AS-Level English Literature OCR Exam

Did anyone else find that the Yeats part of the exam went awfully or was it just me? My essay had such an awful structure to it and I feel I made some good points but I repeated myself a lot. I compared it to 5 other poems which is probably too much. Leda and the swan- change of an era, The cold heaven- Ominous tone, September 1913- thoughts on Ireland, Broken dreams-contrasted as the change in the world was expected as being positive, and then sailing to byzantium as they both showed the inevitability of something bad happening. I didn't have time to go through and check my essay properly but when I skim read it I realized I had not included ANY apostrophes?! How much will the examiners eat me for that? I feel so stupid! x

I literally wrote the same essay as you! Didn't do Cold Heaven and Broken Dreams, but same points elsewhere! touched upon In Memory of... but main points E1916 Sep1913 and a bit of Sailing/In Memory

Reply 421

username848318

10

Original post by Phil Dunphy

Ah right, I know - blonde moment. I used a quote for Jane Eyre that could classify as imagery: Jane is dominated by Rochester, however, she is more domineering than St John. St John tells Jane "no fervour infects me" because he is "cold" to which Jane replies "and I am hot and fire dissolves ice". This shows that Jane is more powerful than a man and is, therefore, not always the less-dominant.

That was a point I made about gender

Hmmm i thought that more of a theme? I would class as imagery in Jane Eyre things like the red room, the great horse chestnut tree, the fire and ice, porridge/food but idk i'm not an English teacher xD

Reply 422

Phil Dunphy

Original post by AKKaur

Hmmm i thought that more of a theme? I would class as imagery in Jane Eyre things like the red room, the great horse chestnut tree, the fire and ice, porridge/food but idk i'm not an English teacher xD

I didn't mention any of them :tongue:

The red room would've been good to talk about rage - damn! Oh well, the answer to the original question is: no, I did not use language or imagery in the essay. Likely I failed.

Reply 423

S.B_123

Original post by Phil Dunphy

I quoted and made a point, but not about language :'(

I did that too! I think it should be okay.... My theory is that they'll see that you've quoted and qualified your ideas in terms of your quote, so it should be okay. Or I hope so :colondollar:

Reply 424

JohnsHatun

8

Original post by jamesmact

Did anyone do Edward Thomas or the first Mrs. Dalloway question? I thought the Edward Thomas went really well, and the Mrs. Dalloway question went well, although it was worded quite strangely. Any thoughts?

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I went blank on Edward Thomas and thought we would have the other poems with us to look through for comparison. I didnt compare at all. :frown:

'( I also did frankenstein and it went okay.. I hope i got at least a D for the poetry and C for the novel and I reckon I've got a B for coursework so I should pass..

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Reply 425

ArtisticFlair

11

Did anyone find that they were lacking critical terminology?

For Yeats, I analysed the gerund "turning" and then mostly imagery.... (making a brief use of the words rhythm, rhyme and free verse). I think I used the word enjambment. I feel so stupid for lacking in critical terminology... but then I wouldn't say that my essay was lacking in analysis, so what mark do you think I could get? I placed much more emphasis on imagery than language too, and felt that I missed opportunities to analyse INDIVIDUAL words :frown:

?

Reply 426

username848318

10

Original post by Phil Dunphy

I didn't mention any of them :tongue:

The red room would've been good to talk about rage - damn! Oh well, the answer to the original question is: no, I did not use language or imagery in the essay. Likely I failed.

If you've got other areas spot on like critics, structure and context then i think it'd be possible to achieve a C/D keeping in mind you go down a band when you miss a criteria! What grade did you get last time?

I got a D last time, i didn't mention imagery and guessed structure in the poetry bit.. As for jane eyre i think i didn't do critics or structure, my context was also pretty vague!! This time round i actually wrote all the AOs out and ticked them off when i mentioned them, and i did a plan

Reply 427

charliewilson

Original post by jamesmact

did anyone do edward thomas or the first mrs. Dalloway question? I thought the edward thomas went really well, and the mrs. Dalloway question went well, although it was worded quite strangely. Any thoughts?

