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OCR English lit

Hiya, so, how did you all find the OCR Higher exam?

I was studying "Death of a Salesman" and "Things Fall Apart".

the poetry questions on the war were alright aswell.

Reply 1

No Future

I did DOAS, Opening Worlds and Opening Lines.

Which Q did you do for DOAS? I did Q2 (Willy's suicide, blame etc). I spurted crap about the American Dream, tragic hero etc.

Opening Worlds: The question on cultural clashes in "Train..." and "Snapshots..." Meh, I started writing it strangely. I think this question was badd.
Opening Lines: Adults' feelings towards children in "You're" and "Growing Up". More crap. I didn't write all the stuff I KNEW or anything GOOD, dammit.

I found myself able to write for most of the exam, luckily. Meh, at least I didn't feel as though I was "wasting time" in the exam. My timing was better than in the mock, and I answered all the questions.

Reply 2

xxjayx

Nope, I did Question 1 relating to the actual segment on the page where Biff finds Willy with the mistress in the hotel room. I had lots to write as I linked it in with how Biff was changed from that moment, and how it shaped the book.

I wrote/completed the answer booklet for DOAS. How did you do?

Reply 3

xxjayx

also, what poems did you need to do?

Reply 4

xxjayx

C'mon, more must have done OCR English lit than that crappy board AQA !

Reply 5

zhivago

Yep, I did it today. I studied Opening Worlds, Opening Lines, and Journey's End. The questions for my opening lines were on poetry post-1914. I did the question on "Base Details" by Siegfried Sassoon, and "When you see millions of the mouthless dead...". Twas ok, although I really rushed on "Base Details".

For the short stories I did the question on changing to a new environment and how it causes "difficulties", within "Dead Men's Path" and also, "The Young Couple". Realised that I didn't really have anything to say on Achebe's story. :frown:

Journey's End, I did the question on Stanhope, and his changing persona.

Anyone else do these questions?

Reply 6

Narsha

I did it as well today. It went all right. I did Death of a Salesman, question 1 with the passage,
on opening lines I did the adult's feelings towards the children with You're and Baby-sitting; and I did 1984 and did question 2 about Julia being a memorable and stuff.

English Language I'm doing short stories. Great.

Reply 7

xxjayx

I did the Q1 on Base details and When you see millions of the mouthless dead.
What were the main points you covered?

Reply 8

Speleo

I did:
Death of a Salesman question 2 (nobody dast blame this man), ran out of time, only wrote 2 and a third pages :frown:

Opening Lines question 6 (as the team's head brass and sonnet), did that well :smile:

Opening Worlds question 15 (snapshots/train from rhodesia), did that one well too.

Reply 9

xxjayx

Yeah, the 2nd question was a good one aswell. Probably more to talk about than 1 but I feel I did well on 1.
Just in the exam I went for 1.

Reply 10

ihategcses

i did doas extract question - never thought of it as a climax tho :s, then base details poetry q and train from rhodesia/snapshots. ran out of time for all of them tho :mad:

Reply 11

edward393

Well I found it quite difficult, especially the Poetry, which we didn't cover much. Focussed mainly on Base Details and I didn't have time to finish the other one, When You See Millions of Mouthless Dead.... Death of a Salesman, the Howard one was easy as you can go on and on - in the mock I got 27/30...

I'll be glad when I get to burn The Old Man and The Sea, the questions that were given were the worst you could ever had. I got 29/30 in the mock, probably now 23 or 24...

Still, my coursework can boost it up to a strong A or low A*

Reply 12

ChaoticCharlie

Does nobody else do 'Whose Life is it Anyway?' for the drama text? I did that and the war poetry and the short stories. But, i also have to do the short stories for English Language. Fun... :rolleyes:

Think it went well. I feel the first 2 questions were better than the third though as my hand hurt and was telling me to stop writing! I did all the extract based questions and didn't even look through the texts!

Reply 13

zhivago

I did the Q1 on Base details and When you see millions of the mouthless dead.
What were the main points you covered?

Erm, well off the top of my head: (by the way I was quite pissed off because I finished rather rushed on "Base Details" despite the fact it is one of my favourite poems, and thus, I know it a lot better than "When you see millions of the mouthless dead..."). I said that, in "millions", Sorley was rather bitter, and the message he was trying to convey was that the dead should not be praised "give them not praise" etc, because they did not die an honourable death. They were slaughtered. I said he contradicted everything that had previously made the death of a soldier an honourable and acceptable thing, and merely said "it is easy to be dead". Erm..being a soldier himself, I said, he had first hand experience and will have seen all he described, increasing the realism in the readers eyes. I also said his message was a new, modern one (dissing the honourable death ideology!!) but that he used an old verse form (Sonnet form - Iambic Pentameter), in order to convey his message, to a wider audience. I think I mentioned old fashioned language there as well. So, basically, what I was saying was that the British citizen's praise was no consollation to the dead.

With "Base Details" which I know a lot better, and thus, should have gone into more depth on (which I didn't!! Grr), I talked about how bitter Sasson was towards the "scarlet majors" at the base, because of their insincerity towards the "youth stone dead". I talked about how he pitied the "glum heroes speeded up the line to death". How he pointed to the futility and pointlessness of their deaths, and how it was a waste, a pity. I talked about him being an officer, and that he conveyed his feelings of pity towards the dead men, by portraying his anger towards the majors. I mentioned how he demeaned them in the first line, and also how he described them with "puffy petulant" faces. I mentioned alliteration here. I think I mentioned the ambiguity of "base" - meaning either military headquarters, or, dishonourable and crude. Er, "Guzzling and Gulping" I mentioned, and also the "scarlet" which could have pointed to the Majors' red, overfed complexion, or merely their rich uniform, in contrast to the men's dull Khaki. Basically, I said that his attitude towards the dead was one of futility, that their lives had been wasted, and that he felt extreme pity over this. (At least I hope I said that!!).

By the way, does anyone know what involvement the Short Stories have in the English Language exam?