Higher English

Okay so our english teacher advised us to learn 2 poems and 2 other things really well for the exam, and just no the other stuff quite well as a back up, im just wondering if this is enough...

so far i know childhood (poem) and valentine (poem) really well, about 21 on essays for these, and the horses (poem) not so well....

i also know the great gatsby (fiction) really well, othello (play) not very well and the moulan rouge (film) quite well.

Just wondeing what people learnt to a high enough standard to get by on, or if i should know everything to a less high standard...

Argh i hate higher english!

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Reply 1

gemma1234

i have a mutual hatred for higher english :wink:

i'd say concentrate on learning the texts that you know best and then learn the basics and some quotes for the others.

Maybe study the two poems you're confident about really well and learn a bit of the other one. Then know your fiction and film and go over the basics of the play.

In my opinion its better to go in knowing a selection of pieces really well with some back-ups rather than going in only knowing the basics of alot.

Reply 2

acas13

haha most of my other highers (chem, maths etc) are considered the 'hard' ones, but tbh english tops them, give me science any day!

In my prelim i got 58% which is nearly a B, and i would be happy with a B in the finals... i think there is always going to be a certain amount of luck invloved though, you cany possibly know everything to the same standard...

Reply 3

C274

acas13

haha most of my other highers (chem, maths etc) are considered the 'hard' ones, but tbh english tops them, give me science any day!

My feelings on Higher English too.

Reply 4

acas13

gawd i thought i was the only one that thought that! how reassuring....

Reply 5

gemma1234

acas13

I agree, i've never felt totally prepared going into any english exam..at least with science you know what you need to learn! For english i just write whatever i can and hope it works out, which it amazingly does sometimes.

I much prefer things that have an answer to work towards :smile:

Reply 6

missimpossible

I quite liked Higher English :tongue:

I had two poems (You're by Sylvia Plath and The Widow's Complaint by someone whose name escapes me I'm afraid), a novel (The Great Gatsby) and a drama (Hamlet).
No questions came up for either of the poems but there were questions perfectly suited to my prose and drama so that was ok (I sat it 2007 for anyone who's interested, esp for past paper practise). You should be fine! If you've got a Shakespeare play and something with as much to write about in it as Gatsby as well as a film and some poetry then you have more than enough material. If you put the effort in you'll pass well :smile:

Reply 7

sarahleslie1

I don't know much about films but we were always told that 2 poems, a (Shakespeare) play, and a novel were ample.

Reply 8

Meteorshower

acas13

You aren't expected to know everything to the same standard. Luck can be involved yes, but the trick to ensuring a good grade is reducing the amount of luck involved. There are some short stories and dramas that you can be just about certain that a question will come up for every year. Go through a past paper book and identify which texts your studying are possible to do more years than the others. Remember to look at the questions carefully and don't think "does this fit really well?" think "could I make this fit?" As long as there's not too much twisting involved you can still get a good mark for a question that doesn't immediately jump out at you as a suitable one.

Learn two texts really well, a poem and whatever else that seems to fit a lot of questions each year then learn two more as a back up. All that's left to do is practice doing different styles of questions for your texts and you're set.

Reply 9

Lachlan

You have written 23 essays this year? I think I would have been lucky to hit double figures, by the final exam!

I learnt "Hamlet" and "Sunset Song" for the exam then as a back up as I disliked Sunset Song I learned up my Personal Study again "Birdsong". Just hope you lot have a decent close reading mine ****** me up big time only got 28/50 when in every other close reading the lowest I had ever got was 39/40 and most were in the forties.

Reply 10

Quo

Oh, god! Higher English drove me berserk too :redface:

.

I learnt one play (Hamlet), one novel, one short story, and only one poem.

I ended up doing the play and the novel in the final exam.

I'd recommend that you know a text from each of the sections, ie play/poem/novel. If I had only learnt, say, the play and poem I would have failed the exam because none of the questions were suited to my poem at all and I would have been stuffed!

Reply 11

Lachlan

Quo

Oh, god! Higher English drove me berserk too :redface:

I think this depends 1) how well you know the text and how good you are at adapting it and 2) the text in question and how well it usually fits with SQA past papers for example, I was comfortable only doing Hamlet for Play because it always comes up and I knew it damned well whereas I learnt two novels so at least one would be relevant.

Reply 12

TimmyVermicelli

I'm doing A Man For All Seasons (play), which is pretty flexible for the exam questions. We done that to avoid a Shakespeare play (which my teacher said distancing too many people from the points it's trying to make with its medieval language), The Hanging and Shooting an Elephant by George Orwell (non-fiction prose) and Sunrise on the Veld and More Than Just The Disease (short stories, fiction prose).

We have just started The Horses just now, and it looks pretty promising to mould into an exam-type question.

Am I the only one that is enjoying Higher English at the moment?

Reply 13

Meteorshower

TimmyVermicelli

I did A Man For All Seasons and Shooting an Elephant (and the horses actually but I didn't like it) and those two will pretty much guarantee you a question every year. I loved them because they are so memorable I didn't have to bother giong over them.

And I just read the Op has done 20+ essays? That's insane, I did maybe 5 in total all year (not including exams)

Reply 14

gemma1234

Meteorshower

i think she maybe meant she had got 21/25 on these essays :smile:

i may be wrong though..

Reply 15

namedeprived

TimmyVermicelli

Pretty much, yes. The Horses seems a popular choice for schools (we're doing it as well.) Were doing this, 3 other poems, a novel and a play - "The Crucible."

Reply 16

Meteorshower

gemma1234

i think she maybe meant she had got 21/25 on these essays :smile:

i may be wrong though..

That makes far more sense!

Reply 17

TimmyVermicelli

namedeprived

Pretty much, yes. The Horses seems a popular choice for schools (we're doing it as well.) Were doing this, 3 other poems, a novel and a play - "The Crucible."

Oh well. II just like writing, I suppose :coma:

Reply 18

javjamoll

How many texts do you's all learn in class for the exam?

We are only doing one play (Romeo and Juliet), one prose (Sunset Song - horrible book!) and are going to do some poetry after we finish Sunset Song, about this week I guess....

Some of yous seem to do a lot of texts....

and I hate english lol! :biggrin: