The Student Room Group

A2 Edexcel English Literature 17th June 2016

Scroll to see replies

Original post by Saffron_Mae
There was a storm in the middle of my exam when I was on the War question... it put me off a bit, not that I should blame it but I think my argument went a little skewed after that. I think I did ok but I only had the conclusion to go and I didnt get to it :/ I did loads of A02 A03 and A04 though so fingers crossed!

I did the poem too, found it really good :smile: but I talked about different things to a lot of what you guys are saying, I said that the poem is rooted in nostalgia but its ironic because its like a museum, like they're outsiders and that the memory is preserved, with their wedding dress in a vacuum sealed bag, jars of morning air.. maybe they're looking through an album, I said the children could be theirs, and that time has progressed or it could be themselves in a photo, naive and 'blushing, ear to ear' i think the quote was. I also said there was a lot of humour and it was almost as if w/ the museum theme, the narrator is a tour guide 'lets go and look around' i dont think that was the quote but it was similar and I talked about the quotes 'torn in two' and 'split half and half'. something like that.


Same I said that the persona / narrative voice of the speaker resembles a tour guide giving a live spontaneous narration of items with the use of "we" immersing the reader into the poem in the form of spectators.

Made an error of referring to the speaker as 'she' twice in the essay, all other times I said speaker / narrative voice / persona, so hopefully it's fine.

A* hopefully remains around 76-79!
Reply 81
Original post by Zakriah
Oh well i did about a page for one poem and made some language links and theme links i.e Similarly the presentation of danger and threat can also be seen in Duffy's "Row". Similar to Fitzgerald, Duffy also uses cacophonous diction to create a dark atmosphere. However, Duffy is perhaps more effective because she uses the diction in conjunction with personification. Quote- explained.


Sounds good!
I always think it's so difficult to get everything in the essay they ask for so much :frown: I used up all the paper and had 2 extra sides because I was desperately trying to get loads of AO3 and AO4 in.
Reply 82
How many pages did everyone write for the unseen? I only wrote around 3 and I have large handwriting; I completely messed up the timings and only left myself around 40 minutes to do the unseen...I think the relationships questions went well but I'm scared that I just haven't written enough to get good marks in the unseen. Does anyone know if they mark the question fairly leniently? Is it more about how good your interpretation is of the poem as a whole or about your use of poetry terminology?
Original post by cccc3
How many pages did everyone write for the unseen? I only wrote around 3 and I have large handwriting; I completely messed up the timings and only left myself around 40 minutes to do the unseen...I think the relationships questions went well but I'm scared that I just haven't written enough to get good marks in the unseen. Does anyone know if they mark the question fairly leniently? Is it more about how good your interpretation is of the poem as a whole or about your use of poetry terminology?


I did 4 pages for unseen and like 10 pages for seen with detailed plan.

Poems I used:

Metaphysical
Donne - The Flea, The Sun Rising
Marvell - To His Coy Mistress

Modern
Duffy - Hour and Text and Rapture as a whole

Novel
Gatsby

I did the threats and danger and whether it is most engaging and challenging for reader.
Original post by Windies
Same I said that the persona / narrative voice of the speaker resembles a tour guide giving a live spontaneous narration of items with the use of "we" immersing the reader into the poem in the form of spectators.

Made an error of referring to the speaker as 'she' twice in the essay, all other times I said speaker / narrative voice / persona, so hopefully it's fine.

A* hopefully remains around 76-79!


Ah good I'm glad someone else the same sort of thing :smile: and I really hope so!

Same I put 'he or she' about twice too... should be ok though I'm sure they wont spend enough time marking it to point it out too much.

I made I right mess of my second question, I had to continue a couple of paragraphs on different pages so I hope I don't get marked down on A01 too much, though its only worth 10 so at least its not too bad.

Now its just waiting for the results...
Original post by Saffron_Mae
Ah good I'm glad someone else the same sort of thing :smile: and I really hope so!

Same I put 'he or she' about twice too... should be ok though I'm sure they wont spend enough time marking it to point it out too much.

I made I right mess of my second question, I had to continue a couple of paragraphs on different pages so I hope I don't get marked down on A01 too much, though its only worth 10 so at least its not too bad.

Now its just waiting for the results...


Got 77/80 in coursework, what did you get?
Original post by XiuXiu
Anybody do the unseen wedding poem here? How'd you find it if so?

