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OCR A2 English Literature 2013

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Basically just wondering if I did the right thing and want to hear what other people wrote!

I did King Learn and Volpone + Paradise Lost question, for King Lear I did the a) question (Gloucester), and although I ran out of time (had 40 minutes, didn't even plan) I went on about Gloucester's blindess in comparison to Lear's metaphorical blindness, how in a way, Gloucester is more tragic than Lear because he is actually PHYSICALLY blinded, the theme of age and legitimacy as well as young and old. I used the "nothing" quotes, "pelican daughters", "robbes and furs hide all" <- to compare how Lear becomes unblind...I feel like my essay was shambles! I just stuffed it all in there, but hopefully there's a good line of argument in there somewhere, I was more comparing Gloucester to Lear-but I didn't even have a Gloucester quote apart from the "there was good sport in his making" ARGH. Anyway! Still, I hope I did the right thing.

For Volpone and Paradise Lost I did Question 8, power and corruption, and I basically contrasted the characters of Satan and Mosca and their quest of power leads to corruption...with Satan already being corrupted and Mosca becoming corrupt, I also focused on how Milton and Jonson essentially corrupt us with words and effectively make us 'fall' with the cast. I also spoke of how in Paradise Lost it is more through TEMPTATION that you become corrupt and in Volpone it's through power...is this right though? I don't even know myself anymore! And I know the texts off by heart haha.

I'm aiming for an A in the exam, I got an A at AS last year but my coursework brought me down to a B because the grade boundaries had gone up...I have a BBB from Edinburgh to study English Literature (I got really lucky) and overall I need a B. So, does this sound about right for a good paper? Or have I completely fluked it?

Reply 401

venenecinema

Original post by karnipa

Regarding the last bit, do you mean your AS coursework brought you down to a B? Because the boundaries for A2 are likely to be lower this year.
Sounds fine for at least a B though.

Reply 402

karnipa

Original post by venenecinema

Regarding the last bit, do you mean your AS coursework brought you down to a B? Because the boundaries for A2 are likely to be lower this year.
Sounds fine for at least a B though.

My AS coursework brought me down to a B yeah, this year's coursework I have NO idea what my mark is, which didn't help my exam performance (last year I knew the raw marks).

My essays obviously featured a lot more context/critics but if I start writing out exactly what I said now my brain might implode haha. Thanks though! I really hope I made at least a B because I need that B overall. EEK!

How did yours go?

Reply 403

studentr00msucks

Original post by Aranel

Antony and Cleopatra anyone? :smile:

Yup! Thought they were pretty amazing questions, tbh. Couldn't have asked for better. Chose the Antony one. You?

Anybody do the question about the fragility of innocence? I thought I did okay, but my last point was kinda bull****. I said that Blake's illustrations of innocent children were done fresco-style, and the impermanence/transience of watercolour reflected the transience and fragility of innocence. Anyone think an examiner will buy that?

Reply 404

venenecinema

Original post by karnipa

Well if you look at the total UMS needed you might be surprised. You need 280 UMS out of 400 for a B, and assuming that you got a mid-level B last year (150 UMS), you'll need 130 UMS this year. Obviously having your A2 coursework mark would help in this calculation, but you get the idea. It's very likely that you'll get at least a B. Congrats on getting BBB from Edinburgh by the way, they must have really liked you!
Mine was pretty good on the whole, slightly less happy with the Lear but thankfully I did about 20 practice essays so was ready for most things

Reply 405

loni

That second Lear question on suffering and hope was god's gift! Managed to get 2 critics in and then commented on the Globe 2013 production of it that I saw a few weeks ago!

For B I'm a bit more worried...I did 'forbidden pleasures are the best' comparing Marvell and Volpone but I only mentioned 3 poems (Dialogue Between Resolved Soul and Created Pleasure, Damon the Mower and To His Coy Mistress) will I be okay for getting high marks? I did 2 critics for Marvell and 1 for Volpone.

Reply 406

tommoxham

Original post by aisha302

I did! What did you say for love and danger ?

