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Cambridge Modern and Medieval Languages (MML) Students and Applicants

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Reply 1000
timelordess
That might be good. I can send you ours if you like, we had a different supervisor for each one to mix it up a bit :woo:

P.S. Laters that is. Right now we're going to watch Entre les murs with our lectrice. :smile:


(Bear in mind these questions came directly from the imagination of our DoS, often seemingly on the spot. I'm not sure if we'd normally get quotes in French to discuss)

Spoiler

BY THE WAY do any of you have Cleo 5 a 7 on DVD? If so, where did you get it? I've only managed to find it on vhs (lol) and a 35 euro dvd :frown:
Melz0r
(Bear in mind these questions came directly from the imagination of our DoS, often seemingly on the spot. I'm not sure if we'd normally get quotes in French to discuss)

Spoiler



Merci bien Melisto! Just in case you wanted my qs they are:

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Ziffachan
BY THE WAY do any of you have Cleo 5 a 7 on DVD? If so, where did you get it? I've only managed to find it on vhs (lol) and a 35 euro dvd :frown:


I bought the Agnes Varda Collection Volume 1 on DVD to get hold of Cleo http://www.amazon.co.uk/Agnes-Varda-Collection-Vol-1-DVD/dp/B002GTFL2K/ref=pd_cp_d_h__0. It's pricey but Colleges give book grants that can cover DVDs and it's worth it if you eventually become interested in Varda. Alternatively most College libraries should have a copy- my college has about 3. And apparently Cleo was available on YouTube around the time of our first lecture last October... not sure if it is still there but worth a look because YouTube is very handy if you need to watch the film in bits to analyse it.
Reply 1003
Ziffachan
BY THE WAY do any of you have Cleo 5 a 7 on DVD? If so, where did you get it? I've only managed to find it on vhs (lol) and a 35 euro dvd :frown:


Unless you think you're going to develop an interest in good old Agnes, it's really not worth buying it! All college libraries should have it. You can always buy it if you decide you really love it.
Reply 1004
tih
How to revise for literature exams

1) keep reading / watching the texts - the better you know them the better. You should have read any book you plan to write on from cover to cover at least 3 times.

2) identify key passages and do some close work on them paying attention to the language used and effects created. Use those post-it sticky-outy things in the pages so that you can find these passages quickly. Photocopy them and have a field day with highlighters. Think about why they are key passages. Get some of those small index cards and do a card for each passage with key points about it on which you could remember for the exams. If you can talk in some detail about the text and the effects created that is very impressive.

3) identify about 25 shortish key quotations preferably ones that could be useful in alot of contexts and learn them so you can quote them under exam conditions. Make sure you learn them carefully and know exactly where the accents go etc.

4) identify the key themes for each book and think about them. Can you compare one theme in two different texts?

5) go through your lecture notes and condense them, identify the key points. Make some revision cards for those too.

6) If a lecturer has made a good point, rather than memorising his/her example, try to find your own example of the same idea using a different part of the text. That is much more impressive to examiners than repeating material you've been given in lectures.

7) PRACTICE ESSAYS in exam conditions in an hour. Try a few and give them to your supervisors to mark (supervisors are usually happy to do extra marking). Once you have written each essay, go over the question again while looking at the text and identify the quotes and passages your would have used if you had had the text. Make a revision card for each timed essay you did showing the key points and quotes you would put in an ideal essay.

8) Do a bit of secondary reading and find some shortish quotes / points that could be used in many contexts. Make sure you can remember and spell the names of the key critics.

9) Practice essay planning and decide how long you need to spend in your hour planning the essay and how you're going to go about it. Ask your supervisor for a revision session on essay planning in which you sit down and plan essays together on questions youve just been given.

10) Learn to read exam questions carefully and work out exactly what they are asking you before you start writing. It's all about identifying the key words and 'unpacking' them - working out what they really mean, what the connotations are, where these words might have come from, whether they are used ironically etc. Spending time looking at the question carefully will help a lot. Feel free to disagree or to problematise the question - if it's a bit vague, ambiguous or contradicotry this can be used to your advantage in your essay.

11) make sure that everything you wirte in your exam essays is RELEVANT to the question. If it's not relevant, don't write it.


That is amazing, thank you so much!
Update on the papers for next year front:

Fr3 approved. Catalan approved! I've even found a German paper I think I might even like! Ge6. Excitement.

Only, I think to do CS1, I'd have to either really fight for it, OR take a ling paper IB in order to take in Part II. So maybe IB: [Fr3, Ge7, Sp10] (Ge7 is History of German language) or [Fr3, Ge6, Li*]. I don't really like the look of Ge7. :/ I've e-mailed off to get some info on what IB Li papers there'll be next year, because the website confused me lots. Taking Ge7 seems a bad compromise and not amazing preparation for CS1. But it'd mean I'd get to take Sp10 in IB at least rather than having Part II [Sp10, CS1, + Fr/Ge*]. I don't know why I'm getting fixated on CS1 when I'm not even sure I'd be able to manage it. But it looks the most interesting paper out of all of them. And planning for Part II already? It's silly. I'll change my mind again next year anyway in the end.

edit: I think it just annoys me that there are so few linguisticsy papers within each basic set of Fr* and Ge* papers. Like, erm, French has one left now, it seems, and it's the first year paper. German has one for each year.
Reply 1006
Has anyone ever successfully managed to find mark schemes for French papers? I asked for one in Use of and you'd have thought I was asking for a map on where to find the Holy Grail or something.
Don't worry about CS1, LM hasn't done a linguistics paper and he's planning on taking it in fourth year, but in conjunction with the Russian linguistics paper. It is possible :smile:
tih

Spoiler


Still no "Use of" marking scheme though... Do they even exist?
Zoedotdot
Don't worry about CS1, LM hasn't done a linguistics paper and he's planning on taking it in fourth year, but in conjunction with the Russian linguistics paper. It is possible :smile:



Oh, ok. Cool. :biggrin: I got the impression I was being very strongly warned off taking it at my DoS meeting. I'll have another chat with him about it sometime, see if I can be more persuasive.
Reply 1010
Any tips for comparative essays? I'm thinking back to GCSE English Lit here. It's not good thinking.
Melz0r
Any tips for comparative essays? I'm thinking back to GCSE English Lit here. It's not good thinking.


