AQA English Literature A - Love Through the Ages June 2011 Exam :D

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I had a read through the thread and got pretty worried, knowing I was doing hardly any wider reading prep compared to most people, or so it seems, but then calmed down and wrote all that! :P

I've been spending the last lessons I have focusing purely on exam technique and essay writing. We did a mock exam a week ago where the whole class was marked by our lit teacher at... well, she didn't grade them as they were so poor. Mine unfortunately was one of the worse I believe. Now our class is not a large class, nor is it an amazing class. There is 7 of us, predicted around B on average I'd say. I'm predicted an A so that was a massive confidence knock, seeing as I need the A for University. A MAJOR confidence knock, a month before the exam to find you're on what I suspect was an E/D grade.

There's a reasonably happy ending to this. I rewrote the essay under timed conditions at home and asked her to remark it. It came back today as a B/A grade. Still not good enough but a considerable improvement and condfidence boost. I can get a B to an A by the exam. The point of me saying all this is exactly what I'd done wrong. Having not followed the mark scheme, I'd written probably around 50% of my essay on historical context of literature and around 30% on wider reading, leaving VERY little analysis of the two texts. I could see it when I read through again, there were many points I'd wanted to make but didn't as I didn't feel I had time to squish it in around the context.

Point of all that is that I'm focusing on essay writing and being able to analyse and compare unseen texts now.

Reply 21

x_hana_x

Original post by Colour Me Pretty

This!
I'm not sure how everyone expects to remember it all! My Lit teacher told me the analysis is more much more important.

Also, my suspicions are the same in that we'll get Drama for the first question.

Yeah i agree that it will be drama, even though i really want it to be poetry! I only have 2 drama texts and i've only read one! but as long as you know the general overview and a few quotes from it then i think thats sufficient. And you don't have to just link by themes of course, you can compare dialogue and technique etc as well, which broadens out how wider reading fits in :smile:

Reply 22

Colour Me Pretty

Original post by x_hana_x

Exactly, apparantly some of the top candidates compared stage directions which is quite interesting.

Reply 23

malaikah

Original post by Colour Me Pretty

Exactly, apparantly some of the top candidates compared stage directions which is quite interesting.

I suppose anything that seems original would look good (you wouldn't generally think to compare stage directions)

I have a question about AS (I'm doing AS and A2 combined in a year): for the poetry section (I'm doing Duffy), is it necessary to compare and contrast with different poetry? I have a tendency of picking out parts which support my argument to answer the question, and I'm a little confused as to whether we're meant to compare and contrast too :confused:

Reply 24

Colour Me Pretty

Original post by malaikah

Do you mean when you get the two questions in the second section and have to compare Duffy's poems with each other. Also, I did Maya Angelous so I'm limited as to how much I can help you with Duffy. Is this her ''The World's Wife'' collection?

You should always compare and contrast, because even though there are similarities within texts there will also be differences and it shows the examiner you're not just making a shallow link. :smile:

Reply 25

malaikah

Original post by Colour Me Pretty

Thankyou for trying to answer :smile:

It is indeed... the question could be something along the lines of, "Women in Duffy's Collection are presented as being hostile". How far do you agree?

And so I usually find points to back up my point, and then use others to form a contrasting argument, but I'm not sure whether I'm supposed to compare and contrast between actual poems!

Reply 26

Colour Me Pretty

Original post by malaikah

Thankyou for trying to answer :smile:

Ah I understand now!

Well I'd use a poem like Salome and Havisham to use a argument purporting that view. Then Anne Hathaway and that one about Elvis' sister as against. Then in my conclusion just say something like "Duffy presents some females in her collection as hostile but we also see compassion and love" etc

I think you should compare the poems in terms of theme, language etc so you you're showing the examiner how they differ. Your best bet though is to check the mark scheme and look at the examiner's commentary as they are really useful. I wish I'd looked them up last year!

Reply 27

malaikah

Original post by Colour Me Pretty

Thankyou for this! Just doing some last going over notes and mark schemes now :smile:

Reply 28

shygirl135

Wow, my list is really small compared to everyone elses :/
My poetry consists of eras; Shakespeare, Metaphysical Poets, Keats, then 2 poems from the Victorian period and I haven't sorted out my modern poems yet.

Drama is literally 3 Shakespeare texts and The Double Dealer by William Congreve where my teacher gave us an extract, so I don't even know what the play is about.

Prose consists of Wuthering Heights (key text), The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton and then one quote from the Notebook...

This is technically my "easiest" exam but still, I feel so underprepared! I was ill from January until April, and I'm still finding it difficult to concentrate, my memory is terrible now.

