AQA GCSE English Literature Exam - 20th May 2014

How did you guys find it??

I did of mice & men and an inspector calls.

Overall the paper was wonderful because it asked for your opinion and my revision guides covered the particular passage in of mice and men

I didn't get to finish Part B b) though :frown:

How do you guys think you did? Any predictions for the grade boundaries??

Reply 1

irMike

5

I felt It went Ok, I was really stressed out about this exam, turns out that the work I did on the weekend and last night actually has helped me learn how to analyse things, I was prepared well for Eva, but George and Lennie not so much, but the passage itself was fairly straight forward so It wasn't a big deal. I was aiming for a B, expecting a C when I went in for this exam, I think I achieved that B personally.

For section A I'd say I achieved a range of Band 4, 5 and 6, I'd say i let myself down on 6.5, I didn't really return top themes too much, I'd hope for around 23/30 there If I'm lucky, as for OMAM I lacked on the evaluation and close analysis, I was forced to cut short because of time, I think maybe 18/30 on that plus maybe 2 or 3 Grammar marks for each one (I have no idea how this is marked, but I'm bound to have made errors). So overall about 46/68 which is usually around about an A/B, so I'm feeling relatively confident. The paper was probably no harder than last years, section B was probably easier, So my guess would be something like

54 = A*
47 = A
38 = B
29 = C

Maybe something like that, then again maybe less people had time to prepare this year, plus plenty of people were preparing just for Curley and Birling, I'm not sure, But I think I'd have struggled more on last years paper than this one

Reply 2

Snowy Owl 145

Yh, it was good, im glad that eva came up, she was quite a good character to talk about!

but of mice and men, oh lordy that was a different story, but i also finished it, so im hoping to get an A for that one :smile:

Also, im sure you did pretty well, theyre not going to penalise you for not finishing it entirely if your other sections are decent.

(edited 9 years ago)

Reply 3

Feraligatr

20

Its good to see that this thread isn't as bad as the Science threads.
The Science one's are crazy, a few hundred pages on the thread in less than a day

Reply 4

username1430324

1

I did Of Mice and Men and Inspector calls too. :tongue:

I think my best section was the Of Mice and Men, I knew the book really well and I didn't really need to look at the text for quotes. I wrote around 3 sides and on my 4th side I almost finished writing a conclusion but the time ran out. I don't think they'd specifically lower the mark of SPaG for just one sentence, right? :confused:

I checked all my work as I went along and I think I should hopefully get 7-8 marks for SPaG.

Inspector calls was a bit difficult, I didn't expect Eva to come up but I didn't listen to Mr Bruff's predictions properly anyway, I revised everything. I wasted my first 10 minutes which I regret trying to work out a response for Eva's answer, so I gave up and did the Gender one instead.

I spoke about Edna being a female maid in the house (which also portrays upper and lower class), the death of Eva and how Mr Birling and the other characters reacted negatively (capitalists) and I wrote about some context in Edwardian England and about the shillings and the pay rise too. I also wrote about how males seemed like dominant characters, how they were breadwinners etc.

I was really aiming for an A* but I'll be happy with an A, a lot of people found the paper easy so the grade boundaries may rise but then some people found it hard because of only relying on Mr Bruff's predictions.....

But anyways, did anyone else do the Gender question? What points did you make? I seemed to be one of the very few who did the Gender question and none of my friends did it which was a bit surprising.

(edited 9 years ago)

Reply 5

irMike

5

Original post by AlphaNick

Wait.. 54/68 for an A*? So you can drop 7 marks on each and still get an A*?

Why the hell am I worrying lol :s-smilie:

Yeah aha, It was 52 last year, and that's the highest it's ever been because they only added SPaG in there for the first time last year. In 2012 it was about 44 for an A* but out of 60, rather than 68

Reply 6

Sharmaya

2

Did anybody here do Lord of the Flies?

Reply 7

Sacred Ground

19

I spent one day revising Mr Birling and Curley, thanks Mr Bruff, but I think the paper was okay...

