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AQA To Kill a Mockingbird 2016 *official thread*

The To Kill a Mockingbird exam is fast approaching, so are there any predictions?

In terms of passages, there has never been a passage on the following:

Jem
Dill
Calpurnia
Mrs Dubose
Tom Robinson
Heck Tate
Walter Cunningham Sr.
Walter Cunningham Jr.

... and probably more (do add)

Do not bet on these coming up though - Atticus has been up three times!!!

Some useful sources:
York Notes
Crash Course videos on TKAM
Spark Notes
TuitionKit videos on youtube
BBC Bitesize

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Original post by Redcoats
The To Kill a Mockingbird exam is fast approaching, so are there any predictions?

In terms of passages, there has never been a passage on the following:

Jem
Dill
Calpurnia
Mrs Dubose
Tom Robinson
Heck Tate
Walter Cunningham Sr.
Walter Cunningham Jr.

... and probably more (do add)

Do not bet on these coming up though - Atticus has been up three times!!!

Some useful sources:
York Notes
Crash Course videos on TKAM
Spark Notes
TuitionKit videos on youtube
BBC Bitesize


My teacher has predicted Cal: I wondered about her and perhaps Jem but didn't realise Dubose and Tom hadn't come up! I'm struggling for part b how to know which quotes are best suitable...the question could be anything :/


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What other book are u doing
Reply 3
Original post by Examquestions
What other book are u doing


I'm also doing the Woman in Black and the character and voice section of poetry. What about you?
Great expectations and the relationships section, I actually quite like TKAM there's a lot of context
Reply 5
Original post by Examquestions
Great expectations and the relationships section, I actually quite like TKAM there's a lot of context


Agreed; it's a great novella, a true feast for the mind. I am looking forward to the exam, as I have hitherto never got anything below an A* in TKAM, nothing below an A in the Woman in Black and nothing below an A* in poetry.
Original post by Redcoats
Agreed; it's a great novella, a true feast for the mind. I am looking forward to the exam, as I have hitherto never got anything below an A* in TKAM, nothing below an A in the Woman in Black and nothing below an A* in poetry.


Wow that's amazing! I do TKAM and character and voice poetry too so do you have any advice/tips for those?
I think in 2014 Dill came up briefly in the passage, although it was mainly Boo Radley. I really want Mrs Dubose to come up though!
Reply 8
I want Tom Robinson or Boo Radley to come up, they are my favourite two to talk about!
Reply 9
Original post by Andy-22
I want Tom Robinson or Boo Radley to come up, they are my favourite two to talk about!


Boo has technically already come up, but there is a chance of Tom Robinson. I personally have an instinct that it's going to be Dill - he's a major fulcrum of the story yet is easily overlooked.

To sharpen our analysis skills, we could each state a quote and someone attempt to analyse it and then state a new one, thus creating an analysis chain - so to speak.

I'll begin.

Analyse:

"Calpurnia was something else again. She was all angles and bones; she was nearsighted; she squinted; her hand was wide as a bed slat and twice as hard."

Feel free to add to other interpretations and correct people!
(edited 7 years ago)
Does anyone have any good revision notes for this book? I haven't had a chance to read it thoroughly. I know where some important parts are and I know a lot of good context about 1930s America but I could do with an extra push to secure my confidence on the book! I know Lord of the Flies a lot better, personally.
Original post by Redcoats
Boo has technically already come up, but there is a chance of Tom Robinson. I personally have an instinct that it's going to be Dill - he's a major fulcrum of the story yet is easily overlooked.

To sharpen our analysis skills, we could each state a quote and someone attempt to analyse it and then state a new one, thus creating an analysis chain - so to speak.

I'll begin.

Analyse:

"Calpurnia was something else again. She was all angles and bones; she was nearsighted; she squinted; her hand was wide as a bed slat and twice as hard."

Feel free to add to other interpretations and correct people!


Good idea! I'll try my best:

Lee uses the phrase "angles and bones" to describe Calpurnia to create an image of a sharp character. Her nearsightedness can be considered a sort of 'weakness' but in fact adds to a menacing effect, produced by her "wide" and "hard" hands and squinting eyes generally resulting in a frown.

Analyse:

"Dill was a curiosity. He wore blue linen shorts that buttoned to his shirt, his hair was snow white and stuck to his head like duck-fluff; he was a year my senior but I towered over him."
Reply 12
Original post by GlassyMarbles
Good idea! I'll try my best:

Lee uses the phrase "angles and bones" to describe Calpurnia to create an image of a sharp character. Her nearsightedness can be considered a sort of 'weakness' but in fact adds to a menacing effect, produced by her "wide" and "hard" hands and squinting eyes generally resulting in a frown.

Analyse:

"Dill was a curiosity. He wore blue linen shorts that buttoned to his shirt, his hair was snow white and stuck to his head like duck-fluff; he was a year my senior but I towered over him."


Here, Dill's hair is described as "duck-fluff", which superficially implies a soft textured exterior (and arguably, implicitly, a soft character) but it is also reminiscent of the description of Boo Radley's character in chapter 30, whose hair was "feathery" upon his head. This could perhaps imply that Dill's "curiosity" towards Boo Radley is so ingrained in Boo's character that it is even present in his description at the pinnacle revelation of Scout. It could also suggest that Dill's fascination with Boo (and indeed Jem and Scout's as well) is ultimately what forms Boo as a character in the novel and the children's naivety in this fascination allows Boo to escape from the imaginative threads of the plot and tangibly stand before the reader with descriptions reminiscent of one of "Boo's children". Hence the reader sees the importance of Dill's character in unlocking this.

I could go on, but I won't be able to stop!

Many of you have asked for advice and mine would be to make links across the novel like the above as this shows higher level evaluation skills - vital for an A* over an A.

Here's a new one:

"Men’s stiff collars wilted bynine in the morning. Ladies bathed before noon, after their three-o’clock naps,and by nightfall were like soft teacakes with frostings of sweat and sweet talcum"
Original post by Redcoats

"Men’s stiff collars wilted by nine in the morning. Ladies bathed before noon, after their three-o’clock naps, and by nightfall were like soft teacakes with frostings of sweat and sweet talcum"


I don't mean to sound rude or anything but I find it difficult to analyse something without an actual question in mind that I'm answering. Why analyse for the sake of it, you know?:smile: So for the quote I chose there's a little question with it - but I gave this one a shot:

The fact that the men in Maycomb's society wear "stiff collars" is reflective of the firm belief in the importance of tradition in this small town - an idea which is reaffirmed later in the novel multiple times, such as when we hear that going to church is "Maycomb's principal recreation". Lee is presenting a town which holds high esteem in the importance of both correct attire and behaviour, which is ironic as the reader sees a society which heavily mistreats certain members, such as Boo Radley and Tom Robinson. The fact that women in Maycomb "bathed" in the middle of the day and took "naps" adds to Lee's idea that people in Maycomb were aimless and had no purpose: "there was nowhere to go, nothing to buy and no money to buy it with".
..................

"The Cunninghams never took anything they can't pay back - no church baskets and no scrip stamps. They never took anything off of anybody, they get along on what they have. They don't have much, but they get along on it."
How does Lee present the Cunningham family, and their morals and values?
My teacher said she said she thinks it's going to be women, e.g. cal, Aunt Alexandra, miss Maudie, The missionary circle
Has Miss Maudie been mentioned in the past?
Original post by thatonepunkguy
Has Miss Maudie been mentioned in the past?


There is a specimen paper with a question based on miss Maudie, but there has never been a questions that's been sat by students in a real exam regarding miss Maudie.
Reply 17
Original post by Wolfram Alpha
There is a specimen paper with a question based on miss Maudie, but there has never been a questions that's been sat by students in a real exam regarding miss Maudie.


Miss Maudie came up last year on the 2015 paper...
Reply 18
Original post by Redcoats
The To Kill a Mockingbird exam is fast approaching, so are there any predictions?

In terms of passages, there has never been a passage on the following:

Jem
Dill
Calpurnia
Mrs Dubose
Tom Robinson
Heck Tate
Walter Cunningham Sr.
Walter Cunningham Jr.

... and probably more (do add)

Do not bet on these coming up though - Atticus has been up three times!!!

Some useful sources:
York Notes
Crash Course videos on TKAM
Spark Notes
TuitionKit videos on youtube
BBC Bitesize


Bob Ewell and the Ewell family haven't come up either
Original post by rihana.c
Miss Maudie came up last year on the 2015 paper...


She was in the passage yes, but the question was not based on her and she was only briefly mentioned when Scout says 'I asked Miss Maudie about what he meant'.

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