Help with English Lit. GCSE

Hi, I just got an account on here, and I need some questions answered about my English Literature GCSE which I will do in Summer 2015.

I've just started 5th form (year 11) and have just done two GCSE's early in English Lang. and Maths. I got an A* in the Lang. GCSE, which I was really happy about! I have done the Controlled Assessment already (for the English Lit.), and got 37/40, which I was quite pleased with.

The thing is, I don't really know what's going to come up in the exam, and really want to get an A* as I figured that I might have a chance seeing as I got one in Eng. Lang. Unfortunately, the year above me (150 people!) all got really harshly marked when they did theirs in May/June 2014 and only five people out of 150 got an A*. I really want to get a top mark the first time around. Are there any good tips for the exam? Thanks for reading,

Klint.

Hi, I just got an account on here, and I need some questions answered about my English Literature GCSE which I will do in Summer 2015.

I've just started 5th form (year 11) and have just done two GCSE's early in English Lang. and Maths. I got an A* in the Lang. GCSE, which I was really happy about! I have done the Controlled Assessment already (for the English Lit.), and got 37/40, which I was quite pleased with.

The thing is, I don't really know what's going to come up in the exam, and really want to get an A* as I figured that I might have a chance seeing as I got one in Eng. Lang. Unfortunately, the year above me (150 people!) all got really harshly marked when they did theirs in May/June 2014 and only five people out of 150 got an A*. I really want to get a top mark the first time around. Are there any good tips for the exam? Thanks for reading,

Klint.

I used the Philip Allan guides, they're absolutely brilliant! In terms of revision, have a look at MrBruff, start to gather quotes for every character and theme (in the Unit 1 exam ur given a choice of a theme based or character based question every time). I wouldnt worry about poetry just yet considering the books are a demanding task themselves. After gathering a quote bank with analysis of each one, go through past papers and develop your writing technique. Literature is a lot more demanding than Language I find, but if you tot an A* in Lang you definitely have the potential to do the same in Literature. Btw word of advice, if you do get an A send your paper off for a remark straight away. Aqa have some really brainless examiners

After the rubbish results, ten people got their remarked, and they all got way higher marks because of that (according to my Chemistry teacher, one guy got an increase of 26% in his remark). I'll certainly do what you said - I've subscribed to MrBruff on YouTube. How much of the exam is the Controlled Assessment worth?

Ok thank you: this is really helpful! Seems really quite tricky to get 132/150, but hopefully I can make it if I try hard enough!

I know sounds high but A* is 51/68 and 38/54, very manageable if your paper is correctly marked. Just of curiosity, considering we're in opposite positions here, what did u get in your language controlled assessment and exam? If I may ask

Sure: no problem! I didn't do a controlled assessment for language, but did coursework on a certain topic (which for me was exploration to mars: hence the profile picture! ). We had to do a speaking exercise, and a written thing for the coursework. The speaking was worth 10% (40 UMS) and I was a bit disappointed because I got 35/40 in it, but at the end of the day it was fine and I got pretty much 9/10%.
For the written thing, it was out of 54 and was worth about 40%? I got 50/54 which I was not expecting!
Then finally we did an exam which was about 50%. I was really scared at the time because I was ill on the day - but did it anyway and it turned out ok.
Overall, I got A* in English Lang. with 372 UMS, out of 400. I worked out this was 93%. I was so please but a bit guilty because only about 20 of our year of 150 got an A* - partly because marking was quite harsh I think.

Sorry for the essay! And sorry if I bragged a bit. Its a bit complicated, but that's how I think it went

LOL not at all well done! I dont think il manage 93% in Language thats quite a stretch. Which exam board did you take it with though? That doesnt like Aqa which is who I was referencing this entire time.

Make sure you the right section/questions (I speak from experience).

And only 5 A*s? In my year there were 0 A*s in both English lit and lang :/

That's so unfair! Your school should have asked to get them all remarked, maybe. I think it's too hard to get an A* in English at GCSE - I read somewhere that in 2013, only 3% got an A* - which is ridiculously low.

But I'm no expert.

Well it wasn't just English, all subjects in general really. As far as I'm aware, there were also no A*s in physics, German (maybe other languages) and history (maybe 1 A*).

Yeah my school was pretty shocking

To be honest though, those subjects are hard... plus A levels matter a lot more than GCSE's.

It's still pretty insane that no one got an A* in all of those subjects though.

But at least I've left that school

So are you doing A levels now?

I think it was AQA. I might have been doing an iGCSE which would have made a difference.

So have you done the literature already, but not the language? That's interesting. I assume you're in year 11? I could give some tips for the Lang exam if you haven't done it yet.