AS-Level English Literature OCR Exam

I personally think the boundaries will be lower... The two most popular options (Dorian Gray and Frankenstein) were much more difficult than last January and June. Also, Yeats seemed to me to be a little too specific ("a sense of the world changing"), in comparison to "change" in Wild Swans and "memory" in Dreams... there were lots of techniques in the Second Coming, but I don't think that they were relevant to the question... So lower boundaries probably.

To the person who said you need to look at for and against: wrong. With these questions, you've got to assume an opinion and collate evidence to support this. Okay, it could be seen as an alternative reading (AO3) but high marks in this section come from feminist/Marxist/critics. If anything, treating it like a history essay and looking rigidly at both sides will detract from the overall effectiveness, and perhaps your focus from AO2/3/4.


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In a "how far" question you need to bring in other factors. My Cambridge-educated English teacher told us that.

Well, in the OCR example essays, the ones that reached Band 6 did not look equally at both sides. For example, in some paragraphs of my essay, I said that "Although Wilde does use very decadent and elegant language, this does very little to obscure the unpleasantness of society". Your argument would be extremely weak if it was to look equally at instances where language IS and where it ISN'T used to obscure the cruelness of society. Indeed, I cannot actually think of any places where it IS used to hide the unpleasantness of society.

A 'how far and in what ways' only means that you need to assume an opinion and evaluate the evidence that supports your view. It's not like a History essay... besides, the argument and quality of your writing only counts for 5 marks; and indeed, looking at different perspectives is mainly AO3 (feminist/Marxist/alternative/critical views), which are MUCH more sophisticated than simply assuming two opinions and then arguing for and against the question. Your teacher would only have told your class that as there are probably some students who are incapable/not secure enough in their ability to look at the advanced views of feminism/marxism/the Male Gaze/critical views/etc.

I see - he did go to Anglia Ruskin

As for the critics... I did a balanced argument well it went like this...


Q: Jane Eyre is full of hunger, rage and rebellion.

How far and in what ways did you find these qualities in the novel?

Para 1 - Hunger
para 2 - Rage
para 3 - Rebellion
para 4 - Love
para 5 - gender (linked it back to Rebellion)

So that would be ok, or not?

I used critics and added context. I used psychoanalytical criticism about the dominant male characters in JAne Eyre. Is that good?

Yes of course! I wasn't saying that you CAN'T look at the other side of the argument, what I was saying was that it isn't REQUIRED. It is part of your AO3 - "judgement is consistently informed by the interpretations of other readers". So yes, looking at the other things (e.g. love and gender) will fulfill this, AS WILL critic views and theorist readings, OR both. I'm sure we've all done fine!

I personally think the boundaries will be lower... The two most popular options (Dorian Gray and Frankenstein) were much more difficult than last January and June. Also, Yeats seemed to me to be a little too specific ("a sense of the world changing"), in comparison to "change" in Wild Swans and "memory" in Dreams... there were lots of techniques in the Second Coming, but I don't think that they were relevant to the question... So lower boundaries probably.

To the person who said you need to look at for and against: wrong. With these questions, you've got to assume an opinion and collate evidence to support this. Okay, it could be seen as an alternative reading (AO3) but high marks in this section come from feminist/Marxist/critics. If anything, treating it like a history essay and looking rigidly at both sides will detract from the overall effectiveness, and perhaps your focus from AO2/3/4.


Posted from TSR Mobile

I disagree with there not being much to say about The Second Coming for the question as I think there were loads of things you could have said about the world changing in TSC in terms of techniques, I do think the grade boundaries will be lower though as lots of people weren't expecting The Second Coming to come up and didn't have much to say about it, and the prose questions seemed pretty hard all round as well.

I mean that - yes, there are LOADS of techniques - but lots of weak candidates will have included all of these techniques, rather than paid attention to the terms of the question.

I mean that - yes, there are LOADS of techniques - but lots of weak candidates will have included all of these techniques, rather than paid attention to the terms of the question.

I must say I hated this paper and seemed much harder than anything I'd previously done. Overall I think I salvaged the Dorian Gray question, but the Yeats one was likely sub-par. Thankfully I have a 'high A' in my coursework to fall back on I guess.

i think the good thing is ,since no one revised The Second Bullcrap ( well,not no one of course) ,the grade boundaries are going to be lower this year. I cant believe how bad the poem went through and how great Frankenstein was, at least 27 in Frankenstein.But Yeats if i am lucky .... ****ing lucky.... i d get 20 which is a physical impossibility. I said:
the idea of gyres
the chaos through the falcon/faconer ,compound modifier blood-dimmed tide
nature turning against men ,sphinx moving ,questioning whether jesus will come both attacking and intimidating,
i talked about yeats questioning the secong coming through 'surely'and'some
form and language ,rhyme scheme relaxed(sometimes rhyme sometimes doesn't) suggest chaos,alliteration,sibilance
yea thats it, if you could predict what id get, it ll be great to share it with me.