The Student Room Group

WJEC English Literature GCSE 18th and 22nd May.

Scroll to see replies

Original post by ladyrailly
according to the mark scheme you need quotes to be getting a C grade I think. Because without 'evidence' your points aren't valid I believe. I may be wrong with the C grade but you definitely need quotes & 'picking out key words from that quote' as my teacher called it


Okay, I will memorise some to be on the safe side! But as evidence could I not just describe an event and then explain how this contributes to what ever the question is asking? Because it's unlikely that I will be able to memorise a quote for every point I have!
Original post by ArcticNeighbour
Do you think innocence could come up? That would be crazy


I sure hope not! I suppose it's possible, but I don't think they'd be that cruel, seeing as Lennie's the only real innocent one and even then he's technically not innocent. And if they do, hopefully they'll include an easier, more obvious question as the other one.

(I hope I've not jinxed this now :s-smilie:)
Original post by Jayzaa
Did he?? Well, thats my English grade well and truly ruined! My teacher said he hadn't come up! I hadn't seen January 2015 because its not in the past papers and I don't know anyone who took the exam. If it isn't Atticus, I hope it's either Aunt Alexandra, Calpurnia or Bob Ewell, they could be possibilities couldn't they? Or perhaps it could be an open ended question, eg. How are men represented in the book, or how are the black community represented. It is bound to be the one thing I haven't prepared for!

Oh my god we wouldn't get an entire 20 mark question on Bob Ewell would we ?!?!
Original post by hazzer1998
You don't need to nessercly need to memorize quotes , you can get top marks without using any quotes as long as you refer to a particular moment you don't need to use any quotes


From the 2014 marking scheme (http://pastpapers.download.wjec.co.uk/s14-english-literature-ms.pdf)

For 5-9 marks in the essay question:
"Candidates: display someunderstanding of mainfeatures; make generalised reference to relevant aspects of the text, echoing and paraphrasing; begin to select relevant detail."

"generalised reference to relevant aspects of the text, echoing and paraphrasing" = referring to a particular moment

For 15-20 marks in the essay question:
"Candidates: make increasingly assured selection and incorporation of relevant detail; are able to speculate/offer tentative judgements; are able to evaluate characters/relationships and attitudes/motives; at the highest level, consistently handle texts with confidence, have an overview and ability to move from the specific to the general: convey ideas persuasively and cogently with apt textual support."

"make increasingly assured selection and incorporation of relevant detail" = picking out quotes & key words from those quotes
Original post by aliceporter
Okay, I will memorise some to be on the safe side! But as evidence could I not just describe an event and then explain how this contributes to what ever the question is asking? Because it's unlikely that I will be able to memorise a quote for every point I have!


See above :smile: The thing is with quotes is that some can be used for characters & several themes at the same time, & for some points the quotes are too long so you don't have to memorise all of it, you can memorise key words & incorporate them into your answer to still get marks. Basically something from the book that has "" around it will get you marks :P
Reply 145
Original post by electrahearts
Oh my god we wouldn't get an entire 20 mark question on Bob Ewell would we ?!?!


I dont know, my teacher has said it is possible, but again I have no idea! Where did you find out Atticus was in Jan 15?
Reply 146
Guys, I think it's worth mentioning that the foundation tier and the higher tier ask different questions so, for example, a Curley question last year on the foundation tier doesn't necessarily mean that he won't come up in the higher tier...
(edited 8 years ago)
Reply 147
What would you guys say for these questions:
2006 - To what extent canyou blame Curley’s wife for the tragic events in the novel?
2008 - ‘Of Mice and Men’presents a world of harshness and violence’ To what extent do you agree withthis?
2010 - A CRITIC SAID ABOUTOf Mice and Men: ‘the characters are powerless’ Do you agree? Give reasons tosupport your opinions
Reply 148
Original post by joeb1
Guys, I think it's worth mentioning that the foundation tier and the higher tier ask different questions so, for example, a Curley question last year on the foundation tier doesn't necessarily mean that he won't come up in the higher tier...


The important of Curley has been asked in higher
Reply 149
Original post by shrl0
The important of Curley has been asked in higher


Yeah that was just a hypothetical example
Reply 150
So suppose if innocence did come up, can you guys give me quotes on innocence and what to write about? that is one thing i haven't looked at at all. ;____________;
Original post by ladyrailly
From the 2014 marking scheme (http://pastpapers.download.wjec.co.uk/s14-english-literature-ms.pdf)

For 5-9 marks in the essay question:
"Candidates: display someunderstanding of mainfeatures; make generalised reference to relevant aspects of the text, echoing and paraphrasing; begin to select relevant detail."

