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

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Original post by yasmin-alica
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Oooh I'd love a bit of Wuthering Heights, Othello and Doll's House if poss! And to be fair, I'm not quite sure either :s If you'd like, I'll message you my email address and we can send it over those, much easier aha. I've found a pretty good website on context as well, I'll add that to the email if I remember where I put it lol xx
Original post by Pthaos

Original post by Pthaos
I need to throw out a small request for help - I'm trying to organise my wider reading into themes (I know, I've said a lot that wider reading isn't as important as analysing the texts, but I'd still like some organisation.) So far, I've come up with the following themes/ideas

-Romantic love
-Passion/lust
-Forbidden love
-Unrequited love
-Selfish/Self love
-Loss of a loved one

I'm having trouble defining things into clear themes. If anyone has any suggestions for further "themes", please add to the list, as well as editing/combining/deleting if you feel any of these I have so far don't really work.

EDIT - I was thinking of doing a revision session at sometime during the day on Wednesday, the day before the exam. Would anyone be interested in joining me to chat about the exam/how we're preparing for it whilst revising purely English stuff? We can either get it going here or I was thinking of creating a new thread for a revision drop-in thing at a specific time (We can organise when people are available/want to revise) We can chat while we work, compare/swap notes, etc. Would anyone be interested in this?


I was doing this before but i relised that texts generally have more than just one theme. and, themes are endless.. off the top of my head: romantic / passionate love, unrequited, jealousy, destruction of love, family love, meetings, partings, betrayal/adultary, pursuit of love, celebration of love, homosexuality (?) , forbidden love..

but apart from the poems which can be just one, most text have lots of themes. so it might be a good idea to just list the different themes/types of love found in the texts on your individual text revision notes, then try to remember them. as opposed to organising BY theme. This also mean you're not limited, if in your mind you remember them as being just one theme, then you'll propably try and place the unseen texts you get into theme and choose the text that you have for that theme. when actually you could probably link many of your wider reading texts as lots of them can probably link to it.

and i just don't think people should be worrying so much about types of love because we don't just have to link it by that. for example you could use any text that had similar writing techniques, and then CONTRAST the theme.. eg 'their writing style is similar using pathetic fallacy to portray this.... however, they differ as this one is about meetings whereas this one is about partings' right?

sorry if this doesn't help it just seemed to make more sense to me :smile:
Reply 102
Original post by yasmin-alica
I was doing this before but i relised that texts generally have more than just one theme. and, themes are endless.. off the top of my head: romantic / passionate love, unrequited, jealousy, destruction of love, family love, meetings, partings, betrayal/adultary, pursuit of love, celebration of love, homosexuality (?) , forbidden love..

but apart from the poems which can be just one, most text have lots of themes. so it might be a good idea to just list the different themes/types of love found in the texts on your individual text revision notes, then try to remember them. as opposed to organising BY theme. This also mean you're not limited, if in your mind you remember them as being just one theme, then you'll propably try and place the unseen texts you get into theme and choose the text that you have for that theme. when actually you could probably link many of your wider reading texts as lots of them can probably link to it.

and i just don't think people should be worrying so much about types of love because we don't just have to link it by that. for example you could use any text that had similar writing techniques, and then CONTRAST the theme.. eg 'their writing style is similar using pathetic fallacy to portray this.... however, they differ as this one is about meetings whereas this one is about partings' right?

sorry if this doesn't help it just seemed to make more sense to me :smile:


Actually, this helps greatly, thank you.

This exam is just one that particularly worries me, due to a lot of pressure riding on it for me personally. I think rather than organising these into catagories, I'll just aim to look through what I can. My Prose and Drama pieces are reasonably well sorted, just getting poems together. Currently I am relying heavily on Duffy's poetry, so looking to revise some Marvell and Donne right now.
And would be up for the revision session too sounds like a good idea!
Ah good, you're welcome :smile:

I'm a lot less organised but am trying my best to make more notes on things before the exam
I'm really worried too, but mainly because i suck at understanding most of the unseen extracts and don't get the context part :/
Reply 105
Original post by yasmin-alica
Ah good, you're welcome :smile:

I'm a lot less organised but am trying my best to make more notes on things before the exam
I'm really worried too, but mainly because i suck at understanding most of the unseen extracts and don't get the context part :/


I think a lot of it's going to be down to what extracts we get on the day. If they're reasonably simple to analyse, the whole paper is going to be a whole lot easier than if they're complicated.

I think that's what worries me. This exam is very luck-of-the-draw, and I personally have a lot riding on it. I can't formally revise it because I don't really know how or where to begin.

When people say they are currently revising X for English, what are they doing? I'm pretty much just re-reading texts, making a few analytical notes and trying to remember some poetry quotes.
I can't really revise for it - I've just been making concise notes on a few key texts, with quotes, and then looking over new material and linking in my head. But so much depends on what comes up on the day :frown:
Yeah i know, its quite bad that it rests on luck, but i'm hoping it will go the other way and we''ll be lucky :smile: I heard that there was a big fuss with AQA over last year or something people complaining about the extracts, so i'm hoping that will mean AQA pick extracts that people won't be able to complain about this year.. we'll see ay.

all i'm doing is making notes on my wider reading a.t.m. eg overview, themes, form/structure, quotes about the types of love shown, & literary techniques used. then im going to revise them as in remembering them and then have a go at some of the past exams making links.. actually getting worried now writing this.. i know most of the marks are based on how you analyse the texts given.. but i guess thats just your general analytical skills which i dunno how to revise either. i really hope someone replies to my cry for help with context. then for the exam i guess it will all just fall in to place (hopefully) like when i revise wider reading points, it will make me remember what kind of things i wrote about and then they will be the things i'll look for in the extracts.. eek! i'll just be glad when it's over.
Reply 108
You're right, analytical skills can't really be revised. I've done all the past papers/example papers available, as well as a few more my English Tutor made up by grabbing some random extracts. Still worries me though. Interestingly my answers ranged from about an A to a C... The A ones were ones in which I followed a specific plan that I set out a few pages earlier, the C ones were when I talked about context first, and tended to go off on a tangent. Much as I'd like to do more practice, I don't think doing any more past papers this close will help me, even if I can get them marked in time.
Reply 109
Original post by yasmin-alica

was just wondering if anyone had a BREIF over view of the main periods / centurys / eras of liturature for context that they could paste onto here?
have missed a lot of school due to illness and have always been awful at history - i know nothing about context for this exam!
i also don't get what exactly we are supposed to comment on context wise, eg is it how the audience of that time would react to it compared to todays audience, or what was going on at that time to make them write in certain ways, or what was going on to do with views on love, or what?! :s-smilie:

i know its not a big part of the marks which is a relief, but i would like to be able to read the date commentary thingy at the top of the unseen extracts we get, and be able to say 'right that was this era so i can comment on this' just to make sure i cover it..
also when making my wider reading notes on form structure language themes etc context is blank, i dont know what to write about or where to find help. all the stuff i've found on the net is just TOO much info and i can't teach myself all this history in a few days!

I WOULD BE SOOO GRATEFULL FOR ANYONE TO REPLY AND GIVE ME SOME HELP..
Please :biggrin:
thankyou xxx


I've just written these notes out quickly. Don't know if they'll be of any use to you, but I've been meaning to write them up anyway. Some parts are better than others, but hopefully it'll give you some ideas. The bit above the extract combined with the content of the poem will probably prompt you to come up with something anyway.

Original post by JoeK
I've just written these notes out quickly. Don't know if they'll be of any use to you, but I've been meaning to write them up anyway. Some parts are better than others, but hopefully it'll give you some ideas. The bit above the extract combined with the content of the poem will probably prompt you to come up with something anyway.


ahh thankyou so much you kind person!! :biggrin:
Original post by Pthaos

Original post by Pthaos
You're right, analytical skills can't really be revised. I've done all the past papers/example papers available, as well as a few more my English Tutor made up by grabbing some random extracts. Still worries me though. Interestingly my answers ranged from about an A to a C... The A ones were ones in which I followed a specific plan that I set out a few pages earlier, the C ones were when I talked about context first, and tended to go off on a tangent. Much as I'd like to do more practice, I don't think doing any more past papers this close will help me, even if I can get them marked in time.


I think i need to make a list of things to look for in extracts.. eg. 'pathos' (lol your name made me remember that) i wonder if there is a good english sites which has general writing techniques and what effect they give? for the poems especially.. like 'enjambment' etc (i'm quite a poetry noob so i always forget these techniques when it comes to the exam :/)

When you say you did a plan, was that once you've read the exam Q/extracts, or do you have a generic plan prepared that you can use in the exam?
Reply 112
I always use a generic plan in my answers. Makes it easier to write the essay as you already know the structure that you'll be using. It can obviously be adapted if it needs to be, like I said on the last page I'll sometimes move the context to the start if I want something easier to write about. Usually though I'll follow a structure that is pretty much the same as the one that Pthaos put earlier.

