AS Aspects of narrative exam 16th May 2012

I remember doing this exam last year. It was definitely not my favourite. Got the A2 and doing the pastoral this year!

Good Luck!!! Make sure you guys all stick to the AOs. The examiners are very picky on them!

Absolutely dreading this! I am doing The Great Gatsby, The Kite Runner, Keats and Browning.

I suppose it's better to do a poet in Section A, as the story of a poem is usually a lot simpler than a story of a book, and your analysis needs to be directly related to the storyline.

I did W.H. Auden last year for Section A, and flopped it LOL. Thought I'd choose it for Section A since it'll be easier because you had to mention at least 3 poems in Section B if you didn't do the collected poems in section A. In the end, I failed that exam What are you planning to do for both sections?

I'm doing A2 exam too! But I'm doing the Gothic Genre. You should google Litb3, Wellington College. They have past scripts for Litb3 stuff. Same with Litb1 for those who have seen this post, but there's not much variety for Litb1 on that website...

Absolutely dreading this! I am doing The Great Gatsby, The Kite Runner, Keats and Browning.

I suppose it's better to do a poet in Section A, as the story of a poem is usually a lot simpler than a story of a book, and your analysis needs to be directly related to the storyline.

Oh really? I've been taught that you only need to write about one of the poems from the collection in section B. Or is this totally wrong?

I will do either The Great Gatsby or Keats in section A - I am not doing The Kite Runner for sure though. What about yourself?

It's been recommended to me to do poetry in Section A because you will have do to less searching to find things to comment on, and then that leaves the two novels to compare in Section B and they should be easier to compare

For Section A, part Aa they'll ask you about one poem, then Ab they'll ask you about the whole collection. As far as I'm aware you'll have to mention 3. You'll also have to mention 3 too for Section B if you choose to do the collected poems. Unless I've been taught wrong...or maybe it's because you're doing Keats & Browning...I'm not sure. Double check with your teachers just in case.

I've decided to do Gatsby for Section A and the other three texts for Section B.

Some say that in Section B two shorter poems or one long one is fine. I will check with my teachers though, thanks.

Regarding Gatsby, Chapters 6 & 7 have never come up... Do you think it will be one of those two or will the exam board try to trick us and throw in a different chapter?

I hope chapter 6 or 7 will come back. *prays* I think for revision, I'm going to focus these two chapters, and revise briefly on the rest...

I have a quick question -in Section A part A, do you have to go chronologically through a chapter, explaining structure and language as you go along, or can you just pick out some specific features of the chapter and focus on them (obviously relating them back to the overarching story of the chapter)? If this makes sense...

What are people predicting to come up in section B by the way?

Here are some revision notes I made for my Jan 2012 exam - I got an A using them.

I studied The Great Gatsby, Small Island, Tennyson and Browning.
Sorry that the notes are not completely finished, but I guess it is better than nothing.

Here are some revision notes I made for my Jan 2012 exam - I got an A using them.

I studied The Great Gatsby, Small Island, Tennyson and Browning.
Sorry that the notes are not completely finished, but I guess it is better than nothing.

Does anybody have any advise on how to approach the AO3 (interpretations)? That's the one that I'm struggling with most, and it's covered on both the second 21 mark question and the 42 mark question.

I'm doing The Kite Runner, Rossetti's Poetry, Auden's Poetry and The Great Gatsby. We're only covering Gatsby in minimal detail, so that will definitely not be the text I answer section A on.

Well, if you're already writing a paragraph expressing why the chosen quote is effective and how it shapes meaning for the text, you're already hitting AO3 because you've got down one opinion/interpretation of how it shapes meaning. So you can then move on to writing an alternative idea on how someone else might interpret it, so I guess you can argue how the meaning could be the total opposite of what is written before.

e.g. Death is written all over Auden's poems, 'O plunge your hands in water, plunge them in up to the wrist', this particular line symbolises suicide. Alternatively it can be argued as the opposite meaning because it may metaphorically represent enlightenment for an individual.

Obviously don't go into detailed analysis, after all you're meant to prioritise structure and form over language. This is just an example of how I personally would tackle AO3.