AS level WJEC Literature exam 23/5/11

Original post by -masquerade-

Hello... I was just wondering if anyone was doing the same paper as me and studying the same topics for the exam; Seamus Heaney and Owen Sheers - poetry. These are the collections i have studied in class; 'Death of a Naturalist' (1966), 'Door into the Dark' (1969), 'The Haw lantern' (1987) - Seamus Heaney collection. 'Skirrid Hill' (2010) - Owen Sheers.

And if so, how many poems do you recommend I study for it? I have looked at many pratice papers and they recommend you do two poems for Heaney (in depth) and one poem for Sheers for the actual exam.

But is it a bad idea to actual just study only the recommended amounts? or should I study more poems just in case the poetry does not fit the criteria asked in the question on that day.

*sorry if i have done any mistakes - i'm kinda new to this stuff*

I'm doing exact same poems and same exam :smile:

I find English Lit quite difficult compared to my other subjects but i guess it's because i'm not really interested in it,

We have been told to learn in depth about 4-5 Heaney poems and 2-3 Sheers poems and so then you have the chance to choose the poems depending on what question topic they ask.

How have you been taught to write/structure the essay? Like is their a certain plan or way of doing it go get a decent grade like a B?

Thanks in advance

Reply 2

hawkinsj

Hiya, I'm doing the exam on Monday as well.
We've studied loads of Heaney and Sheers poems, so there's a big range to choose from. We've been told to address two Heaney poems in depth, and then link in about four Sheers poems throughout. I'll try and make sure I'm familiar with two Heaney poems I can write about for each prominent theme.
I'll probably address each Heaney poem seperately, and link Sheers to each one as much as possible through things like imagery, similar notions, structure etc.

Reply 3

Anyone here doing Duffy and Pugh? ... I swear our school's like the only ones who do them :/

Or any Broken Glass peeps out there? :smile:

Reply 4

delasandro

anyone know any exam technique/strucutre? like how should it be set out?

Also, can someone explain to me what they mean by 'structure' when talking about the poems themselves? ( doing Heaney n Sheers)

Reply 5

Bright

Anyone doing Plath and Hughes and Kindertransport for the play?

Nothing online and I am pretty sure our school is the only school doing it... /:

Reply 6

winning11

19

Original post by hawkinsj

Hiya, I'm doing the exam on Monday as well.
We've studied loads of Heaney and Sheers poems, so there's a big range to choose from. We've been told to address two Heaney poems in depth, and then link in about four Sheers poems throughout. I'll try and make sure I'm familiar with two Heaney poems I can write about for each prominent theme.
I'll probably address each Heaney poem seperately, and link Sheers to each one as much as possible through things like imagery, similar notions, structure etc.

hi i'm really sorry to ask
but could you list the poems linked to the themes that are likely to come up for both heaney and sheers (so i know what to do the essay on)
i'm struggling with structure also

i vaguely recall learning them but i've barely paid attention to english lit revision and i've been incredibly ill so that hasnt helped, i really appreciate it i'm so worried

Reply 7

Azwozzle

Original post by mezlande

Anyone here doing Duffy and Pugh? ... I swear our school's like the only ones who do them :/

Or any Broken Glass peeps out there? :smile:

Hey! I'm doing Duffy/Pugh AND Broken Glass :biggrin:

Broken Glass I think will be OK depending on the question but the poetry one will definitely depend on what they decide to put as themes >___>

Reply 8

ddavies93

1

I'm doing Broken Glass, do you perhaps have any revision you could share? haha. .... Im doing Larkin and Abse .... very difficult to find any revision aids for Abse, not feeling too confident about this exam, but got the best coursework grade so hope that gives me a boost :smile:

Reply 9

hawkinsj

hi winning11, sorry for SUCH a late reply, it's almost not worth it now as it's tomorrow morning :/
There are so many themes that I think it's difficult to pick which ones will come up!
Possibilities are:
- borders and divisions
- death
-relationships
- home country
-surroundings
-change
-separation
-senses
-childhood
etc. There's so many, it's just too difficult to link them all on here. I'm really sorry, I hope it goes okay for you :smile:

x

Reply 10

delasandro

Original post by hawkinsj

hi winning11, sorry for SUCH a late reply, it's almost not worth it now as it's tomorrow morning :/
There are so many themes that I think it's difficult to pick which ones will come up!
Possibilities are:
- borders and divisions
- death
-relationships
- home country
-surroundings
-change
-separation
-senses
-childhood
etc. There's so many, it's just too difficult to link them all on here. I'm really sorry, I hope it goes okay for you :smile:

x

How would u strucutre the answer, say for example the theme was relationships.

