[Flyteryder]

I got a borderline C last year and am redoing it in a few weeks. I'm going over the books and poems and doing practice essays but I don't think it's enough. I need to get a B this year and am not sure what to do. Any advice?

[Coursework.info]

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[EsmeA]

Don't worry! I'm doing AQA Lit B unit 1 on the 14th too, which narratives are you studying?
e.g I'm doing the Great Gatsby for my Section A, and when they ask "write about some of the ways Fitzgerald tells the story in Chapter 6" then you just need to include some points about:
- the chronology of the chapter (and why it's written like that)
- the first person narrator
- symbolism and imagery (through characterisation etc.)
- the setting.

Remember, it's not what's told in the story, it's how the story is told. As long as you link back your points about one chapter to the novel as a whole, then it should be fine. And practice essays are always a good idea, but you also should make sure you know your narratives inside out! Revision cards, annotations and re-reading them through should help out.

Good luck!

[Felineyx]

I'm right with you, OP. Scraped a C in January and am now resitting for an A - my college told me last week that they taught us how to answer the questions wrong, so happy days!

In terms of advice, the best I can give is that for Section A, you need to know the book inside out and blindfolded. You need to be able to set the chapter in context and focus on events and aspects of narrative before analysing language, so for instance in The Kite Runner you could talk about the high of the kite tournament and the low of the rape, and then how they are juxtaposed and what language is used.

Section B needs to be very focused on the aspect of narrative, and you need to make sure you analyse, rather than getting bogged down in character analysis.

What texts are you doing?

[cardboardkid]

I've got something that will cheer you up...
I got an E in this exam last year... and I've been predicted an A for my English a2 level. If I don't get it, I'm not going to uni... haha.
I can honestly say I am not a lazy or unintelligent student, I just freaked out because of the amount of texts and how little time there was.

I'm studying Hardy for section A,
Gatsby, Tennyson and The Kite Runner for B.

Oh, and I switched colleges after I got my E. Unfortunately my new school doesn't teach AQA so I have to teach myself! *eek!* Any Hardy criticism/alt. interpretations/model answers for AB especially would be so appreciated, you have no idea.

Good Luck all!