I repeated the same point a little too much, about how average items were being perceived as beautiful in the context of the wedding

rest of it was excellent, thinking maybe got an A, basically just spat out the same essay I wrote earlier in the thread lol


What question did you do for the war section? I did the one about conflict between personal and patriotic war, so question B.

I so hope I did alright, I know my unseen was good but for the war, I didnt get to the conclusion, stupid thunder storm ruining my flow... aha, I wrote about Dulce and The Kite Runner, then a bit on Spies, Returned Soldier, and then I went on a bit of a tangent talking about the effect of war on women and obviously linked it to personal war etc using the stoning scene in The Kite Runner and the poem Punishment.
Hey, for the unseen did anyone else completely miss the extended metaphor of going into an attic and looking through memorabilia? I feel like an idiot for taking it too literally, although the meanings that I drew from it were more abstract about how we hold onto memories etc.
:/
Original post by jennifer_susan97
Hey, for the unseen did anyone else completely miss the extended metaphor of going into an attic and looking through memorabilia? I feel like an idiot for taking it too literally, although the meanings that I drew from it were more abstract about how we hold onto memories etc.
:/


Same here! I literally thought he was going back to visit his wedding venue and was imagining how it all looked back then. Then someone says to me "He's looking through an old album" and i'm like "What?!" fml. Nevertheless, the meanings all made sense and i evaluated so i should get good marks. One of the key parts of my argument was that he was losing his memory and was struggling to reconnect with his past so he had to go back there and work what happened and how that influences his relationship i.e to rekindle old passion.
(edited 7 years ago)
Original post by Windies
Got 77/80 in coursework, what did you get?


Thats good :smile: I didnt get told the mark but I got a high A, ive just emailed my teacher so Ill get back to you if he replies hah. :tongue:

I am soo happy that coursework is still worth 40% this year, otherwise Id be screwed.
Original post by Saffron_Mae
Thats good :smile: I didnt get told the mark but I got a high A, ive just emailed my teacher so Ill get back to you if he replies hah. :tongue:

I am soo happy that coursework is still worth 40% this year, otherwise Id be screwed.


High A is around 74 marks.
Original post by Zakriah
Same here! I literally thought he was going back to visit his wedding venue and was imagining how it all looked back then. Then someone says to me "He's looking through an old album" and i'm like "What?!" fml. Nevertheless, the meanings all made sense and i evaluated so i should get good marks. One of the key parts of my argument was that he was losing his memory and was struggling to reconnect with his past so he had to go back there and work what happened and how that influences his relationship i.e to rekindle old passion.


This always happens with me and unseen poetry... under the timed conditions I miss the obvious! Glad I'm not the only one though :smile:
That sounds like a strong argument, how was section B for you?
Reply 92
Original post by Saffron_Mae
What question did you do for the war section? I did the one about conflict between personal and patriotic war, so question B.

I so hope I did alright, I know my unseen was good but for the war, I didnt get to the conclusion, stupid thunder storm ruining my flow... aha, I wrote about Dulce and The Kite Runner, then a bit on Spies, Returned Soldier, and then I went on a bit of a tangent talking about the effect of war on women and obviously linked it to personal war etc using the stoning scene in The Kite Runner and the poem Punishment.


question A. I could've moulded my More Light/Dulce essay to either which was nice

I've had similar things to you haha, when you get in your head that you've lost your train of thought it's hard to start focusing again

I messed up on the Kite Runner because I couldn't find the page with the stoning, lol. I ended up just referencing it without quotes. Was only a pretty small point though.

I got 79/80 on coursework I think, so hopefully I did enough to get an A or so, especially since I think I got like B/Cs on all my other subjects
Original post by jennifer_susan97
This always happens with me and unseen poetry... under the timed conditions I miss the obvious! Glad I'm not the only one though :smile:
That sounds like a strong argument, how was section B for you?


I did Gatsby and Rapture, danger and threats question. It went okaaaaaay.

I did a lot of different interpretations with critics but my comparison between texts was lacking. Hopefully i can still get into band 4.
In terms of A04 i only did one "as a modern reader" which again will limit my mark, although i did a lot of Feminism and patriarchy. Also the idea that women were 'liberated' in the 1920s. Then i did some literary influences on Fitzgerald and how that shapes how we view the text. Then i also did some evaluation, "is fitzgerald a feminist? Was 1920s really patriarchal?"
A02 was good i think and evaluated some language
A01 my argument was a bit boring and my argument wasn't always explicit, i don't think. So i think i got around 7/10 7/10 13/20 14/20. Which is a bit Mehhh but the unseen would push me up so i get a B overall. Anyway, how do you think you did?
Original post by kagehina
I did not like the poem, but apparently I'm the only one?


