AQA GCSE English Literature Paper 1 (8702/1) - 17th May [Exam Chat]

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How did the AQA GCSE English Literature Paper 1 go for you?

AQA GCSE English Literature Paper 1 (8702/1) - Wednesday 17th May 2023 [Exam Chat]

Welcome to the exam discussion thread for this exam. Introduce yourself! Let others know what you're aiming for in your exams, what you are struggling with in your revision or anything else.

Also, check out our article of student reactions to the exam - your comments on this thread might be on there!

Wishing you all the best of luck. :yy:

General Information
Date/Time: Wednesday 17th May 2023 / AM
Length: 1h 45m

Resources: AQA (GCSE English Literature)

Well done everyone!

(edited 10 months ago)

Reply 1

mialoux

3

Does anyone have any valid predictions as to what poems/characters/themes will appear in the 2023 gcse? I do Macbeth, Inspector calls, Christmas carol and power and conflict. Any theories would be helpful to my revision. thanks

Reply 2

propergoodman

16

Original post by mialoux

Does anyone have any valid predictions as to what poems/characters/themes will appear in the 2023 gcse? I do Macbeth, Inspector calls, Christmas carol and power and conflict. Any theories would be helpful to my revision. thanks

I think ACC will be about redemption

Reply 3

AmeenahHs

11

Hi! I think I'm the first reply here. I study Macbeth and A Christmas Carol and I'm aiming for a grade 9. Does anyone have any predictions on what the questions could potentially be?

OP

Original post by AmeenahHs

Hi! I think I'm the first reply here. I study Macbeth and A Christmas Carol and I'm aiming for a grade 9. Does anyone have any predictions on what the questions could potentially be?

Hi! I can't offer any predictions about the exam questions, but fab you're aiming for a 9! What grade are you at currently? I think Macbeth is one of the more fun plays to study for the Shakespeare part of the syllabus, do you enjoy it?

Reply 5

AmeenahHs

11

Original post by Pwca

Hi! I can't offer any predictions about the exam questions, but fab you're aiming for a 9! What grade are you at currently? I think Macbeth is one of the more fun plays to study for the Shakespeare part of the syllabus, do you enjoy it?

I absolutely love Macbeth, and Lady Macbeth is by far my favourite character there's so much to say about her the play as a whole is just written so well.
I'm currently working in between an 8 and 9, sometimes I get 8s sometimes I get 9s, so for me it's really just consolidating that 9 and making sure I answer the question fully each time :smile:

(edited 1 year ago)

Reply 6

xldrxo

1

hey!! i do the same. as for poetry, all i know is its very unlikely for the named poem to be my last duchess, tissue or the prelude or any other long/extremely challenging ones because one, exam boards are stingy with money so won't want to print extra pages for long poems and two, english literature isnt

Reply 7

t.p

11

What do you think the question for Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde be for 2023?

Reply 8

ros11

10

Just wondered if anyone had any predictions for the GCSE AQA 2023 English Lit questions, specifically for
• The Merchant of Venice
• Jekyll and Hyde
• An Inspector Calls
• Power and Conflict Poetry
If you have a predictions or gut feelings (not just wild guesses) let me know - thank youu and good luck to anyone else this summer!!

Reply 9

toxicgamage56

Universities Forum Helper

19

How would a "gut feeling" be any less than a wild guess?

Reply 10

ros11

10

Original post by toxicgamage56

How would a "gut feeling" be any less than a wild guess?

no I just meant dont flick through the anthology and say one, i meant if you feel one is likely to come up bc of a theme etc and you had a gut feeling about it

Reply 11

jtunaru888

3

for gcses what questions do you guys think we will be getting for your texts and poetry?? im thinking:
romeo and juliet - a theme like fate
lord of the flies - piggy and ralph relationship or jack
frankenstein - i have no idea tbh
and for love and relationships - i think we will get a romantic one like when we 2 parted bc last year was eden rock and the exam board like to change it each year
idk though??

Reply 12

Caotica

12

Hullo,

I think you're spot on for R+J from what I've seen, it's never come up before!?

For Lord of the Flies, I'm pretty sure Ralph and Piggy's relationship was one of the questions in the 2022 so I think it might be just about Piggy or something vague like outsiders

Can't help with Frankenstine as I do Jekyll and Hyde sorry

As for love and relationships, I have a feeling that if it's romantic it will be when we two parted but idk I feel like maybe they'd switch things up and give us a familial. Or maybe they'd repeat something, who knows?

