AQA GCSE English Literature Exams - 20th and 23rd May 2013 OFFICAL THREAD

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Hi,

I'm a teacher of English, at GCSE and A Level. The English department, at my school, have been with the AQA Exam Board, since 2011, and, as I have seen, nearly, all of the past papers for the Unit 1 Exam, I have a strong feeling of the questions that may come up.

Short Stories Anthology:

I believe that one of the questions will ask you about how a character is developed throughout one of the short stories - my feeling being drawn towards Sandra from The Darkness Out There. For the second part of the question, I believe that you will have to choose another short story in which you believe a character is developed and analytically evaluate the text, so that you are able to justify why you have this interpretation.

At my school, we don't study any of the other books, in Section A, so I am unable to predict a question for those texts. Apologies.

Of Mice and Men:

Many candidates on this thread are predicting that Curley or Slim may appear in the question, but I don't think that this will be the case. I have a feeling that AQA may ask you to analyse another character, that they have asked before, or, possibly, ask you to look at a passage and analyse the difference between two characters.

Setting is also another possibility. You may be asked to reference the Barn or you may have to analyse how Steinbeck uses language to introduce themes, on the opening page, for example.

Also, as a teacher and examiner, I know how to apply the mark scheme, so I would be more than happy to check your answers to previous questions, if that would be beneficial to you. If you would like me to mark one of your responses and provide you with detailed feedback, then message me!

Good luck with the exam,
Mr Derby.

Hi,

I know you probably haven't taught 'The Woman in Black', but could you apply your knowledge on other books to tell me how I could go about getting an A* with that book in the AQA exam?

Thanks

Reply 301

BP_Tranquility

Original post by ndean1sc

Hi there teacherforall, and thanks for the information above. I have been reviewing past papers too, but I am unable to access the January 2013 one - do you have access to that at all, or do you know anywhere online where it appears? It is the OMAM and an Inspector Calls that I am interested in. Thank you again, best wishes.

I think the January 2013 paper is in the .zip folder that ryanb97 posted before: http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showpost.php?p=42653777&postcount=270

Although I can't check right now since I'm in my phone :P

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Reply 302

ndean1sc

Original post by BP_Tranquility

Yes Ive got it now - thank you EVERYONE - very much. Your support is much appreciated. Good luck to everyone!

Reply 303

ndean1sc

Original post by teacherforall

The January 2013 papers are confidential and I can't publish them on here because it would defeat the purpose of my school having English mock exams - most of my students will see the exam paper before we do the internal mock assessments. Unfortunately, I can't.

If you need any help with papers that are available on AQAs website, then message me.

I apologies if I haven't been any help.

No need to apologise - I understand. You have already been a great help. Thanks a million!

Reply 304

Syedishtyaq

Original post by andersson

Hi,

I know you probably haven't taught 'The Woman in Black', but could you apply your knowledge on other books to tell me how I could go about getting an A* with that book in the AQA exam?

Thanks

I wish I had a teacher like you, Our teachers barely help us lol except my latest teacher lol....

P.s anyone else doing kindertransport.... If yes help would be much appreciated.

Reply 305

ryanb97

Original post by ndean1sc

Yes Ive got it now - thank you EVERYONE - very much. Your support is much appreciated. Good luck to everyone!

I forgot to attach the mark scheme

here it is for people

the paper is here to for convenience

it has all of the new SPAG guidance and some new AO1,Ao2 stuff which i havent seen before lol

hope that helps

ryan

(edited 10 years ago)

Jan 2013 QP - unit 1.pdf151.6KB

Jan 2013 QP - unit 2.pdf124.3KB

2013 - mark scheme unit 1.pdf488.6KB

2013 mark scheme unit 2.pdf309.0KB

Reply 306

Instinct01

Original post by teacherforall

Ermm, an A-level English teacher who cannot even use commas or apostrophes (in your next post) correctly... yeah right! More likely to be a troll just bored. Why would a teacher come onto a student forum and offer to mark everyone’s work for free?! Yeah, ‘cause they don’t have enough of their own students’ work to be marking!

But even if you are a teacher - which I highly doubt - I think it is quite naive to rule out Curley or Slim just because you've been with AQA "since 2011". I mean what kind of a feat is that anyway? My teacher, with many years of experience as an examiner, says it's a real possibility that these characters will come up.

(edited 10 years ago)

Reply 307

ryanb97

Original post by Instinct01

why are you so mean???

ryan

Reply 308

ChickenTeryaki

Out of interest, is anyone doing the Kindertransport play?

Reply 309

Instinct01

Original post by ryanb97

why are you so mean???

ryan

...because I'd rather that than be a gullible fool. As another member of TSR said: 'it sounds more like a (very clever, granted) scheme for an A-Level student to get some free tips from others by gathering up their essays.' (British-Student)

Reply 310

cycahm

Original post by lilacwanda28

make sure you do a plan - it's the best way to make sure you get a good grade because the examiner's will look at how you structure your essay or if it's just a load of waffle. Once you've done your plan, and know generally the gist of what the essay is going to be about, base your intro, short and sweet, about all the themes you'll talk about in the essay - then link all your ideas back to the question! good luck and hope this helped xD

Thanks! So how many paragraphs and stuff should I do? I have absolutely no idea since my teacher has not talked about structure the essay at all and I have no more English lessons until my exam! What should I write in each paragraph?? And would an introduction make the essay weaker?

