AQA English Lit Love Through the Ages June 2012 EXAM

Great, thanks I've just been reading an essay that got an A* last year and for question 1, she seems to just analyse aspects of the extracts rather than have a specific direction (e.g. instead of exploring forbidden love of transient love in each paragraph, the girl just wrote about how dialogue gives the text a 'voyeuristic quality' or how 'free indirect discourse' enables readers to empathise with characters). This confused me a little as I thought we were meant to be addressing love as a broad umbrella topic in the first question, or is it okay to just analyse and compare the texts as it seems she has done

There are many different ways of skinning the English Lit cat. Also, tbh, some of the scripts we got back from the board last year which got full marks seem to have been very generously rewarded, so take comfort from that. You don't have to be perfect. This syllabus is a legacy of the old AEB 660 syllabus, albeit a quite distant relative by now, and the philosophy of that exam was to reward what students do do, rather than penalise them for what they don't. I don't mark this exam, but I do attend the moderation meetings for coursework standardisation and it's still very much the ethos of those meetings. Don't panic. Panic is your enemy. You need a cool clear head and to form your own line of argument which you follow logically. Chances are, if you are saying something intelligent, it'll get rewarded.

I am so scared for this exam; I need an A, but I just seem to lose it when writing and I panic.
I am petrified of my wider reading being too superfluous as opposed to accurate. Help

Why do you think that is? is it because you only have a few WR pieces?


the worst thing you can do is panic, just try to keep your mind focused on the two unseen extracts and spend your planning time wisely!! that should help you clear your thoughts. I personally prefer to plan on the sheets with the extract because them I am able to quickly reference specific bits from the texts and helps me focus on them as opposed to going on a tangent about WR.

good luck and i'm sure you'll do fine

Chaucer is poetry. The focus must be on the texts on the paper and a ratio of 70% analysis of the extracts and 30% wider reading is a good balance to aim for. Remember to cover each genre once across the paper, but don't overdo it. A couple of really relevant, focused WR extracts tied in closely to the extracts is all you really need. You can make connections in any way you feel is relevant, but ensure at some point that you make comments about form and structure as well as theme. The WR extract is as good a place to do this as any, since you can choose something that either compares or contrasts with the texts on the paper. If you use too much wider reading, you are avoiding the kind of deeper analysis which you need to be doing to get the marks.

I find it so hard to know how to prepare for this exam. I'm getting weighed down by the amount of wider reading I have got, and now when it comes to selecting quotes I just don't know which ones to learn! I don't think you can ever predict if you'll be able to use a certain quote... With regard to the time/context in which the wr pieces were written, how much emphasis is supposed to be placed on this? I'm not sure how I would go about integrating that type of information into an essay. In my class, we've all been given the script of a girl last year who got full marks on the second question, yet she didn't refer to any of her wider reading in novels throughout- Just goes to show how unreliable this type of exam is!

I have a feeling it may be drama for the 1st question too I suppose you would mention tone, meter, use of stage directions, and if characters are placed [aside], how this introduces a sense of the clandestine to the piece. I think it's important to make sure it sounds as though you are writing about a play as a play- so I'm planning to use terms such as '...creates a tableau on stage' '...would make full use of the stage, in order to bring the play to life' etc...!

Does anybody have any quotes/points for Miller's 'A view from the Bridge'? I studied this at GCSE but now feel that it could be of some use! Thank you in advance to anybody who replies!

Can 'sexual love' be considered a theme?

Of course.

How is everyone revising for this exam, are you all looking at thematic links or literary techniques for WR?

Okay, so as a lot of my WR looks at sex, would presenting it as sexual love instead link it more closely to the theme of 'Love Through the Ages' or is that too much of a stretch (sorry for the bombardment of questions, I'm just really nervous about this exam )

How is everyone revising for this exam, are you all looking at thematic links or literary techniques for WR?

You need to look at both, because you don't know what the most appropriate link is going to be. Remember, though, that you can contrast as well as compare.

I think you might be overthinking this a bit. Love takes many forms; romantic, sexual, platonic, parental, etc. All of them have happend throughout the ages. Have your teachers told you that sex doesn't count as love or that it didn't happen in years gone by? How to screw up your class!