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yoters jah

Reply 428

charlieblairxx

Original post by ernstleanflowers

I literally wrote the same essay as you! Didn't do Cold Heaven and Broken Dreams, but same points elsewhere! touched upon In Memory of... but main points E1916 Sep1913 and a bit of Sailing/In Memory

ah thats reassuring! how did you find it went?

Reply 429

Phil Dunphy

Original post by AKKaur

If you've got other areas spot on like critics, structure and context then i think it'd be possible to achieve a C/D keeping in mind you go down a band when you miss a criteria! What grade did you get last time?

I got a D last time, i didn't mention imagery and guessed structure in the poetry bit.. As for jane eyre i think i didn't do critics or structure, my context was also pretty vague!! This time round i actually wrote all the AOs out and ticked them off when i mentioned them, and i did a plan

We haven't done a Jane Eyre mock, but I got a high C on my poetry mock.

I made up critics (so I've got critics), structure - how can you talk about this for prose? :tongue:

I have context :smile:

Reply 430

username848318

10

Original post by Phil Dunphy

We haven't done a Jane Eyre mock, but I got a high C on my poetry mock.

I made up critics (so I've got critics), structure - how can you talk about this for prose? :tongue:

I have context :smile:

Well for March i explained the number of lines, the iambic pentameter then i described the format e.g what is in each paragraph optimism, then it's destroyed how it is similar to the prose account of in pursuit of spring :smile:

Reply 431

Aerosports

13

Did anyone esle do the Secret Agent question part (a)

Reply 432

Phil Dunphy

Original post by AKKaur

Well for March i explained the number of lines, the iambic pentameter then i described the format e.g what is in each paragraph optimism, then it's destroyed how it is similar to the prose account of in pursuit of spring :smile:

So I haven't mentioned imagery, language or structure. Definite D grade for that essay!

Reply 433

charlieblairxx

Original post by 95student

S
I did it too And the questions were crap. What dod you do

Yep! really did not like those questions, I answered the one about women about said how Victors ambition basically killed justine and elizabeth and also the female creature. i also talked of how before dying Victors mother said "my future hopes of happiness are something in the prospect of your union" and said she was denied happiness in death as Victor chose to unite with science instead! I felt the good thing about this question was it enabled lots of context and critics! Patriachal society, Shelley's mother being a feminist and the fact that she was married to a romantic who disbelieved in taking on the role of god! For critics i mentioned Mellors, The Quartley review, Goodall and David Punter and I talked about the way the film adaptation uses amniotic fluid and Victor attempts to sew Elizabeth's head onto Justine's body. However, I feel I massively let myself down when it came to language! I did not analyse the language in depth enough, focusing to omuch on a03 and a04! And as for poetry.... well, my answer was a load of mumbo jumbo! no structure what so ever! Overall I think I am going to come out with a C, which is very annoying as I was expecting an A. x

Reply 434

charlieblairxx

Original post by Phil Dunphy

We haven't done a Jane Eyre mock, but I got a high C on my poetry mock.

I made up critics (so I've got critics), structure - how can you talk about this for prose? :tongue:

I have context :smile:

Did you not talk about language in poetry or the prose? What classifies as 'form'? In my poetry exam i wrote about: Dactylic rythms, loose iambic pentameter, plose sounds, hyphenated words, short emphatic sentences, assonance, extended metaphor, 1 example of imagery, repetition, monosyllabic words and enjambement x

Reply 435

JohnsHatun

8

Original post by charlieblairxx

Yep! really did not like those questions, I answered the one about women about said how Victors ambition basically killed justine and elizabeth and also the female creature. i also talked of how before dying Victors mother said "my future hopes of happiness are something in the prospect of your union" and said she was denied happiness in death as Victor chose to unite with science instead! I felt the good thing about this question was it enabled lots of context and critics! Patriachal society, Shelley's mother being a feminist and the fact that she was married to a romantic who disbelieved in taking on the role of god! For critics i mentioned Mellors, The Quartley review, Goodall and David Punter and I talked about the way the film adaptation uses amniotic fluid and Victor attempts to sew Elizabeth's head onto Justine's body. However, I feel I massively let myself down when it came to language! I did not analyse the language in depth enough, focusing to omuch on a03 and a04! And as for poetry.... well, my answer was a load of mumbo jumbo! no structure what so ever! Overall I think I am going to come out with a C, which is very annoying as I was expecting an A. x

