[chaza01]

(Original post by sahajkaur)
We see Brutus at a conflict with himself even at the start of the novel ( 'Vexèd I am/ Of late with passions of some difference') showing him to be quite a rational and sensible man because he philosophises deeply before taking the decision to kill Caesar ('But it is the bright day that brings forth the adder') and he also realizes the unambitious sides of Caesar ('I have not known when his affections swayed more than his reason'). This is a stark contrast to Cassius who wants to kill Caesar out of his own jealousy. Brutus is the only person in the play that has rigid and ancient ideals about Rome and about nobility, his every action is for the good of Rome (he is even willing to kill his own friend) and due to his fatal misjudgement, he assumes that everyone else only has Rome's best interest at heart too. This is where Brutus' greatest flaw lies he is not able to change his morals and adapt into this new world like Cassius and Antony can, he does not know how to change like Antony can (who persuades the crowd by tricking Brutus) and he cannot be as shrewd as Cassius (who has abandoned all sense of honor in search of his greedy motives). This love for Rome as well as his uptight morality leaves him open to manipulation from Cassius who uses him for his own cause ('And sine you know you cannot see yourself/So well as by reflection, I your glass/ Will modestly discover to yourself/ That of yourself which you yet know not of'). This inability to be shrewd means he falls under Cassius' word (helped by the letters, believing that the Romans truly want this) and he also fails to perceive Mark Antony, letting him live and speak at Caesar's funeral is just the start of Brutus' misjudgments which cause his own downfall. All because of his nobility. He also refuses to use bribes to raise an army due to his nobility, which of course only disadvantages him. At last, because of his nobility, he decides to kill himself when he knows he must die ('So fare you well at once, for Brutus' tongue/Hath almost ended his life's history') rather than being captured by the enemy. Brutus emerges as the tragic hero, who due to his outdated rigid morals construes others, killing his friend and later dying himself. It is important to note that 'julius Caesar' is not about Caesar the man but rather Caesar the ruler, proving how Caesar has reached beyond the grave and made his public self immortal, but it is his bad judgement that he thought this public immortality would grant his body the same mortality too which causes his own death.

No, the only characters worth revising are Cassius, Brutus, Antony and Caesar.

The other point I would weave into your piece is that the fact the Roman people are so fickle also reveals that his Republican idealism is deeply flawed, for the Roman people serve as the cornerstone of the Republic, as they have a say in the election of the counsels of Rome - they are clearly not suitable to make such decisions. Could talk about his Stoic philosophy (or Antiochean platonist as many argue), but I guess 45mins is kinda short.

[member963009]

For gatsby, just know the main plots and characters and the themes

[xoxlovelifexox]

(Original post by sahajkaur)
I didn't put in any quotes! Whoa and did you guys find the last bullet point really stupid?

the last bullet point was so weird for a newspaper article!

[xoxlovelifexox]

(Original post by tara-ann)
hi guys,
ive heard a lot of people saying avoid empathic but im really good at it and i get top marks
what should i do :s ?

if you're good at it i say go for it. i didn't know this but apparently empathic questions are marked pretty harshly, so it's hard to score well that's why people say to avoid it. but if you're good then there's no problem there.

[xoxlovelifexox]

(Original post by Spencer1995)
wait, you say that it was only 72% for an A or A*?? We've been told that the grade boundaries simply do not budge and that it is 90% for an A*, 80% for an A, etc. :s

see, that's what i thought but apparently it works ums. so say if 72% is an A* then that would be 90 ums points, but i'm quite unsure. :|

[member963009]

(Original post by xoxlovelifexox)
see, that's what i thought but apparently it works ums. so say if 72% is an A* then that would be 90 ums points, but i'm quite unsure. :|

One of our teachers is a chief examiner and she gave us last years raw marks

Literature A* 72%
language A* 85%

trust me theyve said that to us for the whole 5 years of my secondary education i have felt like a whole failure but its to keep people working hard because if you dont then your english slips plus its because they want really clever to get full marks so they can be awarded national prizes.

