AS AQA B English Literature

There's only 1 chapter left which AQA haven't yet examined in the section A question, I believe that it's Chapter 6! Chapter 2 came up in the January exam so it might be worth checking on AQA past papers for the rest, but I'm pretty confident it's Chapter 6

I think it was about women in his poetry, I'll find out tomorrow cos our teacher will tell us & confirm then

I was wondering whether you remembered the hardy questions from January? I'm doing hardy and gatsby too, and I've noticed you said the part B was hard to answer on hardy as there's no names mentioned.
Thanks!

We are doing:
Great Expectations
The Kite Runner
Hardy Poetry
Browning Poetry

I am having trouble revising, I have no idea what to do for any of these? Could anyone give me a structure to go by? My school is useless, we haven't even read the 2 novels yet!

For section Aa, I would start by giving a very brief idea of the story or the section of the story (in a novel) and the sifnificance of it in terms of the whole narrative. I think it's better to begin A02 discussion with something like structure or narrative perspective and then let other points (e.g language) arise out of this. I definitely wouldn't start with rhyme schemes or micro analysis of individual lines. For example, with The Kite Runner, there is often a lot to say about structure: analepsis, foreshadowing, parallel incidents, the handling of time in the novel is really interesting. On one page, we can be in 2002, 1975, the 60's!

For section Ab you need to keep the key words of the question in mind and use them. Remember to be tentative...could, perhaps, possibly, as this highlights A03 and will help you provide a sense of debate.

Hope this is of some use!

I am right now! (Well not right now..)! But yeah. Depends were studying Tennyson - and I'm hoping for Mariana to be honest - but can't help but fear that The Lotus Eaters will come up. Also for section (b) perhaps something on settings/characters hopefully. Im doing practice essay making notes on cue cards etc. GOOD LUCK

Is anyone else doing The God of Small Things? I haven't come across anyone else who's doing this novel, and we haven't even covered it in lectures; our teacher told us to read it at home and take notes, as we're running out of time (we spent too much time doing coursework). I'm trying to learn off Sparknotes/my own interpretation, but I'd be incredibly grateful if anyone who's done this novel has any notes I could steal. I'm doing it for Section B, along with Keats and Coleridge. Thank you in advance if anyone can help me!

I did TGOST in the summer exam 2011, good choice doing it for section B. Section A is best suited for poetry I find, as you can talk about form and structure better. For Section B, depends what the question is. It's pretty easy though applying it to tgost, the question is probably going to be "how do the three writers use..." and then a general theme like time, symbolism, language, locations... I wouldn't worry too much, I think the most important parts of the book are the sex scene at the end in the last chapter, the orange drink lemon drink man, the moth references and how Rahel uses the moth to describe how she feels, the significance of the boat and it representing escape, the significance of when Estha makes the soup or whatever it is, the significance of the hut thing on the other side of the river, how children don't see politics and see the good in velutha, how Estha notices everything and describes everything in detail (child vulnerability) and how people are innately connected to each other regardless of class - Velutha and the mum, the twins being close... Also think about how external influence corrupts society, like the western TV disrupting the house cleaning lady.
Hope this helps, if you have any other questions just ask

Edit: just thought of other examples, the corner to die references to do with Velutha's brother etc that's pretty important, also the canteen scene where the guy spreads his toast really weird when he is talking to the waitress (I can't remember names) but Arundhati Roy does well there because she manages to create two things happening at once, also there is other stuff like the use of weather and nature taking over the house, also the significance of objects as well like the fan moving diplomatically around the room, time as well i'm mentioned but the structure isn't linear which is worth noting

Thanks a lot also if you can, could you find out what named poem there was? Thank you sooo much

Sorry for such a late reply, our teacher only told us today
Section A questions for Browning:
a) Write about the ways Browning tells the story in 'My Last Duchess.'
b) To what extent do you think that women in Browning's poem are powerless?

I was wondering whether you remembered the hardy questions from January? I'm doing hardy and gatsby too, and I've noticed you said the part B was hard to answer on hardy as there's no names mentioned.
Thanks!

I think I might do Gatsby for section A too, praying a good question will come up because I cannot answer the Section A, part B questions
Any advice for them?

And I'll try not to worry

It's hard to say what is the 'best way' to revise a subject like Lit but I tell my students:

To really know the texts and read them at least 3 times. (though not sure many going that far!) However, you don't want to waste time in the exam trying to remember what a poem/chapter is about.

To select key chapters/poems for Aa practice. (e.g by looking at past questions you can work out some of the more likely possibilities) I wouldn't personally do this for every one -just develop your skills in picking out key aspects of form, structure, narrative perspective, form etc making sure you always link these to the story being told.

For Ab, again -use past questions- but try making up your own statements and arguing for and against them. e.g The changes and political developments in Afghanistan are the most striking feature of the novel'.I sometimes get students to think of controversial or odd ones that they then try and have to provide evidence for.

Oh, and I wouldn't go into the exam thinking - 'I'm going to do x text for section A. It's fine to focus on one in more detail but you need to check Section B before beginning. (e.g the names question in January was great for Gatsby so any student going in saying they were going to do Gatsby for section A could have been thrown a little.