Advice from a teacher would be brilliant right now!!
Found the exam today difficult, not due to the texts themselves (though the poem threw me off a little) but because of how much you have to cram in in the time allowed!! I've done a million timed essays over the year, but it's so different in the exam!
I managed to cover the AO's pretty much solidly (except for lack of context on the poem), however I didn't make many links, only a couple for each question (obviously they were very developed). My teacher (who is brilliant) said that I should be fine because it's more about what you write than how much you write (I only just managed to finish the paper in the time allowed, so I couldn't have written any more tbh :/)
These are the links I made-
Q1-
-The fact that neither texts use the female's name, and the contrasting effects and reasons for this (not the strongest of points, but I developed it quite a bit, and had been told to do similarities first so I stuck to that. Don't remember what I talked about though aha)
-The differences in the levels of intimacy between the partners- in Disgrace the fact that he uses short, blunt sentences in both the description and dialogue/the way in which they are "Two dancers on a bare stage" or something, compared to the level of intimacy shared by Jude and the woman in JTO, despite only just meeting (then went on about how the heavy description is typical of Victorian era, linked to Wuthering Heights) -said how the heavy description creates intimacy that reaches out to the reader etc etc
-Talked about the differences in tone, the awkwardness of the first one, compared it to"The Late Hector Kipling" by David Thewlis (AMAZING BOOK IS AMAZING- but no one's ever read it!! (hope the examiner doesn't think I made it up...) and how both are post modern writers who tackle illicit stuff in the 21st century-which is hard to do as we live in a liberal world etc etc etc etc/compared it to Hardy's more light hearted tone (must have developed this but have completely forgotten how..)
I was gonna link in The Great Gatsby but didn't have time
Q2-
-Talked about the differing perspectives in terms of gender (one written by woman, one by man) and how this effects the way in which they write and their attitudes to sexual relationships (went on about farcical comedy in The Rover and how it was typical of the time, but untypical that the women were higher in status and intelligence than man) - the woman was very light hearted about sex etc, whereas Wyatt's poem was really sad, experienced, etc (compared it to Prufrock by T.S. Eliot <3 )
-Talked about differing ways in which sex itself was presented- The Rover set at carnival, it is all a game/performance- all the characters pitted against each other etc etc (compared to the way in which marriage is presented in "A Doll's House" by Ibsen- "I was performing for you, Torvold....")
Whereas Wyatt= very negative, contrasting ways in which he writes about women he has had sex with- at first "gentle" but also "predators" and "wild" etc, talked about how the rhyme scheme broke down in the second stanza as he found himself confused at finding a woman who truly loved him after having so many reject him (as this is what I thought the poem was about, FAAAILLLLL :'))
I really needed more time to write all the ideas I had down in my plan, but I got so into analysing stuff and trying to cover all the AO's and the different wider readings that I just didn't have time...do you think I'll have still done okay despite not making a ton of links?? Bearing in mind I wrote loads, but didn't waffle? Like I said my teacher said it sounds like I've done good but I'm stressing out seeing how much stuff other people packed in, and I need 3 A's to get into my top choice uni :|
Cheers! x