Strategy for the spies exam

Well, my retake is on monday, i've revised the text quite well and i'm writing 3 -4 pages on each past paper, here's my plan for anyone wanting help, and all those who got good marks for it tell me if i need to add anything =p

- First outline the Themes, which characters are involved, and any motifs
related to them, and talk about them whilst relating them to the question.

- Relate it to the whole story

- Show Frayn's messages (eg if the question was on uncle peter the message is about victims of war, outcasts from society etc)

- End giving both sides/balanced opinion and conclude with a judgement

Reply 1

HectaSelecta

Would you be kind enough to provide a list of the possible themes that could come up?

I was meant to be revising for this retake but ended up neglecting it due to Lyrical Ballads on Tuesday. :frown:

Reply 2

Renegade of Funk

well i meant themes that related to the question, some that could come up are:

War
Childhood/Adulthood
Maturity
Memory
Imagination
Perception/Nature of Knowledge

Reply 3

nadineheather

HectaSelecta

Would you be kind enough to provide a list of the possible themes that could come up?

I did this an age ago, so forgive me if I don't remember all of the themes :/.
What I remember preparing for is:

- The transition between childhood and adulthood; symbolised by the tunnel.
- War and its effect on people.
- Friendship; I think I got this question in my exam, it's the best one you could get really.

Sorry I can't remember more, but they're worth taking a look over. Just remember to write about symbolism as much as you can!

Reply 4

HectaSelecta

Yeah, well I bought the York notes so hopefully I can get something better than an E in this exam compared to last time.

Any other sources or links that could help me with this dreaded exam?

Since last June I wrote 2 pages for Spies and was confident I did a good job, and for Chaucer I wrote 1/2 a page and that came out to a B lol.

Reply 5

eden-flower

Also to add to the themes, any character could come up so make sure you have at least 3 quotes/episodes which relate to each one!

Relating to the name of the book, "spying" is obviously THE major theme which is often overlooked so briefly plan an essay for each possible theme that could arise and you'll be fine!

Good luck! I might actually redo this exam in the summer...

Reply 6

BradderrrrZ08

Having looked at the past papers, these are the things that WON'T be asked as a question
-Fartherhood
-Islotion
-Title
-Childhood
-Naration
-Ending
-Keith
-Stephen's Family
-Adult World
-Opening
-War
-Mrs. Hayward

(These are done in acending order and our every question that has ever been asked)

This dosen't mean that these cannot be linked easily to another question that my come up, they just won't be asked explicitly

Therefore, my prediction's just from looking at are

-Uncle Peter.
-Barbra Berrill
-Women in General
-Memory.

Any other ideas would help.

Reply 7

HectaSelecta

I hope memory comes up, I can sort of remember that from last year. How Frayn is a bad narrator since most of the time he is unsure about the facts in the story "police man bit in the beginning".

Meh, thats all I can remember.

Reply 8

AllyG

I remember fatherhood was last june wasn't it, because I got a D on it last time and I'm resitting on monday. I haven't read the book since last time yet, planning on doing that today, but I'm really not looking forward to it! but there is a really good thread from like three years ago that still comes up if you type spies into search.