"generalised reference to relevant aspects of the text, echoing and paraphrasing" = referring to a particular moment

For 15-20 marks in the essay question:
"Candidates: make increasingly assured selection and incorporation of relevant detail; are able to speculate/offer tentative judgements; are able to evaluate characters/relationships and attitudes/motives; at the highest level, consistently handle texts with confidence, have an overview and ability to move from the specific to the general: convey ideas persuasively and cogently with apt textual support."

"make increasingly assured selection and incorporation of relevant detail" = picking out quotes & key words from those quotes


I'm predicted an A* and my teacher has been saying all year that you don't need to learn quotes and has refused to give us a list to learn :mad:
Original post by shrl0
What would you guys say for these questions:
2006 - To what extent canyou blame Curley’s wife for the tragic events in the novel?
2008 - ‘Of Mice and Men’presents a world of harshness and violence’ To what extent do you agree withthis?
2010 - A CRITIC SAID ABOUTOf Mice and Men: ‘the characters are powerless’ Do you agree? Give reasons tosupport your opinions


Bloody hell, if something like that came up I'd commit suicide and everyone in the room would get their target grades.

2006: She ruins the dream, she suppresses Crooks, her desperation ultimately lead to her own death, she's ruined Candy's life (after the death of his dog, the only light in his life came from the dream he now shared with George and Lennie, without them he doesn't have light). However this is all caused by Curley himself due to his possessiveness.

2008-Talk about the theme of violence, abrupt end to dreams. That's actually a nice question

2010: This is some hard motherf*cking question god damn it. This is a really weird question because ultimately yes, they're just fictional characters written by a man and they are in his complete power. I don't know how to answer this one, sorry
Reply 153
Original post by haes
So suppose if innocence did come up, can you guys give me quotes on innocence and what to write about? that is one thing i haven't looked at at all. ;____________;


http://www.shmoop.com/of-mice-and-men/innocence-quotes.html
Original post by haes
So suppose if innocence did come up, can you guys give me quotes on innocence and what to write about? that is one thing i haven't looked at at all. ;____________;


I haven't done any innocence practise but I found a good website:
http://www.shmoop.com/of-mice-and-men/innocence-quotes.html
Reply 155
Original post by Steliata
I'm predicted an A* and my teacher has been saying all year that you don't need to learn quotes and has refused to give us a list to learn :mad:


I think they're not that important. If you know the book well you probably have words stuck in your head already. My teacher always says, "if you know the word is in the book then just put quotation marks around it". There's no need to learn insanely massive quotes
Original post by haes
I think they're not that important. If you know the book well you probably have words stuck in your head already. My teacher always says, "if you know the word is in the book then just put quotation marks around it". There's no need to learn insanely massive quotes


That's true, I guess you could paraphrase and just do a sentence with the quotes
e.g. 'the rectangle' of 'sunlight' in the 'doorway was cut off' so 'both men glanced up' or something, so if you forget the whole quote, you could split it up
Original post by Steliata
I'm predicted an A* and my teacher has been saying all year that you don't need to learn quotes and has refused to give us a list to learn :mad:


Good luck with getting that A* then. Hopefully your teacher has given you things to speculate about/given you context because I think that, along with picking key words and analysing them, is what gets an A* (along with originality I think).

I recommend going on memrise.com & creating an account and just spending all day learning quotes on there :smile:
One word quotes are fine, it doesn't always have to be full, two-sentence-long quotes, in fact it never has to be like that if you don't want to learn that :tongue:
Reply 159
Original post by ArcticNeighbour
Bloody hell, if something like that came up I'd commit suicide and everyone in the room would get their target grades.

2006: She ruins the dream, she suppresses Crooks, her desperation ultimately lead to her own death, she's ruined Candy's life (after the death of his dog, the only light in his life came from the dream he now shared with George and Lennie, without them he doesn't have light). However this is all caused by Curley himself due to his possessiveness.

2008-Talk about the theme of violence, abrupt end to dreams. That's actually a nice question

2010: This is some hard motherf*cking question god damn it. This is a really weird question because ultimately yes, they're just fictional characters written by a man and they are in his complete power. I don't know how to answer this one, sorry


Thanks for the reply, some of the old questions have been repeated so it would be good to discuss them.

There's also this one:
Steinbeck describes Slim as, "the prince of the ranch". To what extent does this description suit him, in your opinion?

Quick Reply

Latest

Trending

Trending