Inspector calls threw me off a bit because I really wasn't expecting it to be gender or Eva, so I wrote a load of nonsense.

Of mice and men was ok, but I think I wrote about a load of unnecessary things in part A e.g. The animalistic imagery therefore I consequently only had to time to write about Curley and curleys wife relationship when I planned to also write about candy and his dog, Carlson and crooks.

Overall I'm hoping for an A, maybe 20/30 on each...

Reply 8

TheSweatyNerd

What did people write about the woman in black chapter 1, I really had no clue to be honest, just waffled. I wrote 6 sides (1800 words) overall, how much did you guys write?

Reply 9

x-phoebe-x

OP

Original post by Snowy Owl 145

Yh, it was good, im glad that eva came up, she was quite a good character to talk about!

but of mice and men, oh lordy that was a different story, but i also finished it, so im hoping to get an A for that one :smile:

Also, im sure you did pretty well, theyre not going to penalise you for not finishing it entirely if your other sections are decent.

Me too! Eva was great :smile:

Ahh yeah that's true I really hope so, how many pages did you write in total?

Reply 10

x-phoebe-x

OP

Original post by Sacred Ground

I spent one day revising Mr Birling and Curley, thanks Mr Bruff, but I think the paper was okay...

Inspector calls threw me off a bit because I really wasn't expecting it to be gender or Eva, so I wrote a load of nonsense.

Of mice and men was ok, but I think I wrote about a load of unnecessary things in part A e.g. The animalistic imagery therefore I consequently only had to time to write about Curley and curleys wife relationship when I planned to also write about candy and his dog, Carlson and crooks.

Overall I'm hoping for an A, maybe 20/30 on each...

I wrote about the animalistic imagery too. The bear and the horse stuff and how he drank at the water like an animal would (not worrying if the water was bad as George said) and how this shows his lower mentality i.e. linking to how he is dependent on George. You should get quite a lot of marks for that because it is definitely something insightful to be able to link the animal stuff in there.

Reply 11

kathrynwardle

2

Does anyone know what will happen if you answer both questions for the first part of the exam? My friend did on accident and she's really worried about whether her answer will be counted

Reply 12

FREYA2898

5

Original post by TheSweatyNerd

What did people write about the woman in black chapter 1, I really had no clue to be honest, just waffled. I wrote 6 sides (1800 words) overall, how much did you guys write?

Which question did you do?? 1 or 2?

Posted from TSR Mobile

Reply 13

TheSweatyNerd

Original post by FREYA2898

Which question did you do?? 1 or 2?

Posted from TSR Mobile

The one where you had to write about the "christmas eve" chapter :L

Reply 14

Bazbaz

10

Original post by sharmakansal

Did anybody here do Lord of the Flies?

I did, what question did you choose?

Reply 15

Sacred Ground

19

Original post by x-phoebe-x

I wrote about the animalistic imagery too. The bear and the horse stuff and how he drank at the water like an animal would (not worrying if the water was bad as George said) and how this shows his lower mentality i.e. linking to how he is dependent on George. You should get quite a lot of marks for that because it is definitely something insightful to be able to link the animal stuff in there.

I did mention lennie follows George which is clearly indicative of his inability to read his surroundings because of his psychological impairment, yet their relationship is a mutualistic one in which both parties benefit. George benefits from the companionship and lennie gets protection and food from George's paternal role in the relationship... I thought that went off on a tangent, but is it okay?

Reply 16

Sharmaya

2

Original post by Bazbaz

I did, what question did you choose?

Can you talk about questions on here yet? (Sorry I'm just paranoid haha) :redface:

Reply 17

Bazbaz

10

Original post by sharmakansal

Can you talk about questions on here yet? (Sorry I'm just paranoid haha) :redface:

Yeah, its not IGCSE, everyone's sat the exam now

Reply 18

Sexybadman

17

Hey dudes btw cheers to the dude who made this thread :smile:

, I did the Eva smith question as I thought i could also include gender with her too. Im hoping Ive done well enough for a B and the Of mice and men was actually decent! :tongue: