This discussion is now closed.

Check out other Related discussions

what is gcse english?

im so academic

15

yes i know it's a qualification and all that but what does the course contain? (for all exam boards)

Reply 1

~Hazzle*

Not sure what you exactly want, I did WJEC, it has writing triplets which include words like explore, entertain etc. We had two papers, one was based on two related media articles where you answer questions to compare them and it also asks you to write an article and a letter for example. The other was a story extract where it asks you questions on it and it asks you to write a short story and to describe something (i.e. the senses you feel) for example. I think it's mainly about creative writing, writing skills, analysing short texts etc.

Reply 2

Muppety_Kid

17

Your best bet is to look on the exam boards' websites:

www.aqa.org.uk
www.wjec.co.uk
www.ocr.org.uk
www.edexcel.org.uk

You'll find the specifications on there - they'll give you an overview. I did AQA A, so if you've got more detailed questions, feel free to ask me. :smile:

Reply 3

electriic_ink

15

* Writing for a variety of purposes
* Reading and analysing non-fiction and fiction texts
* Speaking for a variety of purposes
* Listening (ie being a good audience member)

Reply 4

sundogs

2

for ocr it's usually
writing to:

inform/explain/describe

argue/persuade/advise

analyse/review comment

which involves 2 exams, sumaries, own writing etc.

then a great deal of it (can't remember how much) is coursework.

you've gotta study poetry and short stories too

Reply 5

im so academic

OP

15

electriic_ink

* Writing for a variety of purposes
* Reading and analysing non-fiction and fiction texts
* Speaking for a variety of purposes
* Listening (ie being a good audience member)

thanks for that!

but how do the examiners know what grade your speaking and listening is?

Reply 6

sundogs

2

im so academic

thanks for that!

but how do the examiners know what grade your speaking and listening is?

your english teacher assess you for it, we got assessed twice formally for it (year 10 and year 11)

and then throughout the year, you get a mark out of 10 and that is added to your coursework grade
(for OCR )

Reply 7

im so academic

OP

15

sundogs

your english teacher assess you for it, we got assessed twice formally for it (year 10 and year 11)

and then throughout the year, you get a mark out of 10 and that is added to your coursework grade
(for OCR )

but how does the exam board know if the school is cheating or not?

you could say that of person A was bad at speaking, but becuase there are no moderators around and she got a score of 0, the teacher gave person A 100%.

so how could this be prevented?

and if it is only a mark out of 10, why do it in the first place? it's not going to make a difference anyway..... i think...... i doubt......

what about listening?

Reply 8

adam_1234

13

im so academic

but how does the exam board know if the school is cheating or not?

you could say that of person A was bad at speaking, but becuase there are no moderators around and she got a score of 0, the teacher gave person A 100%.

so how could this be prevented?

We had a moderator come in and watch us do some speaking activities, then compared them with what we'd been predicted for speaking & listening. Just to make sure the teachers were on the right track.

As for listening, it's to do with paying attention to other people speaking, then ask questions about what they've said. Like for one of the tasks we had to argue about what we would put in a museum display about the 21st century, so you just had to argue about why other people's ideas were crap basically.

Reply 9

im so academic

OP

15

adam_1234

We had a moderator come in and watch us do some speaking activities, then compared them with what we'd been predicted for speaking & listening. Just to make sure the teachers were on the right track.

As for listening, it's to do with paying attention to other people speaking, then ask questions about what they've said. Like for one of the tasks we had to argue about what we would put in a museum display about the 21st century, so you just had to argue about why other people's ideas were crap basically.

a* for me then!

Reply 10

sundogs

2

im so academic

but how does the exam board know if the school is cheating or not?

you could say that of person A was bad at speaking, but becuase there are no moderators around and she got a score of 0, the teacher gave person A 100%.

so how could this be prevented?

and if it is only a mark out of 10, why do it in the first place? it's not going to make a difference anyway..... i think...... i doubt......

what about listening?

schools aren't allowed to cheat!

schools could cheat when marking your coursework as most of it isn't actually sent off...but...they don't lol cos if they got caught the teacher'd get the sack!

Reply 11

im so academic

OP

15

sundogs

schools aren't allowed to cheat!schools could cheat when marking your coursework as most of it isn't actually sent off...but...they don't lol cos if they got caught the teacher'd get the sack!

what if they didn't? :hubba:

Reply 12

DDS

15

it contains the language of english i think.

Reply 13

jelly1000

21

Whilst the school could theoretically cheat when marking coursework, especially the speaking & listening for which no evidence is required, the examiners would get suspicious if the student had been given top grades for their coursework [A*'s A's] and only got D's or something like that for their exam papers.

AQA A English involves Poetry from Different Cultures. This comes in an anthology along with poetry for the GCSE Literature exam.

Please note that A Level English Language & GCSE English are two totally seperate subjects.

Reply 14

purple-girl

17

For AQA A in the first paper you dp a comprehension thing then an argue/persuade/advise essay (one of the 3 or a combination of 2...so a choice of 4 essays). In the second paper you do an essay comparing 2 poems from other cultures, from the anthology and then an inform/explain/describe essay (similar format to the argue/persuade/advise one). Each exam is worth 30% of the total GCSE, and you get 1hr45 for paper 1 (1hr on comprehension, 45mins on essay recommended) and 1hr30 for paper 2 (45mins for each section recommended).

For coursework there's creative writing (a story basically), media (ours was analysing 2 magazine covers), Shakespeare and a pre-1914 novel (Dickens/Bronte for example). Overall 20% of the GCSE.

Then there're Speaking and Listening assessments which can be anything really...group discussions, individual speeches, even guiding people round school on open day counted as one of ours. You'll do a lot of these, of which I think the best 3 count. These are also worth a total of 20% of the GCSE, which I think is more than it should be, but I'm not complaining =).

As for cheating, the school marks the coursework but then it's all moderated externally to make sure it was marked fairly, so it's not possible. If the school continuously marks things too high or whatever then they might be subject to investigation, but I don't know much about that.

Reply 15

sundogs

2

BSJ

it contains the language of english i think.

sarcasm is the lowest form of wit :smile:

what is gcse english?

Related discussions

Latest

Trending

Trending

Articles for you