I actually find comparative essays easier. I'm presuming here that you don't mean 'compare and contrast' and are talking about themed essays where you draw material from several texts rather than one?
Reply 1012
Zoedotdot
I actually find comparative essays easier. I'm presuming here that you don't mean 'compare and contrast' and are talking about themed essays where you draw material from several texts rather than one?


Yeah. I suppose there's no real formula for doing it, it's just I haven't done one in so long!
Melz0r
Yeah. I suppose there's no real formula for doing it, it's just I haven't done one in so long!


Just look at the texts thematically, be selective and don't try to talk about everything. I tend to do individual spider diagrams about the theme for each text and then one big one with several facets of the theme coming off from it and then points about the texts stemming off from those.

So, for example, the essay that I'm writing at the moment is 'The dividing line between idea and reality is at its most tenuous in films from Spain'. In the middle I had idea/reality and coming off from that I have 'Franco Idea/Reality', 'Andalusia', 'Food', 'Dream sequences', 'Sexuality', 'Technology', 'Physical Construction/Self-Imaging', 'Voiceover' and 'Presence through Absence', which I then turned into 'Social Identity' and 'Gender Identity', and then realised that it's actually easier to just talk about the films separately :p: But that's the idea - I mean, sometimes these essays work thematically and sometimes they don't. Mine doesn't, but in the past I've written very good ones that have been done thematically. Even brainstorming it with that approach helps to clarify things. You don't need to do that much 'compare and contrast', just linking points between texts or even a good conclusion will suffice :smile:
Reply 1014
hey guys,

quick question: does anyone know how 2nd year MML is graded? as in, is our final grade the average of the marks across all our papers, or is it the class we got the most of? ie. say if your papers averaged out at 68, but you got three firsts and two 2.1s, what would the overall class be?

cheers!
sophgen
hey guys,

quick question: does anyone know how 2nd year MML is graded? as in, is our final grade the average of the marks across all our papers, or is it the class we got the most of? ie. say if your papers averaged out at 68, but you got three firsts and two 2.1s, what would the overall class be?

cheers!


They discuss borderline cases at the examiners' meeting. With your example, they'll have a look at all five papers again, see how high the firsts were and how high the 2.is were and then work out whether to give you a first or a 2.i. If the two 2.i papers displayed first class material and were close to a first then most likely you'd be awarded a first. It's not purely numerical and is completely unpredictable - it's a much more subjective process, which is good, because it means that first class talent is recognised despite not meeting all the criteria in some papers :smile: Hope that's helpful!
Reply 1016
Zoedotdot
They discuss borderline cases at the examiners' meeting. With your example, they'll have a look at all five papers again, see how high the firsts were and how high the 2.is were and then work out whether to give you a first or a 2.i. If the two 2.i papers displayed first class material and were close to a first then most likely you'd be awarded a first. It's not purely numerical and is completely unpredictable - it's a much more subjective process, which is good, because it means that first class talent is recognised despite not meeting all the criteria in some papers :smile: Hope that's helpful!


thanks so much, that's great help! good luck with your exams!
Reply 1017
So, I'm thinking of applying for the mml (medieval and modern languages) degree at Cambridge. I'm just wondering whether the IB is highly valued by Oxbridge as I've heard stories of IB students with a 45 (45!) being rejected. In addition, I would like to know whether studying HL languages at IB is suitable for this kind of specialised degree with a high emphasis placed on Spanish. These are my predicted IB grades:
HL: Economics 7 Spanish 7 Biology 7
SL: English 6 Maths 5/6 Mandarin (AB initio) 6/7 (I would like to get this to a definite 7 with hard work)
Also, I am just wondering whether there is any way to take Mandarin as my second degree language as it is not mentioned on their website but I know Cambridge has a chinese studies department. If I cannot take mandarin would it be better to take Portugese or German as my second (begginers) language. I would like to go into business, so German seems like a good option but the emergence of Brazil as an economic power, coupled with the ability to talk to the whole of south america may be as good or better?
If i am not qualified to get on this course I might apply for economics or chinese studies (where I have a reasonable headstart :smile: ).
Hi,

I'm a second-year MML student (French and Spanish). I personally didn't take the IB but I know of others who have done and got in and are doing well. In fact, I believe that HL languages are slightly harder than A level. What you do have to remember though, is that whilst grades are important, they're not everything and people who look amazing on paper do get rejected. The most important thing is to be passionate about your subject.

Unfortunately, you can't combine Mandarin with anything else.

As to Portuguese vs German, I would just pick whichever one you'd enjoy the most. Think about opportunities for travel and go on the MML website (www.mml.cam.ac.uk) and see what students of each language study to find out what you'd enjoy the most. I did a Portuguese paper this year and enjoyed it.

Best of luck!
I heard as well that the Mandarin course at Cambridge is mainly for people who have never done Mandarin before so you're better off just applying for post A-Level Spanish and another language from scratch if you're keen on languages. :smile:

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