The Student Room Group

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

Scroll to see replies

Reply 320
Oh I also linked the Drama of the second question to William Wycherly's "The Country Wife" (:
Original post by Sarahtea

Original post by Sarahtea
Can you refer to texts without quotes?


You can, but it is better to quote if you can. In a mock I did I mentioned two wider reading texts, but one I couldn't remember the quote for, but I explained what evidence I'd taken from it. Even in the exam today, i quoted everything except for Lady Chatterly, but I still explained that it used explicit language etc. So it can be done if you really need to, but overall it is much better to quote!
Original post by carnationlilyrose
Well, they were great kids and deserved to do well. have been set for the first exam of the new syllabus last year, but they would have been .


Hey:smile:
For the first question, I compared the symbol of the cup in Coetzee and the symbol of the plank bridge in hardy's extract. Like how the bridge 'bridged' jude's and the country's girl differences and contrasted it with how the 'rim of the cup' acts as a barrier between Melanie and Lurer. In bardy, I also suggested that 'parallel' lines could reflect that they were never meant to meet, however they did on the bridge and by doing so defied the concept of parallel lines suggesting that perhaps they'll have a strong friendship?
I contrasted this with Melanie's uncomfortableness as she holds a cup of whisky before her and Lurer first intimate moment etc...

Is this tenuous?

:/
Original post by theproseandpassion

Original post by theproseandpassion
I thought the poem was about how Wyatt used women for sex - I know I did bad on Q2 :'( is this interpretation really wrong?


I wouldn't say you were wrong! Firstly, it's all opend to interpretation, and secondly, I didn't take too much notice of the bit at the top which gives info about the text! I'd say it's true, as it seemed to me that he talked about women as objects rather than sex being a mutual expression of love.

Don't worry! If you've backed up what you've written with evidence, they can't exactly say you're wrong, because literature's all about alternative interpretations!
Reply 324
This is the worst exam I have ever sat in the entire nineteen years of my life.
Original post by purplestarfish
Hey:smile:
For the first question, I compared the symbol of the cup in Coetzee and the symbol of the plank bridge in hardy's extract. Like how the bridge 'bridged' jude's and the country's girl differences and contrasted it with how the 'rim of the cup' acts as a barrier between Melanie and Lurer. In bardy, I also suggested that 'parallel' lines could reflect that they were never meant to meet, however they did on the bridge and by doing so defied the concept of parallel lines suggesting that perhaps they'll have a strong friendship?
I contrasted this with Melanie's uncomfortableness as she holds a cup of whisky before her and Lurer first intimate moment etc...

Is this tenuous?

:/


I haven't got a copy of the paper in front of me and only had a fleeting glimpse of it in the exam hall, so I can't say much other than that nothing's tenuous in Eng lit if you can prove it with quotations and confidence! Sounds like a nice original slant to me, and certainly no more tenuous an idea than some academics have constructed an entire university course around! (You'll understand the truth of that when you get there!)
Original post by Clio
This is the worst exam I have ever sat in the entire nineteen years of my life.


It still doesn't mean you've done badly.
Apart from the fact that my writing at the end was near-illegible I thought that it went well.

The first question, I felt, went very well indeed.

The second question was not as good as the first and the poem was devilishly tricky but overall nothing too ghastly.

I wish everybody the best of luck for results day.
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 :frown:

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
Original post by whiteblankpage10
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 :frown:

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


Your teacher sounds a very shrewd judge and I'm sure s/he is right. It's not possible to tell you if you'll get an A or not when I can't read what you've written, but you sound to have had some original and insightful ideas which you have been able to support with appropriate quotations and wider reading. Getting the wrong end of the stick once or twice isn't going to ruin a paper that is very good overall. This is a really hard exam to sit and perfection isn't expected. Go and have a break from the stress by doing something unrelated to work and try to avoid overthinking and overanalysing after the event. In particular, don't be thrown by what people say on here. There are many different ways to get an A in English and you way might be quite different to theirs but equally valid.
Reply 330
Hi, does anyone knows if the coursework marks are received by the centre? My teacher said the marks come back in June (after they've been sent off). Can anyone confirm or deny this? And when can we find out about 2011 grade boundaries?
Original post by carnationlilyrose

Original post by carnationlilyrose
Your teacher sounds a very shrewd judge and I'm sure s/he is right. It's not possible to tell you if you'll get an A or not when I can't read what you've written, but you sound to have had some original and insightful ideas which you have been able to support with appropriate quotations and wider reading. Getting the wrong end of the stick once or twice isn't going to ruin a paper that is very good overall. This is a really hard exam to sit and perfection isn't expected. Go and have a break from the stress by doing something unrelated to work and try to avoid overthinking and overanalysing after the event. In particular, don't be thrown by what people say on here. There are many different ways to get an A in English and you way might be quite different to theirs but equally valid.