There's a ton of literary terms on this website, although the majority of them I've never heard of :biggrin:

http://www.cummingsstudyguides.net/xLitTerms.html#Literary%20Terms
Reply 113
Original post by yasmin-alica


When you say you did a plan, was that once you've read the exam Q/extracts, or do you have a generic plan prepared that you can use in the exam?


I have a generic plan that I find I can apply to all questions (Question 2 at least. I just alter it slightly for Question 1)

They recommend an hour planning before you even tackle the questions, so we have plenty of time to do a detailed plan which I'd recommend doing. Know what the plans you'll be doing look like before you go in, it will make them easier to write. When you know what you're looking for, being able to find it in the extracts is much easier.

Know your timings too. It's a 2 and a half hour exam right? I'm planning to spend the first half an hour reading the extracts and doing a plan for both questions. This means I can spend just under an hour really doing Question 1 some justice, take a 5 minute break to collect my thoughts and then have just under an hour for Question 2. With that much time, I can alter it if one question seems particularly annoying.
This is quite useful for context too... :smile:

http://www.wwnorton.com/college/english/nael/welcome.htm
Thanks for the help guys!! :biggrin: better get working on my generic plan. good to know about timing too, i'm going to steal your time plan :wink:
Reply 116
I seem to have reasonable response to the idea of doing a revision session on Wednesday, so I'll get a thread going in advance for people to talk in while we work.

What times are convenient for people? I'll probably aim to start at about 9AM and work through till mid afternoon, but in reality, It'd probably be about a 10AM start for me.
I'm really struggling with how to structure my answers...especially as in an exam, when I panic, I tend to waffle on for ages about something, completely lose any kind of structure and end up losing marks because it basically all falls to pieces, haha. In terms of AO's, how do you guys structure yours?
Reply 118
Original post by Pthaos
I seem to have reasonable response to the idea of doing a revision session on Wednesday, so I'll get a thread going in advance for people to talk in while we work.

What times are convenient for people? I'll probably aim to start at about 9AM and work through till mid afternoon, but in reality, It'd probably be about a 10AM start for me.


Any time is good for me to be honest. I'll be looking at notes on and off throughout the day. I guess I can get up earlier too! :biggrin:

Original post by lucyalexandra
I'm really struggling with how to structure my answers...especially as in an exam, when I panic, I tend to waffle on for ages about something, completely lose any kind of structure and end up losing marks because it basically all falls to pieces, haha. In terms of AO's, how do you guys structure yours?


If you can come up with a generic plan to follow now it should help you. An easy way to start is to talk about the general themes that are in the extracts. Then follow this on discussing language techniques used, comparing and contrasting them and dropping in some wider reading. If you can put some information in there regarding context it would help too, particularly if you can seamlessly link it with a quote from the extract. Otherwise you can just do a small section on it at the start or the end. I find it easier to then separate different bits into shorter paragraphs too as I find it easier to follow my points that way, but whatever suits you and what you're talking about should be fine.

When you're analysing the extracts try to separate points into different topics of paragraphs and how you can link them with each other, either through contrasts or similarities. If there's a particular point that you think relates to your wider reading make sure that you note that down next to it as well. I've forgotten to talk about some wider reading before because I forget to write it down next to particular points.

Otherwise though just make sure that you get a decent amount of language analysis in, along with some wider reading and contextual information. As long as you hit the AO's somewhere and have a coherent essay you should be fine. If you're in the middle of writing a point and think of something, just quickly note it down on your plan and then you can always come back to it. :smile:
Original post by yasmin-alica
We didn't have set texts either, our course has been all over the place & teachers have only recently started to get organised. But for your 'set texts' you could just use the ones you studied for coursework. We studied Wuthering Heights, Othello & Browning's monologues which is one from each genre so i knew those texts pretty well and was able to make notes using things i'd talked about in my coursework. Then just pick some of the hundreds of extracts you have and learn them, you're probably better off than most people well me anyways and don't need to worry so much :smile: like people have said earlier you don't need to remember SO much wider reading but you'll have a big choice which is good.

good luck!!



I actually thought we were doing alright until I came on TSR lol,then I realised I don't really have any indepth knowledge about any texts,except perhaps the ones I did for my coursework (Othello,The Yellow Wallpaper and Educating Rita)
I think I am going to have to just rely on the internet to help me analyse a couple of texts in depth because my teachers are stuck on the idea that quantity is better than quality :confused:

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