Reply 311

Midnight1811

how can you be analytic ? in eng lit, i'm doing romeo and juliet and animal farm. anyone got any tips ?

Reply 312

lolaaa96

In section B questions, where there are two parts, how should you incorporate an introduction into the context of the text? Would you put it into the first question where you are looking at an extract, or leave it to the second more open question? :confused:

Reply 313

lilacwanda28

Original post by cycahm

I'd try and aim for about 3 or 4 paragraphs, plus an intro and a conclusion. An introduction and a conclusion don't make your essay weaker, it just shows to the examiner that you have a good structure. But if you don't have time for a conclusion, don't sweat it, the intro and the rest of the essay is more important. If you have an extract question, annotate it before hand and label all the similes, metaphors, examples of personification, things like that and then give a paragraph for ONE of those. Then make sure you talk about context of the novel (i.e. women were very unimportant - only known as Curly's wife, black people were unimportant too, but we see how CW has more power over him bc she's married to the boss' son.) In the third one maybe talk about the relationship of the characters and how that links to the context of the novella, and if you don't have an extract question, talk about the importance of nature (the water-snake at the beginning and the end.) This will then lead you to talk about the cyclical nature of the novel, and how America worked at the time - migrant ranch hands. You could talk about the importance of it being a novella, instead of a play or an out there novel.
CONTEXT is very important. As long as you pick things out of quotes, using literary techniques and then link it to context and then back to the question you'll be fine. Hope this helped :redface:

Reply 314

ryanb97

Original post by lolaaa96

it normally has a extract for part A

Part A

dont use an introduction for this!
just go down the extract appropriated and methodically and just try to cover all the points
that will be your structure
oh and i normally plan my essay on the extract...

Part B

i normally write a one/2 sentences in the introduction... which is very long ... about 3 lines

in the matter of where to put in the context,,,, i would put it in part B
for example the crooks question in OMAM from jan 2013
in part A i would just write about how others viewed him on the ranch - the prejudice
then in part B - link the prejudice to the microcosm of america

hope that helps!

btw that structure tends to work :
this essay got full marks (30/30) and this person did it

ryan

English Lit 2013 - example FULL MARKS.pdf261.8KB

Reply 315

laylarose

Original post by Unknown505

How are you revising for OMAM, what do you think will come up. I did the conflict cluster, in January. Found it quite interesting, especially the context.

They haven't asked a direct question about either Lennie or George so my bet is on one of them, but I think Slim may also come up. For revision, I've simply made mind maps for each character, each theme, context and setting with three or four different points for each one - that way I'm slightly more prepared when I'm planning in the exam (because I'll have points and quotes already in my head :yep:

). I've done the same for LOTF. What about you? :smile:

Original post by BP_Tranquility

Well, I'm excited for different reasons (I want to get English literature over and done with! :P ). But I'm also anxious about it since I want to write enough to achieve a high grade without running out of time :redface:

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Yeah, the timing is just... :colonhash:

. I need at least an hour for each question! And haha, I'm the polar opposite, I'm going to miss GCSE English Lit. Although I'm rather looking forward to what A-Level Lit brings :colone:

Best of luck!

(edited 10 years ago)

Reply 316

BP_Tranquility

Original post by teacherforall

Thanks for offering to help us :smile:

I'm not sure if you've studied the crucible or not, but it you have, do you have any ideas on which questions may come up? Or any other general tips/advice?

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Reply 317

BP_Tranquility

Original post by Instinct01

If you look at the other posts from that teacher, you will see that he/she is genuine...maybe you should try being more appreciative and less sceptical? :wink:

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Reply 318

sugaluka

Hi,
I have my GCSE English Literature - Unit 1, on Monday. I'm starting to panick now as my teacher hasn't gone through the whole of the Martyn Pig book as she is never in. Does anyone have any revision materials/ notes on Martyn Pig? It would be a huge help!

Thanks

Reply 319

Instinct01

Original post by BP_Tranquility

If you look at the other posts from that teacher, you will see that he/she is genuine...maybe you should try being more appreciative and less sceptical? :wink:

Posted from TSR Mobile

Commenting on a few posts doesn't prove that they are 'genuine' lol, what's your logic? It's more likely that by posting on such threads the 'teacher' intends to build up a reputable, trustworthy profile (and has successfully done so in many people's eyes!). Like I said before I would be skeptical about giving others your essays since there exists the probability that this is an A-level student who wants to get some free tips from others by collecting their essays and copying parts. If you want that to happen, go ahead: be my guest. But the advice you get shan't be genuine and appropriate to the mark scheme, just general waffle - i.e. 'be more detailed' and 'thanks for giving me your essay to steal some ideas'. Actually they will probably leave the latter of these two out in their reply.