Thanks in advance, hope its not too much of a hassle

Reply 11

winning11

19

Original post by hawkinsj

hi winning11, sorry for SUCH a late reply, it's almost not worth it now as it's tomorrow morning :/
There are so many themes that I think it's difficult to pick which ones will come up!
Possibilities are:
- borders and divisions
- death
-relationships
- home country
-surroundings
-change
-separation
-senses
-childhood
etc. There's so many, it's just too difficult to link them all on here. I'm really sorry, I hope it goes okay for you :smile:

x

thanks so much that's brill! i ran out of reps sorry but i shall when i get some more
and i never realised you responded either but this is a great help i'm going to list poems for each and try and find sheers ones which connect then fully analyse for the first time in the exams.. i guess they'll be testing my non existant skills rather than my memory haha! good luck :smile:

Reply 12

Original post by Azwozzle

Hey! I'm doing Duffy/Pugh AND Broken Glass :biggrin:

Broken Glass I think will be OK depending on the question but the poetry one will definitely depend on what they decide to put as themes >___>

Hey, how did it go? I thought it was a pritty fair paper tbh.. but i still managed to really mess up broken glass :frown:

ddavies93 - Got the highest mark too, High 5! I think i'm really going to be relying on that to bring me up now :s-smilie:

Reply 13

Spiffing

Original post by mezlande

Hey, how did it go? I thought it was a pritty fair paper tbh.. but i still managed to really mess up broken glass :frown:

ddavies93 - Got the highest mark too, High 5! I think i'm really going to be relying on that to bring me up now :s-smilie:

Hey mezlande, I'm doing all the same texts as you. I thought it was a good paper too! I did the "loss of innocence" poetry one and the "issues around physical intimacy" one for Miller. Poetry was easy, Miller was hard but I wrote six pages for Duffy/Pugh and then two or three Miller pages of gibberish and I know I did well on AO4 in there. Struggled with AO2 in the intimacy question but think I did OK... Making it up as I go along has never failed me yet! What did you write about?

Got 79/80 on coursework but I'm paranoid that the moderators will have docked me - scared they might realise I bluffed the whole thing :frown:

(edited 12 years ago)

Reply 14

Azwozzle

Original post by mezlande

Hey, how did it go? I thought it was a pritty fair paper tbh.. but i still managed to really mess up broken glass :frown:

ddavies93 - Got the highest mark too, High 5! I think i'm really going to be relying on that to bring me up now :s-smilie:

I thought it was Ok, the poem question about lost innocence was really good and I did Girl Talking, In Mrs Tilscher's Class and Paradise for the Children. But same about Broken Glass, I didn't have any time to plan it, but I did the attitudes towards marriage question but don't know if I put enough context in it and I forgot to include a critical view :s-smilie:

What questions did you do?

Reply 15

Original post by Spiffing

Hey mezlande, I'm doing all the same texts as you. I thought it was a good paper too! I did the "loss of innocence" poetry one and the "issues around physical intimacy" one for Miller. Poetry was easy, Miller was hard but I wrote six pages for Duffy/Pugh and then two or three Miller pages of gibberish and I know I did well on AO4 in there. Struggled with AO2 in the intimacy question but think I did OK... Making it up as I go along has never failed me yet! What did you write about?

Got 79/80 on coursework but I'm paranoid that the moderators will have docked me - scared they might realise I bluffed the whole thing :frown:

Original post by Azwozzle

I thought it was Ok, the poem question about lost innocence was really good and I did Girl Talking, In Mrs Tilscher's Class and Paradise for the Children. But same about Broken Glass, I didn't have any time to plan it, but I did the attitudes towards marriage question but don't know if I put enough context in it and I forgot to include a critical view :s-smilie:

What questions did you do?

79/80 !! Congrats! I was just a couple short of that but still.. :P I did loss of innocence too.. it seems to be the most popular choice, almost all of my class did it and we all used somehting like 'Lizzy, Six', 'Boy', 'Girl Talking', 'Inter City Lullaby' and 'Paradise for the Children' (I didn't but most did 'In Mrs.... too).. Is it wierd that I sort of enjoyed that Q.. might have rambled off the point a bit though talking about the preservation of innocence.. bout 5 pages.
I did the attitudes toward marriage Q. I was gutted, got the right timing, made and awesome plan.. just don't know how I managed to go so wrong. only wrote about 2 1/2 pages (pritty sure I got the AO4 marks though).
Did you guys use any critics opinions? I put 2 in my plan of broken glass and completely forgot to put them in my essay :/
You two sound like you've done well tbh.. don't worry, i think it's the ones you bluff through that the examiners tend to go for :s-smilie:

Reply 16

Spiffing

Original post by mezlande

79/80 !! Congrats! I was just a couple short of that but still.. :P I did loss of innocence too.. it seems to be the most popular choice, almost all of my class did it and we all used somehting like 'Lizzy, Six', 'Boy', 'Girl Talking', 'Inter City Lullaby' and 'Paradise for the Children' (I didn't but most did 'In Mrs.... too).. Is it wierd that I sort of enjoyed that Q.. might have rambled off the point a bit though talking about the preservation of innocence.. bout 5 pages.
I did the attitudes toward marriage Q. I was gutted, got the right timing, made and awesome plan.. just don't know how I managed to go so wrong. only wrote about 2 1/2 pages (pritty sure I got the AO4 marks though).
Did you guys use any critics opinions? I put 2 in my plan of broken glass and completely forgot to put them in my essay :/
You two sound like you've done well tbh.. don't worry, i think it's the ones you bluff through that the examiners tend to go for :s-smilie:

Ugh, sorry I didn't respond earlier.

High five for high coursework marks! They're such a lifesaver when I go to pieces in the exam xD

Yeah, I didn't like the other question - theme of change with reference to 'Whoever She Was"...haha, no. I would never bill change as a (major) theme of that poem o__o I used Lizzie, Six (detailed), Boy (briefly), Girl Talking (detailed), In Mrs Tilscher's Class (detailed) and Paradise for the Children (detailed). I'm positive that I used one other poem but I forget what it was :'(

I used the transition from childhood to adulthood as my line of connection for loss of innocence, what about you?

I stuck in stuff like "Critics have said" and quoted York notes or something (didn't say they were the York notes!) for the Duffy/Pugh stuff. I also quoted that odd poem...

"Childhood is not from birth to a certain age and at a certain age
The child is grown, and puts away childish things.
Childhood is the kingdom where nobody dies."
-Edna St. Vincent Millay

...but I don't think it really counts :frown:

I paraphrased some quote by Miller that I couldn't remember properly for Broken Glass - something about roses and perfume, I think - but it wasn't very good or even particularly relevant xD However I only need a low mark on Miller because I'm confident in my Duffy/Pugh essay and my coursework, so I'm not going to worry too much ^^ <3

Reply 17

Original post by Spiffing

Ugh, sorry I didn't respond earlier.

High five for high coursework marks! They're such a lifesaver when I go to pieces in the exam xD

Yeah, I didn't like the other question - theme of change with reference to 'Whoever She Was"...haha, no. I would never bill change as a (major) theme of that poem o__o I used Lizzie, Six (detailed), Boy (briefly), Girl Talking (detailed), In Mrs Tilscher's Class (detailed) and Paradise for the Children (detailed). I'm positive that I used one other poem but I forget what it was :'(

I used the transition from childhood to adulthood as my line of connection for loss of innocence, what about you?

I stuck in stuff like "Critics have said" and quoted York notes or something (didn't say they were the York notes!) for the Duffy/Pugh stuff. I also quoted that odd poem...

"Childhood is not from birth to a certain age and at a certain age
The child is grown, and puts away childish things.
Childhood is the kingdom where nobody dies."
-Edna St. Vincent Millay

...but I don't think it really counts :frown:

I paraphrased some quote by Miller that I couldn't remember properly for Broken Glass - something about roses and perfume, I think - but it wasn't very good or even particularly relevant xD However I only need a low mark on Miller because I'm confident in my Duffy/Pugh essay and my coursework, so I'm not going to worry too much ^^ <3

Haha, don't worry, this response is even later :smile:

I think I'm going to use you as encouragement to work harder, you souns like you really know your stuff. And even if they don't award anything for the extra quotes, I'm sure the examiner takes them into account (whether they try to or not).
I focused less on transition, specifically. I remember wishing I'd revised 'Originally' better when I saw that Q. I tried to connect my points with that view a bit though.. so although there wasn't much about childhood to adulthood, there was quite a bit of 'corruption with age'.. yano.
I think it depends on the examiner really.. s'probably entirely right or entirely wrong haha. I'm just glad it's over (for now :/) and I seem to be about the only person not dropping it at the mo!

We start the new course tomorrow though, d'you know what you'll be studying in A2? (just thought i'd ask seems as AS was the same as me).

Reply 18

jakecollinge

Original post by delasandro

I'm doing exact same poems and same exam :smile:

I find English Lit quite difficult compared to my other subjects but i guess it's because i'm not really interested in it,

We have been told to learn in depth about 4-5 Heaney poems and 2-3 Sheers poems and so then you have the chance to choose the poems depending on what question topic they ask.

How have you been taught to write/structure the essay? Like is their a certain plan or way of doing it go get a decent grade like a B?

Thanks in advance

Hey, do you have AO sheets? they help alot - for the poetry analysis your looking at 15 marks for AO1 which is your ability to structure and write the essay, 15 marks for AO2 which is demonstrating you understanding of language and structure and 10 marks for AO3 which is exploring comparisons and interpretations.

Hope this helps!

Reply 19

R311