Thank you! This has put my mind a bit more at ease, I thought I'd done okay after the exam, though I thought it was really difficult and if I had more time I could have written a load more. I came on here out of curiosity to see what other people had written and was confronted with millions of ideas that they'd packed in, it really threw me off!

I hope it's gone alright, I love English Lit, even though the exams are demanding. My friend who took the horrible beast of an exam last year got an A*, and she was convinced that she'd failed, just goes to show that you never know with this exam..
Original post by carnationlilyrose
I'm not sure what you mean by 'did not get time to start the second'. I am assuming you mean the conclusion to the second question, not the whole question. As far as losing marks goes, you can see, I'm sure, that with 2 identical essays, one with a conclusion and one without, the finished one will score more highly, but it won't be by a large number of marks. There isn't a certain number of marks allocated to having a conclusion that get whipped off if you don't have one. On the other hand, a finished essay is better than an unfinished essay. More than that I can't say without seeing what you wrote, and nor can anyone else on here, so make sure you take no notice if anybody tries to upset you by saying, 'You must have failed.' You won't have failed on the basis of having no conclusion to one question.


Thank you very much =]
What I meant by I did not finish 'the second' one was the second half of the conclusion; I was on the second question and I had finished writing about one extract in the conclusion but did not get to write about the other extract, within the same conclusion, hope that makes more sense! I am terrible at explaining things =[ my exam answers will go down a treat with the markers(!)
Original post by Bad A$$
Hi, does anyone knows if the coursework marks are received by the centre? My teacher said the marks come back in June (after they've been sent off). Can anyone confirm or deny this? And when can we find out about 2011 grade boundaries?


The marks won't be revealed to the school until results day. Think you and the teacher may have crossed wires there. Grade boundaries won't be available until after then, by which time it may not matter to you.
Reply 334
Original post by Language_student
By the way, what wider reading texts did people use? I used "Pride and Prejudice" (Austen) for question 1 and "Othello" (Shakespeare), "Sonnet 18" (also Shakespeare) and "The Eve of St. Agnes" (Keats) for q. 2. Would have liked to include more but ran out of time. I elaborated quite a bit on my links though so hopefully they will be ok.


I used 'Lolita' and 'Tom Jones' for 1 (wanted to use 'Brideshead Revisited' as well, but run out of time) and 'Betrayal', 'To His Coy Mistress' and 'Pride and Prejudice' for 2. I was so pleased to actually need to use my beloved 'Lolita', I used it as a coursework text as well.
Reply 335
Original post by carnationlilyrose
The marks won't be revealed to the school until results day. Think you and the teacher may have crossed wires there. Grade boundaries won't be available until after then, by which time it may not matter to you.


I just saw AQA's UMS converter here: http://web.aqa.org.uk/UMS/ums_converter_a2.php?id=04 and the raw marks needed for a top grade appears to be very low. According to the converter you only need 52/90 for a Grade A (that's 26/40 in Section A and B of the exam!). Am I reading it correctly?! These are for Jan '11 series by the way, probably very little change for June '11 exam.
Reply 336
I need to get a high E in this exam for an A overall (fortunately my coursework was v high!) I managed to get a lot of wider reading quotes and some context in, and the essays were well laid out with paragraphs etc, but AO2 (form structure language) was really rather weak... Is there a chance I might get lower than the mark I need?! Do people ever fail completely with passable essays?!
I just want to cry :'(
I thought I was good at English and I thought initially that I couldn't have done that badly - but looking at what everyone else has written I am pathetic!! I didn't do muvh close language analysis but focussed on broad themes - I got an A last year and desparately wanted an A this year, but the 6 and a half paages I wrote in the exam seem rubbish compared to everyone else - the only thing i want to do is study English Lit - I am gutted :'(
Original post by TheKitKat
I need to get a high E in this exam for an A overall (fortunately my coursework was v high!) I managed to get a lot of wider reading quotes and some context in, and the essays were well laid out with paragraphs etc, but AO2 (form structure language) was really rather weak... Is there a chance I might get lower than the mark I need?! Do people ever fail completely with passable essays?!


How do you work that out?? x
Original post by Bad A$$
I just saw AQA's UMS converter here: http://web.aqa.org.uk/UMS/ums_converter_a2.php?id=04 and the raw marks needed for a top grade appears to be very low. According to the converter you only need 52/90 for a Grade A (that's 26/40 in Section A and B of the exam!). Am I reading it correctly?! These are for Jan '11 series by the way, probably very little change for June '11 exam.


Yes that's correct, I saw that the other day! But just to warn you, they will probably be more similar to the June '10 grade boundaries, which were 57/80, rather than Jan '11. I think it's because they are higher for people who have entered in January only having done the course for half the year, I don't think they really think of re-takers tbh. I wouldn't be surprised if they made it 60/80 to get an A, just to be really annoying.

Quick Reply