[Kiweefruit]

Hey guys,

The Edexcel Lit A2 paper is about a week from now.
So I was looking around for a discussion on how everyone is prep-ping for the lit paper.
Couldn't find one, so decided to start it.

So how are you guys revising and what are your chose texts?
Any tips/sugestions/advice/queries for the exam?

[d_aan]

I'm doing Kite Runner, Spies and War Poetry, yourself?

I'm also really struggling at the moment, i'm trying to identify key paragraphs and trying to make links between my texts.

[Kiweefruit]

(Original post by d_aan)
I'm doing Kite Runner, Spies and War Poetry, yourself?

I'm also really struggling at the moment, i'm trying to identify key paragraphs and trying to make links between my texts.

Im doing The Great Gatsby, Captain Correlli's Mandolin & Metaphysical Poetry.
My notes are such a mess! :/ So Im re-doing a quick version of them!

[d_aan]

How exactly are you revising for it? For me, I'm finding A03 the hardest to hit! Do you compare by theme or do you compare by technique (i.e. the use of repetition in great gatsby is similar to the use in Mandolin"...

[hollymarie]

i absolutely hate this exam. -.- i need an A over all so i'm retaking it now. i have As in every other module but i got a D in this one in january. ): our whole class was predicted As and Bs and we all came out with Ds and Es. really annoying.

i'm doing kite runner and spies. a good idea that my teacher gave me was to choose a scene in say kite runner (an important one that you can relate to a lot in a larger sense) like hassan's rape for example... and to make a table comparing themes/language/structure of that to a selected poem & spies. hard to explain but it works pretty well. ^^

because it allows you to identify the most important parts of the book... apparently one mistake i make is being too vague and not using enough direct examples. so if you've got one scene that you can relate to the book in a larger sense it really helps.

[Kiweefruit]

(Original post by d_aan)
How exactly are you revising for it? For me, I'm finding A03 the hardest to hit! Do you compare by theme or do you compare by technique (i.e. the use of repetition in great gatsby is similar to the use in Mandolin"...

Im doing mostly theme..and also its imp to remember that the question are likely to be made keeping in the mind the main theme- Like "self" and "war" and "relationships" as well. So work backwards from there..

Okay Im not sure too..lol..i just confused myself..as of now I'm just doing theme. I guess depending on the point your trying to make, you can draw upon other comparisons. Probably when your discussion the "effectiveness" of the literary piece..

Does that make sense? :O

[Gawjuz.x]

I'm doing this exam too, and because our AS modules were screwed up (I would say inadequate teaching and also the fact that they failed to encourage and motivate us to do our best, heck the highest grade last year was D - which I got ), the highest I can possibly get is a C overall :/.

I have a quick question about the Unit 4 Coursework...how high are the chances that the grade I got my internal moderation-marking will change by the actual exam board? Frankly I was expecting a lot higher than what my teachers graded me :/

Oh - and I'm studying The Great Gatsby, Rapture and Tess of the D'urbervilles.

[JessicaAP]

I'm doing The Kite Runner and war poetry. I've spent most of my revision time going through context, making comparison tables, and picking up random poetry anthologies to analyse unseen poetry.
I think to get the best AO3 marks, comparing themes, language and context are important. For example, contrasting the techiques of poems with authors who were involved and not involved in war etc.

As for Unit 4 coursework, it all depends on whether the external moderators think you were marked harshly. Also, the raw mark conversion to UMS tends to go down, even though both are out of 80.

[Kiweefruit]

(Original post by Gawjuz.x)
I'm doing this exam too, and because our AS modules were screwed up (I would say inadequate teaching and also the fact that they failed to encourage and motivate us to do our best, heck the highest grade last year was D - which I got ), the highest I can possibly get is a C overall :/.

I have a quick question about the Unit 4 Coursework...how high are the chances that the grade I got my internal moderation-marking will change by the actual exam board? Frankly I was expecting a lot higher than what my teachers graded me :/

Oh - and I'm studying The Great Gatsby, Rapture and Tess of the D'urbervilles.

Aww! Ditto situation. Except for my AS I practically taught myself so my grades were pretty down..so Im likely to land a C.

The board does a thorough correction, so if its inadequate they will give the appropriate marking and maybe try and find out why the difference..lol
Good luck!

Lol I am studying the exact opposite except for Gatsby. :P

[Kiweefruit]

(Original post by JessicaAP)
I'm doing The Kite Runner and war poetry. I've spent most of my revision time going through context, making comparison tables, and picking up random poetry anthologies to analyse unseen poetry.
I think to get the best AO3 marks, comparing themes, language and context are important. For example, contrasting the techiques of poems with authors who were involved and not involved in war etc.

Does that mean we have to read non-our-chosen-theme poems as well? :O
And how exactly do you make your comparison table..can you quote an example? I made one but it looks inadequate to me..And context is basically reading around the author, setting and time period right?

[Gawjuz.x]

What is everyone's best technique of tackling the unseen/unprepared??

[Kiweefruit]

(Original post by Gawjuz.x)
What is everyone's best technique of tackling the unseen/unprepared??

The basics-
Read a few times- grasp the meaning-key themes-words etc etc
Analyse with base technique- form ,structure, language, content etc etc

Address question-
Make a point
elaborate with specific example
conclusion accordingly

[d_aan]

(Original post by JessicaAP)
I'm doing The Kite Runner and war poetry. I've spent most of my revision time going through context, making comparison tables, and picking up random poetry anthologies to analyse unseen poetry.

I think to get the best AO3 marks, comparing themes, language and context are important. For example, contrasting the techiques of poems with authors who were involved and not involved in war etc.
.

Hey there, by contrasting what exactly do you mean? Thanks

[JessicaAP]

(Original post by Kiweefruit)
Does that mean we have to read non-our-chosen-theme poems as well? :O
And how exactly do you make your comparison table..can you quote an example? I made one but it looks inadequate to me..And context is basically reading around the author, setting and time period right?

Which poetry collection are you doing?? I'm doing 101 Poems Against War so I've read a few pro-war poems, particularly from WW1, to mention for AO4 marks (e.g. Rupert Brooke's 'V. The Soldier'). But also, there are poems within each collection that may have contrasting themes; some may deal with with the suffering of soldiers, some with the attitudes of civilians, some with the hypocrisy of those commanding the war etc.

I've got 2 comparison tables. The first one is for the prepared poems only. So it has columns like: which war is dealt with, subject matter, themes/message, diction, narrative voice & tone, imagery, poetic devices (alliteration, tripling, assonance etc), structure, form, notes about poet, and how effective it is on the modern reader.
The second one is for comparing The Kite Runner to the poems, so basically picking out key scenes/quotes/themes etc from the novel and comparing them to the poems.

And yeah, context is pretty much easy marks as long as you remember to do it. Commenting on an author's involvement in war and mentioning details about different wars (e.g. estimated death tolls) are always good. And they loveeee it if you talk about the effect of poems/novels as a modern reader, and what people at the time of publication may have thought.

Hope that helps!

[JessicaAP]

(Original post by d_aan)
Hey there, by contrasting what exactly do you mean? Thanks

I'm not sure which collection of poetry you're doing, but for me it would be something like this: Philip Larkin's 'MCMXIV' (nostalgic tone & pastoral imagery) vs. Wilfred Owen's 'Dulce Et Decorcum Est' (accusatory, bitter tone & relentless, horrific imagery) - you can suggest that Owen's involvement in combat and Larkin's non-involvement may influence the way they write about war and also influence how effective the poem is as a whole

[Kiweefruit]

(Original post by JessicaAP)
Which poetry collection are you doing?? I'm doing 101 Poems Against War so I've read a few pro-war poems, particularly from WW1, to mention for AO4 marks (e.g. Rupert Brooke's 'V. The Soldier'). But also, there are poems within each collection that may have contrasting themes; some may deal with with the suffering of soldiers, some with the attitudes of civilians, some with the hypocrisy of those commanding the war etc.

I've got 2 comparison tables. The first one is for the prepared poems only. So it has columns like: which war is dealt with, subject matter, themes/message, diction, narrative voice & tone, imagery, poetic devices (alliteration, tripling, assonance etc), structure, form, notes about poet, and how effective it is on the modern reader.
The second one is for comparing The Kite Runner to the poems, so basically picking out key scenes/quotes/themes etc from the novel and comparing them to the poems.

And yeah, context is pretty much easy marks as long as you remember to do it. Commenting on an author's involvement in war and mentioning details about different wars (e.g. estimated death tolls) are always good. And they loveeee it if you talk about the effect of poems/novels as a modern reader, and what people at the time of publication may have thought.

Hope that helps!

Im doing Metaphysical Poetry.
On my comparison table I've picked out themes and cross referenced each poem with another poem or prose (like major events wise)
Should go into more detail I guess..!

Im doing two prose texts and one poetry. So it will have to stylistic technique and language mostly right?
The main theme is love, so Im looking at sub-topics of love in the poem- Jealousy, Loss, friendship, etc etc..

Um..hmm context..varying interpretation of love then.

It does a LOT! Thanks a ton.

[Kiweefruit]

Um how exactly do you judge effects on modern reader? as in what do you put in your notes..
I only assess the success of them poem and end it at that. :O

[JessicaAP]

(Original post by Kiweefruit)
Um how exactly do you judge effects on modern reader? as in what do you put in your notes..
I only assess the success of them poem and end it at that. :O

Remember that in the 60 marker, you only get 10 marks for language, form and structure and 20 for comparisons and 20 for context. It's really hard, but whilst language is important to talk about, remember not to concentrate toooo heavily on it, 'cause they're assessing you on that mostly in unseen.

Well, if there's any archaic language/lots of references to things that today we would have to look up, you can maybe comment on how that may make it less effective? Talk about the audience it may have been intended for at the time (e.g. if it's old, probably the wealthy/educated) and what they would have made on it (is there anything in it that may have shocked them?)

[rugbyladosc]

I'm bricking it...

Not sure if im doing a different spec though? Identification of self, Great Expectations, Wife of Bath and Billy Collins??

(Original post by Kiweefruit)
Um how exactly do you judge effects on modern reader? as in what do you put in your notes..
I only assess the success of them poem and end it at that. :O

Different values/traditions? More liberal, open minded perhaps? Not really any other way other than assess the techniques in light of different interpretations, and therefore meaning, shaped by changing values.

[d_aan]

We've been taught to structure our response to the 60 marker, we should try and compare by method... so for example:

" All a writer can do is warn us about the horrors of war and the effects they have on the ordinary people caught up in them"

So what I'd do is for example Imagery of blood, my question would be structured like this...
Spies: example of imagery of blood
Kite Runner: Another example
Poem X: another example which relates to the other two.

Then I'd identify two more techniques, I don't know, say for example short sentences and then find 3 specific examples and then compare.



I've looked through all the examiner reports and not one of the exemplar papers which attained band 5 for everything adopted this method? Furthermore, somebody on the thread made a really valid point saying that since A02 is worth 30 marks in Section A and only 10 in Section B, the connections is what really matters.

If anybody could lend a helping hand on this matter, i'd really, really appreciate it.