Higher English!!

I'm not the only person who utterly fails at this subject, am I? Why, oh why, does it have to be compulsory at my school...?

I could blame it on the teacher who has taught us ~*nothing*~ this entire year, apart from hammering quotes at us. She's hardly touched upon how to answer close reading questions, or how to plan/structure essays. I'm looking through a "How To Pass" book right now and everything is new to me. A few days before the exam!!

I failed the prelim (as did 23/27 of the class) and we were never given a second one so I have nothing to fall back on.

Can anybody give any advice as to how to answer Close Reading questions, or places I can go to find easy info on it all? I know doing this a few days before the exam is atrocious and my question is rather vague but I'm so worried at the moment and have been concentrating on all my other subjects (oops) and reading this book is doing anything but boosting my confidence!

Reply 1

BlueRoses

For close reading: TECHNIQUE > EXAMPLE > COMMENT.

Eg. "This is an example of imagery "quote", it is effective because it helps the reader to imagine the situation and so add to their understanding of the prose"

Reply 2

teabreak

I was in a similar position to you, my teacher was seriously bad. I decided to get a tutor ages ago and that really helped but its too late for that now!
If you can get your hands on a book called "Higher English Close Reading" by Ann Bridges and Colin Eckford I think that would really help you. It has a chapter on each type of question and examples of how to answer them.
Failing that just get a set of past papers and do nothing but close reading for the next couple of days, once you do loads of questions you start to get the technique.