Talked about Julia putting herself in danger through Faulkland, Lydia because she's naive at first to Jack duping her as Ensign Beverley, the repercussions of that (danger of losing her). And for TWOB, The Wife distancing herself emotionally from the first three husbands, then rushing into it with the 4th and Jankin. She doesn't put herself in physical danger until she gets with Jankin, then she's a bit naive to the whole love bit. For the actual tale, mentioned that when the Knight rapes the girl, he's embracing danger, but only comes to embrace love as the hag turns into the beautiful woman, so a bit of role reversal almost :P plus quotations and criticisms, especially feminist ones because it would seem that women were the ones that were always embracing love, so why don't men. Context, put some arranged marriage, financial and political stuff on that. How did you feel it went?

Reply 407

binxgillam

Original post by Aranel

Antony and Cleopatra anyone? :smile:

yes! How good were the questions?! I was so happy one came up about Antony!!

Reply 408

Cest la vie

does anyone know the grade boundaries for an a* because ocr only shows a boundary! (although that exam has destroyed all hope of that)

Reply 409

binxgillam

Original post by studentr00msucks

I did the fragility one, I don't know about your point for Blake cause I didn't do it, but as long as the point was well expressed I can't imagine the examiner wouldn't give you credit for it, remember that the exam is marked positively :smile:

Reply 410

binxgillam

Original post by loni

I only mentioned 2 poems, and our teacher had told us that he had been to a conference, and the examiner had said that so long as you make good points you can get away with talking about only one poem for Marvell :smile:

Reply 411

binxgillam

Original post by Cest la vie

does anyone know the grade boundaries for an a* because ocr only shows a boundary! (although that exam has destroyed all hope of that)

For an A* you have to get over 90% at A2 and you have to have scored over 160 out of 200 UMS at AS

Reply 412

Etoile

Original post by loni

I mentioned that performance too!

Reply 413

bestsundaydress

Original post by binxgillam

For an A* you have to get over 90% at A2 and you have to have scored over 160 out of 200 UMS at AS

I got 190/200 UMS at AS, and full marks in both AS and A2 courseworks, does this mean I only had to get a B in today's exam for an overall A*?

Reply 414

Cest la vie

Original post by binxgillam

For an A* you have to get over 90% at A2 and you have to have scored over 160 out of 200 UMS at AS

90% in both coursework and exam or overall?

also can a B in AS ever be brought up to an A* at A2 if they got 100% in both coursework and exam in a2 (i know a friend who has a B)

Reply 415

Aranel

Original post by binxgillam

yes! How good were the questions?! I was so happy one came up about Antony!!

The Antony question was really good! So relieved it was him and not Enobarbus though! :smile:

Reply 416

binxgillam

Original post by bestsundaydress

I got 190/200 UMS at AS, and full marks in both AS and A2 courseworks, does this mean I only had to get a B in today's exam for an overall A*?

If you got full marks on the coursework (80 out of 80 UMS) you still have to achieve 50 out of 60 in the exam to get an A*, because you have to achieve over 90% (180/200 UMS) at A2 to get an A* overall

Reply 417

garyheehee

Original post by venenecinema

Regarding the last bit, do you mean your AS coursework brought you down to a B? Because the boundaries for A2 are likely to be lower this year.
Sounds fine for at least a B though.

Does that mean the grade boundaries for A* will be lower too?
Or is A* always 90% UMS regardless?

Reply 418

studentr00msucks

Original post by bestsundaydress

I got 190/200 UMS at AS, and full marks in both AS and A2 courseworks, does this mean I only had to get a B in today's exam for an overall A*?

Well like he says you need 90% in the two A2 modules, that's 180/200 UMS. If you have the full 80 UMS for your coursework, you need to get 100/120 UMS in today's exam. The A boundary is 96, so you need a pretty low A to get an overall A*.

I'm pretty sure getting a high A at AS has no bearing on whether or not you get an A* overall.

Reply 419

binxgillam

Original post by Aranel

The Antony question was really good! So relieved it was him and not Enobarbus though! :smile:

Yes! So many people in my set wanted a question on Enobarbus, but he is much better discussed as a context to the main characters. I did the Antony question aswell, not sure about the relevance of my conclusion though :/ I said that he had undermined himself, and been undermined by others, to such an extent that the audience could not know him because he had been reduced to a 'strumpet's fool' and was fooled by Cleopatra into believing she had killed herself and a fool in not knowing where his allegiance lay, in Rome or in Egypt. I am a bit concerned that it didn't answer the question well enough, but I was so pushed for time I had to move straight on to section B without checking it first! :smile: