HELP! English Foundation paper Nov 2011

Hi,

Can any one help me??

I am taking the GCSE English Language Foundation paper in November 2011, I have not had an English lesson in 5/6 years but need to do the exam, they are using my coursework from when I was in school.

As I am doing this alone I am a bit unsure on what will be on the paper someone mentioned to me that the will be a section on poems is this true and do i need to purchase an anthology??

Any tips to get me throught would also be greatly welcomed.

Many Thanks

Angelina

Reply 1

Florence321

Hey, I've don't know much about the foundation paper but I'm asuming it's similar to the higher paper but with more suggestions on how to answer the questions and less strict marking?
It depends on which exam board you are doing, but for my AQA GCSE this year, for the language part you studied "poems from different cultures" and did comprehension style questions. For the comprehension style questions, you don't really need to learn much, just do past papers and study the mark schemes. You don't have much time for each question so you need to practice being precise and writing what they want and not babbling.
For the poems, you will need to buy the correct anthology and make notes on the poems. Look up the specification of your exam board to see if there's a particular theme you need to focus on, and which poems you will need to know.

I hope that this is right, like I said before I'm not sure about how foundation works for English! Good luck :smile:

Reply 2

angelina90

Thanks very much i was really hopefully there were no poem parts but i better getting revising on the poems now. I have dyslexia so will get extra time but still gonna be a struggle. I think i am doing AQA but will double check thanks for your help.

Angelina

Reply 3

Florence321

Original post by angelina90

No problem! Also, I just re-read my other post and I probably should clarify that the comprehension and the poems are separate parts of the exam!

I think that there are two exams for language. One includes poetry (you'll get a choice of two questions on the poems "compare how .... is used in 'insert poem name' and one other poem". You'll have an anthology but it will be a new one with no notes on it) and writing to describe/explain/inform (writing to describe is the best for picking up marks!)

In the other exam, you'll be given 2-3 leaflets/articles/posters etc and answer questions like "how is language used to present .... in item 1?" and "compare how facts and opinions are used in item 1 and 2". For the foundation paper though I think it may be more to do with just identifying the techniques, rather than saying how they're used (eg. "identify 5 opinions in the article" but I'm not completely certain).
You'll then have to do writing to argue/persuade/advise. Often these questions link to the leaflets you've looked at in the first part so you can use these for ideas. I'd reccommend doing writing to argue for this one as it's the easiest to structure and get marks (in my opinion!) as you have to show both sides of the argument and a conclusion.

Reply 4

Data

Original post by angelina90

There is an anthology, which you will be provided with for one of the 2 exams. if you ask the centre where you are taking the exam, they ought to be able to provide you with a copy to use before the exam, and then they will give you a 'clean' copy for the exam itself.

HELP! English Foundation paper Nov 2011

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