Welsh or see if a book I’ve already read has been translated into Welsh
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Diolch yn fawr, Gareth, Having done O-Level English Lit at Grammar School in 1957/8, I just wondered if Welsh Lit involved things like Y Mabinogion, poems of Taliesin and Aneirin and other ancient writings, which I seem to recall, were seen as ‘to be read’ when I first tried to learn Wlesh! My O-Level was Macbeth, certain ‘classic’ poetry written before my grandfather was born and some Dickens (forget which!), not exactly light reading for children!
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We are given a list of authors we can choose from I don’t know what’s on it (I think the coordinator will show it to me if it turns out the IB would allow me to choose Welsh), but I imagine it’s not all super old
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Well, let’s have a look at the list when you get it!
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Well if you wanted to try this, just to throw something out there, a lovely book which has been translated into English by the author is Blasu by Manon Steffan Ros. It’s not terribly hard to read, but she does write rather beautifully…
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