Hope your revision is going okay and this is of some help. Have you got any predictions for the narrative or transactional writing in lang?

Reply 13

Caotica

12

Hi! Not sure this is the right place to be asking this but hopefully someone can help me out :smile:

I'm aiming for all 8s and 9s and I'm currently at 9 in English language based on all my mocks and classroom assessments(tho tbh it really depends on if you get a nice extract) but I'm struggling a little with literature. I'm at an 8 in poetry anthology and unseen but only a 7 in the novels. I would love it if anyone has any tips on

Romeo and Juliet
Jekyll and Hyde
Lord of the flies

In particular, what could you say about: utterson - I was thinking hypocrisy of Victorian gentlemen as one paragraph but I find him quite difficult to talk about

And

Romeo and Mercutio's relationship. I can talk about their different views about love and probably answer questions on them separately but their relationship is again something I'm struggling to write about. I've seen a couple of theories that Mercutio is in love with Romeo - is this true enough to put in an essay and what quotes could I use to demonstrate their relationship?

Reply 14

DK.19

1

With Mr Utterson, i would describe him as a rigid and directly opposing character within the book especially if comparing him to characters like Hyde. His ‘rugged countenance’ and ‘cold’ vibe is common with Victorian era gentlemen who had to maintain a neutral and emotionless visage to follow modest stereotypes. He is the epitome of a Victorian gentleman with his occupation and appearance. As he encounters Hyde who Enfield describes as having ‘something downright detestable with him’, Utterson’s background as a lawyer and his outcry after the calm trampling of the girl prompts him to look deeper into him almost as Stevenson has designated him implicitly as the harbinger of justice and righteousness regardless of his ties with anyone (seen where he inclines to Cain’s heresy and the idea of independence without valuing connections). the main thing about utterson is that he directly contradicts Hyde and the overarching theme of duality in the sense that he doesn’t equip a dual personality and his role throughout is to investigate Hyde’s trail of destruction eg Danvers Carew’s murder.

These ideas may be all over the place but i hope they helped :smile:

Original post by Caotica

Hi! Not sure this is the right place to be asking this but hopefully someone can help me out :smile:

I'm aiming for all 8s and 9s and I'm currently at 9 in English language based on all my mocks and classroom assessments(tho tbh it really depends on if you get a nice extract) but I'm struggling a little with literature. I'm at an 8 in poetry anthology and unseen but only a 7 in the novels. I would love it if anyone has any tips on

Romeo and Juliet
Jekyll and Hyde
Lord of the flies

In particular, what could you say about: utterson - I was thinking hypocrisy of Victorian gentlemen as one paragraph but I find him quite difficult to talk about

And

Romeo and Mercutio's relationship. I can talk about their different views about love and probably answer questions on them separately but their relationship is again something I'm struggling to write about. I've seen a couple of theories that Mercutio is in love with Romeo - is this true enough to put in an essay and what quotes could I use to demonstrate their relationship?

Reply 15

www.iLoveEnglish

10

For power and conflict have they done checking out me history before? I feel like every year it’s a war poem so maybe this year it’s something slightly different

Reply 16

user01906002

12

specifically for :
an inspector calls
romeo & juliet
frankenstein
power & conflict poetry

thank you!!

(edited 1 year ago)

Reply 17

user01906002

12

hey i don't know of any specific predictions as to what the questions could be, but I'm doing AIC too and my english teacher said that for the old specification after they'd done questions on all the characters that they started doing questions on 2 characters. for the newer specification (the one we do) apparently they've covered all characters now too so could start doing this again, an example question we did in my class was 'How does Priestley use the characters of Mr Birling and Eric to show issues in society?' so u might want to prepare for this. Hope that makes sense and good luck to u too :smile:

(edited 1 year ago)

Reply 18

www.iLoveEnglish

10

Original post by user01906002

hey i don't know of any specific predictions as to what the questions could be, but I'm doing AIC too and my english teacher said that for the old specification after they'd done questions on all the characters that they started doing questions on 2 characters. for the newer specification (the one we do) apparently they've covered all characters now too so could start doing this again, an example question we did in my class was 'How does Priestley use the characters of Mr Birling and Eric to show issues in society?' so u might want to prepare for this. Hope that makes sense and good luck to u too :smile:

No way, I didn’t know that thanks so much, I’m definitely gonna look into that… I feel like using two characters might be easier because there’s more to talk about? That’s really interesting, thankyou again!