Yh me too. I didnt write about language at all! Just wrote about ellen moers and how she was a feminist that said Shelley felt guilty for the death of her mother and her own miscarriages. Also that the women were passive in gothic lit so thats why they may have died as they were not important. I also talked about the fact that shelley criticizes not what victor has done but what he isnt doing such as nurturing etc. and that society shaped the actions of the monster. Oh god. Poetry was so disguisting..

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(edited 10 years ago)

Reply 436

Phil Dunphy

Original post by charlieblairxx

Did you not talk about language in poetry or the prose? What classifies as 'form'? In my poetry exam i wrote about: Dactylic rythms, loose iambic pentameter, plose sounds, hyphenated words, short emphatic sentences, assonance, extended metaphor, 1 example of imagery, repetition, monosyllabic words and enjambement x

I talked about language (I believe) in my poetry but not prose.

Reply 437

ArtisticFlair

11

Guys - if I did not include much critical terminology, but still analysed the poem (so to speak, but in a slightly different way - e.g. looking at the image of the tide, the "rough beast" - with this I stupidly did not look at the juxtaposition, analysing the gerund "turning" being cylical, and then the lack of a conforming rhyme+rhythm, free verse bringing disorder) can I STILL GET AN A?!?! I feel as though my novel question was so much better (form, language and structure...)

Reply 438

Tweek

10

Original post by daisyleigh

that exam was ridiculously hard!! second coming was ok but dorian gray soooo difficult, did anyone else so the lord henry and dorian q? and what did u say? cos i totally bullsh**ted!

I did, took me a while to decide between doing A or B.

For A my main point is how the relationship of Henry being both a tempter and victim was also an indirect attack on Victorian viewpoints (thus tying in contextual elements and critical readings to support this)

The basis for my answer was that overtly Henry was just seen as a tempter by most readers. And Dorian reflects the philosophy of aestheticism.

However then I mentioned what I believe to be a paradox, thus criticising Victorian views. My point was on the surface Dorian represent Aestheticism, but he actually conveys the prominent Victorian views of taking knowledge from art and literature, and not just enjoying it. It was the way in which he tried to seek a purpose in all of Henry's words that he ultimately fell. Then mentioned Henry himself doesn't fully commit to his philosophy (quote about humanity taking itself too seriously being a sin and his only quarrel is with words) and it's Dorian's hubris that causes him to perish, not Henry's words, Lord Henry was just another victim of this pride. I tied this into the fact Wilde himself said there's no such thing as a moral book, so therefore Dorian seeking a meaning in the book Henry gives him doesn't show the principles of aestheticism.

Rounded this off with reviews of the time heavily criticising Dorian as a protagonist (called him a devil) and how in fact critics where actually insulting their own viewpoint, as Dorian represents this. And drew comparison to Wilde's poem The Disciple, in how a similar relationship of that between Henry/Dorian is present in other works. Concurrent theme of his.

All in all Henry was a victim, just not in an obvious sense, more so subtly, as an attack on Victorian viewpoints.

That was pretty much my main point, only less waffling ... I think.

Sorry if my analysis bored you, but I always find it interesting to know what other people got for a point.

Reply 439

iridescence.

Original post by NiallD

Yes but all you need for A04 in the poetry exam is cross reference, contextual information can be good but it's not needed, you can easily get full A04 marks in poetry without mentioning it :smile:

Thanks for the reply, I'm sure that's what we were told too and I think I wrote a little bit about the Irish uprising as well so hopefully it's all good :biggrin:

AS-Level English Literature OCR Exam

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