I read it twice, disliked it, and did the prose.
Did anyone do the unseen prose?
Original post by XiuXiu
question A. I could've moulded my More Light/Dulce essay to either which was nice

I've had similar things to you haha, when you get in your head that you've lost your train of thought it's hard to start focusing again

I messed up on the Kite Runner because I couldn't find the page with the stoning, lol. I ended up just referencing it without quotes. Was only a pretty small point though.

I got 79/80 on coursework I think, so hopefully I did enough to get an A or so, especially since I think I got like B/Cs on all my other subjects


Yeah haha, normally I do better than I thought though, I think my worst thing to do is over analyse it after, but usually I'm okay after a day or so. It was my last exam too now... I'm free :^_^: ahah

79 is amazing, I emailed my teacher yesterday about my coursework grade and he, again, didnt say the mark, i think in case it changes later but he said A* so :crossedf:for the final grade.
(edited 7 years ago)
Reply 97
How much of AO3 and AO2 did you guys write? Like of its a paragraph, how long was it?
Original post by Zakriah
I did Gatsby and Rapture, danger and threats question. It went okaaaaaay.

I did a lot of different interpretations with critics but my comparison between texts was lacking. Hopefully i can still get into band 4.
In terms of A04 i only did one "as a modern reader" which again will limit my mark, although i did a lot of Feminism and patriarchy. Also the idea that women were 'liberated' in the 1920s. Then i did some literary influences on Fitzgerald and how that shapes how we view the text. Then i also did some evaluation, "is fitzgerald a feminist? Was 1920s really patriarchal?"
A02 was good i think and evaluated some language
A01 my argument was a bit boring and my argument wasn't always explicit, i don't think. So i think i got around 7/10 7/10 13/20 14/20. Which is a bit Mehhh but the unseen would push me up so i get a B overall. Anyway, how do you think you did?


I can never tell with english... I thought my AS paper was ok but only got a C (had to resit this year), but I think it went as well as it could have done. I struggle in the timed conditions to produce essays that include strong AO3 comparisons :/ I don't think I made enough points about the overall form/structure of the texts. I am hoping that my coursework will bring up my overall grade ^_^
Original post by noratheexplorer
Hi, I think i've done something completely different to all of you actually…

I talked about the ambiguity of the speakers voice and how all though they kept repeating "this is why we are here" they didn't actually speak about the real reason. The fact that the speakers referred to themselves as "we've come here" "we've done this" was slightly unusual. I said how this created mystery as we have no idea who the speakers or children are.

Mentioned how the wedding seemed to be a very important one cause who else would have an museum keeping the most unusual things such as "jugs of morning air". The imagery recreated the wedding atmosphere and suggest it was a very lavish wedding. Talked about the ABAB rhyme scheme and how there was a break from "the freeze wedding cake..dress being crisp and vacuum packed". Spoke about the enjambement and listing that helped create a sense or urgency and mistrustfulness about the speaker.

Spoke about how unusual it was that the couple was referred to as "changed" from the line "man and woman changed to husband and wife" rather odd way to present a loved up couple unless of course it was possibly a member of the royals were arranged marriages and this level of publicity would have occurred.

-cant remember what else i said but this was the jist of it….what do you think??
- did anyone do the identifying self questions "in literature presentations of self are tied to time and place" (life of pi, great expectations and billycollins poems"


Hi I did the identify self question (but on Behind the scenes, great expectations and chaucer), How did you attack the 'time and place' question?

I did a first paragraph of how presentations of self are tied to time and place, then how they aren't, I then moved on to argue that that 'presentations of self' in literature can also be shown by other techniques. e.g. by showing a character in terms of their societal role and through the experiences that they faced.

Overall, I argued that while in literature a sense of 'time and place' is important for the presentation of characters, writers also use a variety of other structures to help build a characters sense of self such as through their role in society and the experiences that the character faces.

IS THIS OKAY? or should i have not included 'other factors' and just debated whether it is just due to time and place?

Quick Reply

Latest