Feedback on A2 English Lit. exam result (AQA LITB3)

As promised, I've attached some of the discussion points from my meeting with a senior AQA examiner. Please bear in mind these are my interpretations of points made, but hopefully they may prove useful to some of you. The main point that came up again and again was about question focus. To be honest, I left thinking I had done'all the right things' but am really going to push this in resit revision classes. Happy to answer any questions if you have them.

Notes from meeting with AQA examiner.docx14.2KB

Reply 81

llbnlwtsr

Original post by Solera1847

As promised, I've attached some of the discussion points from my meeting with a senior AQA examiner. Please bear in mind these are my interpretations of points made, but hopefully they may prove useful to some of you. The main point that came up again and again was about question focus. To be honest, I left thinking I had done'all the right things' but am really going to push this in resit revision classes. Happy to answer any questions if you have them.

I think they're being ridiculous. Some of my paragraphs had comments like "A04 too laboured here" and in paragraphs that were slightly less A04 oriented they disliked my lack of explanation! Even things that were relevant to challenging the question were dismissed because it wasn't directly the question :/

also

It is better to agree with the premise in the question first, then disagree.

Surely this is personal choice rather than something to penalise for?! Maybe it would make the answer more coherent but it can't be a strict rule!

Reply 82

Solera1847

I can understand your frustration. However, I think the comment about agreeing first is to ensure that key words in the question are addressed. e.g to what extent do you think LMB is a fiendlike Queen? I would explore the ways this interpretation can be supported before offering countering views. Of course, it could be done the other was 'round but if you felt strongly against the view then it might still be best to leave this until later to provide a sense of a developing argument. Apparently in some cases, students who disagreed strongly with a pov simply stated this and moved on to their own ideas.
Is worth thinking about anyway.

Reply 83

hanisb

OP

Original post by Solera1847

As promised, I've attached some of the discussion points from my meeting with a senior AQA examiner. Please bear in mind these are my interpretations of points made, but hopefully they may prove useful to some of you. The main point that came up again and again was about question focus. To be honest, I left thinking I had done'all the right things' but am really going to push this in resit revision classes. Happy to answer any questions if you have them.

Thank you SO much! :smile:

Reply 84

hanisb

OP

Original post by hideousnight

I got mine back too, who marked yours? Mine was L Williams and my friend from another school had them too. Most of the comments they made were positive... one of them was "the question is about this" because I said the supernatural elements were not really necessary... So apparently challenging the question is a wrong thing to do. Also I said the word "consequences" has negative connotations and they wrote "not necessarily"... No, it does... And my approach to section B is "convoluted".

Our examiner was called Lee or something like that.
My teacher said that the examiner was marking it in the way that he was looking for what we did wrong, not the other way around. Instead of looking for the good points in our essay to mark, he/she looked for things to mark down.
Another thing I wanted to complain about is the time that we're given. If they give us more time, perhaps we'd be able to write better essays. An hour on each essay is hardly sufficient to think and write at the same time. It's just enough time to write. This is probably why my arguments were so generalized and not well developed. sigh...
I don't like this exam.

Reply 85

Solera1847

I think the thing to do is always write tentatively. Consequences could imply negative connotations but in some texts this is is not neccessarily the case. (similar to transgression - could it be seen as a positive liberating act?)
Could perhaps possibly might
I am going to say this to my students over and over again and hope it works for their resits!

Reply 86

Char Wari

someone in my class got their paper remarked, and went from an E to a B. I'd say that it's AQA who give anyone the examiner status, it's due to poor marking.

They are supposed to mark positively instead of negatively.

Reply 87

Vikasi

Original post by Solera1847

We have just sent a member of staff on an aqa course - the exemplar material they provided was from a student who quoted 3 different critics opinions. I wonder if a lack of this created problems?

I don't think so- I went out of my way to memorise a bunch of critic quotations regarding each of my texts and actually managed to apply them successfully (or at least I thought so at the time) to my essays.
Despite my teacher telling me that use of real critics' opinions can boost your grade, I only ended up with a D. (once again, a reminder that I sat my AS LITB3 in Jan.)

On the other hand, as I found out, my paper went up to a C after the remark (I had a borderline D with 70 marks out of 72 required for a C, though my teacher didn't tell me how much it got bumped up by). Still, my school didn't bother with getting the papers back, so I'm a little cranky about that right now.
Will be resitting in June.

Reply 88

Solera1847

Having spoken to a senior AQA examiner, I agree - critical opinions can be useful but are not neccessary. I think I wrote that when I was trying to understand why so many of my students had achieved a grade lower than expected. Since then, we have had another 2 papers go up as a result of remarking. One student achieved 4/40 on section a and, having looked at the returned script I can honestly say I have never seen such negative marking. It was eventually remarked as 10/40. With resits and coursework taken into account it looks like the majority of students will eventually achieve a grade that reflects their efforts/ ability. I hope this applies to everyone else that has posted here.

Reply 89

Solera1847

Ps try and find out how much you went up - your teacher can access this on e aqa. It may take some of the stress off resitting. For example, I have a student who needs an A for uni. I've added up her ums marks to date (she also went up in a remark - from a C to a B) and judging by her coursework, it looks likely that she will achieve a A regardless. She is still going to resit but I didn't want her to underachieve as a result of the stress of having to get a certain mark in the exam. Done the same with another student who went from a U to an E. It seems likely her courseowrk added to last year's C will give her a D overall so she is resitting to try and get a C but otherwise will be happy with her D. She is less stressed now.
Ps I came into teaching because I love the subject, though lately all I seem to do is work out numbers :s-smilie:

Reply 90

Vikasi

Will do, thanks for the advice!

Reply 91

giveandtake

How do you even get an A* for this A level?

Is it 90%+ in coursework AND 90%+ in the exam, or is it average between coursework and exam?

Cheers

Reply 92

Solera1847

You need 90% or above across both modules - so a 85% and a 95% would be okay. I have checked this with the exams office at college.

This was posted from The Student Room's iPhone/iPad App

Reply 93

Solera1847

Ps I've set up a Gothic revision re- sit thread if anyone is interested - I know there are a lot of people out there who need a better result in June. Might be a good idea to share resources/ideas etc. We could even play the amazing AQA 'try and guess the question' game,

This was posted from The Student Room's iPhone/iPad App

Reply 94

Data

14

Original post by giveandtake

How do you even get an A* for this A level?

Is it 90%+ in coursework AND 90%+ in the exam, or is it average between coursework and exam?

Cheers

It's 180/200 across the 2 units (as the 2 units are not equally sized this is not the same as 85% in one and 95% in the other).

Reply 95

Solera1847

Valid point! This is however what I was told by the College exams officer. I also rememeber an email from AQA on this, so I'll track it down and post again.

This was posted from The Student Room's iPhone/iPad App

(edited 11 years ago)

Reply 96

giveandtake

Cheers!

Original post by Solera1847

Valid point! This is however what I was told by the College exams officer. I also rememeber an email from AQA on this, so I'll track it down and post again.

This was posted from The Student Room's iPhone/iPad App

That'd be great if you could please.

Reply 97

Geekaholic

The exam results for this particular unit were disgraceful, everyone in my A2 literature class got an E when there were students who were predicted an A* and hold offers at top universities

I was truly disheartened after getting an E on this exam myself however I will be resitting this exam in June

Can someone please give me good tips on how to get top marks in this exam?