[xoxlovelifexox]

(Original post by sahajkaur)
One of our teachers is a chief examiner and she gave us last years raw marks

Literature A* 72%
language A* 85%

trust me theyve said that to us for the whole 5 years of my secondary education i have felt like a whole failure but its to keep people working hard because if you dont then your english slips plus its because they want really clever to get full marks so they can be awarded national prizes.

how did you find thursday's language paper?

[tara-ann]

she said that it if i feel comfortable with the empathic in the exam then do it. but if i don't she was like do extract problem solved

[xoxlovelifexox]

(Original post by tara-ann)
she said that it if i feel comfortable with the empathic in the exam then do it. but if i don't she was like do extract problem solved

that's a good solution. what texts are you studying?

[chaza01]

(Original post by sahajkaur)
One of our teachers is a chief examiner and she gave us last years raw marks

Literature A* 72%
language A* 85%

trust me theyve said that to us for the whole 5 years of my secondary education i have felt like a whole failure but its to keep people working hard because if you dont then your english slips plus its because they want really clever to get full marks so they can be awarded national prizes.

They do mark quite harshly though, right? Still good news anyway... For Gatsby I am learning quotes for Jordan, tom, daisy, nick, gatsby, myrtle and george wilson - that enough?

[xoxlovelifexox]

(Original post by chaza01)
They do mark quite harshly though, right? Still good news anyway... For Gatsby I am learning quotes for Jordan, tom, daisy, nick, gatsby, myrtle and george wilson - that enough?

that's plenty. you'll be fine for the exam.

[nativefox]

Does anybody know if we get 'reading time' before we start the exam? to read all the questions etc? I'm doing songs of ourselves, much ado about nothing and great gatsby - so nervous! Many thanks

[xoxlovelifexox]

(Original post by nativefox)
Does anybody know if we get 'reading time' before we start the exam? to read all the questions etc? I'm doing songs of ourselves, much ado about nothing and great gatsby - so nervous! Many thanks

as far as i'm aware, i don't think we do, otherwise i may be mistaken. the reading time i think you're referring to is embedded in the time slot allocated in the exam. maybe they expect you to spend 40 minutes on each essay and 15 minutes to read the question?

[member963009]

(Original post by nativefox)
Does anybody know if we get 'reading time' before we start the exam? to read all the questions etc? I'm doing songs of ourselves, much ado about nothing and great gatsby - so nervous! Many thanks

No reading time. It is embedded into the 45 mins per essay. 5 mins for reading and planning for each essay

[xoxlovelifexox]

(Original post by sahajkaur)
No reading time. It is embedded into the 45 mins per essay. 5 mins for reading and planning for each essay

it would be great if there was reading time though!

[member963009]

Good luck everyone

[Maheeela]

good luck everyone! i'm personally peeing myself i'm so scared, but hopefully it'll go well!!

[viv:D]

I've got a question for this exam, what will happen if u did 3 essays but didn't do a passage based question?

[ZEDDSTAR]

I did the exact same thing. My school seem to think that it's fine and the only reason the board sets these parameters (ie answer at least one passage based and one essay question) is to force the majority of students to do a variety of questions. They are going to contact the board. But I'm not so sure worse case scenario is that one answer will be ignored, leaving only 50 of the 75 marks! Any examiners out there please HELP, I'm sure there must be a precedent!

[viv:D]

(Original post by ZEDDSTAR)
I did the exact same thing. My school seem to think that it's fine and the only reason the board sets these parameters (ie answer at least one passage based and one essay question) is to force the majority of students to do a variety of questions. They are going to contact the board. But I'm not so sure worse case scenario is that one answer will be ignored, leaving only 50 of the 75 marks! Any examiners out there please HELP, I'm sure there must be a precedent!

So does it mean that it's impossible to get A for english literature?
I really hope they don't ignore one question! I hope they just lower a band of one of the essays!
Can anyone please HELP?