AQA A2 English Literature 2016 - Love Through The Ages. Official Thread

Hmm so am I because plays and poems are easier to compare than poems and novels Who knows though!

Two poems has come up three years in a row 😩

Hai guys,

Has anyone got any predictions for what will come up for question one? I know two poems have come up three years in a row, but I'm really hoping two drama texts will come up!

and what wider reading texts is everyone studying?

It's likely going to be two novel extracts. As you said, it's been 2 poems for three years, and before that it was two drama extracts for two consecutive exams, then before that it was two poems again. Anything could happen, but two novel extracts haven't been present for many years, which I'm glad about, as I despise analysing drama!

Ah that's true actually... I suppose two prose extracts would be fine! I would hate to get two poems, I find that the most difficult! and aaah i love analysing drama, but I guess we all have our preferences:-) thanks!

what are your wider reading texts?

Not sure how to go about revision atm

I'm going over 5 poems , plays and prose texts for wider reading , but not sure how to improve analysing the actual texts in the exam :L ( poetry is the hardest for me )

I'm completely different in that regard - I love analysing poetry and have tonnes of wider reading for it, so if there are two poems I'd practically die of happiness...

As for wider reading, in poetry I've just got the random stuff my teacher has given me. A fair amount of it is just from the past papers I've done, but I've also got Larkin, Tennyson (as I covered it for AS), and lots of poems from lots of different authors, from Shakespeare's sonnets to Thomas' And Death Shall Have No Dominion. I have poetry links for basically everything now so I'm hoping that the poem in the exam is a nice one.

For drama, I've covered Othello, Look Back in Anger, A Woman of No Importance, Death of a Salesman, and Mrs Warren's Profession in full, and I've got extracts from Lady Windermere's Fan, Tis Pity She's a Whore, The Changeling, Romeo and Juliet and probably a few others, plus the ones from past exam papers.

For prose, I've got The Kite Runner, North and South, Animal Farm, The Book Thief, The Monk, Brokeback Mountain, Tristram Shandy, Pamela, (extracts from) 1984, and the ones from the past exam papers.

As a Drama student, I would practically die of happiness if it were two drama texts! But hopefully we'll both come out of the exam feeling happy about it:-)

I have pretty much the same wider reading as you, my teacher has given me a poetry pack full of different kinds of love, which is good!

For prose, I've mainly got 'The Great Gatsby', 'The Lovely Bones', 'Birdsong' and a handful of quotes from past papers.

and for Drama, I've mainly focusing on 'A View from the Bridge' and 'Othello', however I also have quotes from past papers

Good luck!

Good luck to you too! As the exam is based around completely unseen extracts, I alternate between feeling happy and optimistic (as there's no chance I wouldn't be able to answer the questions, unlike in, say, History), and being terrified, as some of the past papers have been awful. But I'm sure it'll all pan out ok, especially as we've got nearly a full month to go!

Not sure how to go about revision atm

I'm going over 5 poems , plays and prose texts for wider reading , but not sure how to improve analysing the actual texts in the exam :L ( poetry is the hardest for me )

As a Drama student, I would practically die of happiness if it were two drama texts! But hopefully we'll both come out of the exam feeling happy about it:-)

I have pretty much the same wider reading as you, my teacher has given me a poetry pack full of different kinds of love, which is good!

For prose, I've mainly got 'The Great Gatsby', 'The Lovely Bones', 'Birdsong' and a handful of quotes from past papers.

and for Drama, I've mainly focusing on 'A View from the Bridge' and 'Othello', however I also have quotes from past papers

Good luck!

Hi guys,
I was quite confident about this exam until I looked at all the questions from the last years.
All we've been studying in detail is poems and we've focused a lot of time on comparing two poems, but as mentioned here, two poems has come up so many times and probably unlikely this time round! I really don't know how to tackle prose or drama extracts! What am I looking for or writing about? How do I compare them? If the question is prose/poem or drama/poem, how do I compare them? I'm just panicking a whole lot right now,
this is a cry for help!!! Any advice

Hi guys,
I was quite confident about this exam until I looked at all the questions from the last years.
All we've been studying in detail is poems and we've focused a lot of time on comparing two poems, but as mentioned here, two poems has come up so many times and probably unlikely this time round! I really don't know how to tackle prose or drama extracts! What am I looking for or writing about? How do I compare them? If the question is prose/poem or drama/poem, how do I compare them? I'm just panicking a whole lot right now,
this is a cry for help!!! Any advice

With two drama extracts, yes it does look daunting at first, but when you read it and find the meaning, it will be fine and then you can use contemporary drama techniques such as volte, climax, denouement etc...

Drama is probably the easiest to get makes for form. Just use the words entrance, exit, catharsis if something tragic happens and there's release, look at props, dramatic irony ( when the audience understand something the characters do not), talk about it being visual, use the word audience, and imagine how you'd stage it.

In terms of analysing language, it's pretty much the same as poetry and prose