Random question...do you think we can use Twilight for a prose text? :P

Reply 29

JaiiStarh

Original post by shygirl135

I can't answer that question,but a local sixth form gave their student Bridget Jones Diary as a text for their comparison coursework :tongue:

Reply 30

shygirl135

Original post by JaiiStarh

I can't answer that question,but a local sixth form gave their student Bridget Jones Diary as a text for their comparison coursework :tongue:

LOL! That's quite awesome. :cool:

Reply 31

JaiiStarh

Original post by shygirl135

LOL! That's quite awesome. :cool:

I know right! Can you imagine,there's us ploughing through Shakespeare looking for 'deeper meaning',and they just got to read Bridget Jones Diary,the ultimate girly novel! However,when my teacher told us,she was abit snobby and said it shouldn't constitute as a novel full stop,never mind as a novel for A2 coursework :rolleyes:

Reply 32

shygirl135

Original post by JaiiStarh

My coursework nearly killed me. Mine was 300 words over, and I spent hours cutting it :/ I had to compare Othello, Enduring Love and A View from the Bridge. Awful, awful, decent. I would hope Twilight is better than Bridget Jones novel wise...it does explore issues about love! :P

Reply 33

Pthaos

Original post by shygirl135

Random question...do you think we can use Twilight for a prose text? :P

I don't see why not really, if you know it well enough to link it to the theme given. It's a wider reading text and if you have a lot to say on it relating to the question then why not?

Reply 34

Cast.Iron

For the love of (no pun intended) God, if the amount of literature to be read was as great as some of your lists then I would be, for lack of a better word, screwed!

As it is, I think people need to calm down. ~70% of the marks come from analysis of the unseen text. What you need to remember is that English Literature is not a 'revision-heavy' subject; it is about testing skills.

However, if you have the time to revise all of these texts then of course that will not be to your detriment. What I would say is that if you have other subjects which require a lot of revision, like myself, then I would not prioritise English Literature revision. I would work more on past papers and such (which are devilishly tricky to acquire given AQA's new found love of passwords).

These are the texts which I feel comfortable with:

Prose: Tipping the Velvet (Waters), Enduring Love (McEwan), Captain Corelli's Mandolin (de Bernieres) and I am currently reading the French Lieutenant's Woman (Fowles).

(on occasion I have found use for 'A Clockwork Orange' to throw a curve-ball into my answer).

Poetry: Songs of Innocence and of Experience (Blake), The Rime of the Ancient Mariner (Coleridge), Daddy (Plath) and I have an old copy of the Norton Anthology of Poetry which I will no doubt dip into given my ostensible lack of poetry.

Drama: Measure for Measure (Shakespeare), Much Ado About Nothing (Shakespeare), A Streetcar Named Desire (Williams), Rome and Juliet (Shakespeare - although I haven't studied it this year).

My teacher tells me that referring heavily to the texts which we have studied in class is adequate to obtain the marks which, upon examination of the mark scheme, makes sense.

Reply 35

LoveyRae

For people worrying about not having the relevant wider reading to a particular sub-theme, you can contrast as well and you don't have to compare based on content.
For example, you could compare 'The Beaux Stratgem' with 'Tis' A Pity She's A Whore' based on the military language used in both :smile:

one of my teachers said we needed to use one wider reading extract for every era - i wrote about 3 texts OVERALL in my mock and got an A. Its not about name-dropping!

Reply 36

lkaye

When our teacher went to the local consortium meetings, the chief examiner there said that when marking, they prefer to see that candidates have an in-depth knowledge of wider reading opposed to the tangible and irrelevant links that weaker candidate make, and therefore they would rather see a link from just one of each genre than masses of nonsense strewn through an essay. Of course the exam is weighted accordingly as everyone has said so that the most part of any essay should be the comparison of the unseen texts, it is after all an exam testing analytical skill opposed to memory

Hope this helps

Reply 37

lolly21

how is everyone organising their wider reading?
in genres, themes or what?
I don't know what's best

Reply 38

katielou1993

Original post by lolly21

how is everyone organising their wider reading?
in genres, themes or what?
I don't know what's best

This is what i've been struggling to decide on. I've now done it in theme so I've chosen themes such as 'true love' and then 'unrequited love' etc. I've noted down how different texts use structure/form/language to illustrate the differing types of love. For example for Jane Eyre i've put down that the tone in Thornfield is a mixture between the pacy and restrained, which is used to show Janes pulse quickening as she is falling in love with her master, as well as the fact shes torn between passion and self-control.

how would you go about comparing drama texts?

Reply 39

katielou1993

Original post by elley007100

A technique I have found helpful is to get a large sheet of paper, and make a grid. Along the top you can put your different themes of love (insane, obsessive, corrupted, destructive, parental, unrequited etc etc etc!) and down the side you can put your three genres (poetry prose and drama) so for example for insane and obsessive love in the prose box i have enduring love, and i will fill the box with relevant quotes and commentary on structure and language too.

This will provide you just an overview of the texts though, if youre comfortable with a lot of texts and are looking for more specific and concise analysis you can flip the paper and put all your texts dramas and poetry down the side, and across the top put your themes of love in again, except this time, take tess for example, you have to find quotes and commentary relevant to each type of love. Of course you wont be able to write something in each and every box using this method but it provides a much more indepth study into each text that you are doing.

So far I've only done the first, but soon will move on and do the more indepth grid.

Hope this helps

I haven't thought about doing this, genius idea. Thanks!