A level journey to A*A*AA🌱

Hi I found your gyg blog in the gyg thread
I also do English literature (ocr)! I was wondering what you do to revise English

Subjects:
Music (predicted A, want A*)
English [linear] (predicted A)
Spanish (predicted A/A*)
French (attained an A)

[+ Grade 8 theory, want merit/distinction]

Grades:
GCSE: N/A (inner city high school US, B in maths taken in 4 months)
AS Level: AABBB (incl. Biology)

Degree Choice:
Music

UCAS:
Oxford - interview, awaiting result
Durham - offer (AAB)
Birmingham - offer (ABB)
KCL - offer (AAB)
Southampton - offer (BBB)

Best of luck! Can I ask have you done all the Grades for theory? How did you find them and how long did they take you to do (i.e. one each each year or?)

I'm watching your thread so I can keep up to date with your studies

hiya! I do Edexcel board, not OCR, but hopefully what I say can help!

I'm assuming you have a coursework portion, two set prose texts for a comparison type essay on a theme, two drama texts and a poetry anthology. I did Frankenstein + Handmaids tale and a poetry anthology question and studied Dr Faustus at AS. I've also done the coursework for Who's Afraid and Streetcar Named Desire (American Dream/post-war American drama). Now I'm studying Othello and Wife of Bath and revising AS stuff.

What I tend to do for revision:
- Re-read key parts of the text- Re-read key parts of the text - eg for Frankenstein the creation of the monster, for Othello his suicide, for The Handmaid's Tale details of Particution etc.

- Past paper titles. Use their structure and use them for your texts. Eg the main theme of Frankenstein + THT is science and society, so I'd make up a question saying 'Compare and contrast the ways that the authors present a conflict between science and society.' I'd use some past paper questions as well, like the ones on gender and society. Each set of texts has its own sort of 'main theme' which is in the specification (at least for Edexcel). But overall, just practice writing timed essays to specific essay questions.

- Mind maps with key themes and branching out to subthemes (eg gender, society, class, past vs present, war/conflict, appearance vs reality). These can serve as themes for essays.

- Quiz on just events and what happens because although essays test deeper knowledge knowing the basics is important too. You can also test yourself on key quotations you want to remember.

- Writing down key quotations and critics views (important for AO5 which for us is different interpretations).

- For me I know this sounds naff but sometimes I'll explain concepts to inanimate objects as if they didn't know anything about the texts (I do this when my family don't want to talk about English haha).

For coursework I can't stress the importance of doing lots of research enough. The essay itself is only 2500-3000 words for us and so it's much better to have well-researched, in-depth points.

I can give some more tips about essay writing from my teachers/past experience, if you like.

Thank you for this detailed reply! Edexcel seems a bit different to OCR. We have two exams- one for pre 1900 and one for post 1900. The pre 1900 one consists pf a shakespeare play (the tempest), and a comparision between a drama (The Duchess of Malfi) and poetry (The Merchant's Tale). The post 1900 one is beased on themes (the gothic) consists of an unseen extract of an (gothic) extract and a comparision between to two prose text (dracula, and the bloody chamber and other stories). I've already done my coursework. I think your advise about themes is useful because the main way I am being assessed is with comparison so the questions would have to be thematic. Thank you ! OH YEAH AND ESSAY WRITING IS THE BANE OF MY EXISTANCE ESPECIALLY AS CONTEXT HAS MORE WIEGHT THIS YEAR

I haven't done all the grades for theory. I did Grade 5 theory which I taught myself in a couple weeks of intense cramming lol (I don't recommend doing this). That was almost a year and a half ago, so my memory has faded. Although, I did get 2 marks off Distinction. xD

For Theory it depends where you're starting from eg if you've just learned what notes are and how chords work, 5-6 months of proper studying can get you quite far. I find that theory is a nice discipline because everything builds on what you already know so once you have the basics it's quite logical. Grade 5 theory is a prerequisite for practical Grade 6 which is why most people only take Grade 5.

I can say I'm finding Grade 8 really helpful for counterpoint and quite straightforward. The benchmark is pretty low (66 for pass) so I'm aiming for Merit (80). Obviously, the main focus is A level Music, but theory is just something I do on the side (dare I say for fun).

And thanks for following!

Ah, well done then! I've done Grades 1 and 2 Piano you see, and I've been looking at doing Theory, but I have very little idea how to go about it

And no problem

Ah yea that does sound quite different! Interesting that they have you compare drama and poetry, given how the two forms can be pretty distinct.

And yes, essay writing is the worst. I find AO2 (writers' methods) and AO5 (different interpretations) harder than context personally because context usually involves a few key things (eg for Wife of Bath the importance of religion, religious beliefs of the time, Chaucer's own life...) but there are loads of possible interpretations.

If you have a piano teacher I suggest talking to them about incorporating a bit of theory into lessons. At Grade 3 you should have the fundamental basics eg chords, notes, most major scales - as well as of course being able to read music.

As for self-teaching, Musictheory.net and Teoria are very useful online platforms for learning theory and have some nice tutorials. Same with Youtube. You could always buy a second-hand copy of a Grade 3 Theory book (or Grade 4 if you are ambitious) and then when you don't understand something look up tutorials on Youtube related to say chords or inversions or melodic minor scales.

That's so weird because I actually don't mind because I can make up points for A02 and A05 (but obviously not critics stuff just different ways of interpreting the text) on the spot but when I am writing context in then my essay doesn't flow well. For example, 50% of the marks are for context for the essay comparing the merchant's tale and the duchess of malfi, however my writing just ends up sounding like a history essay...

Ah yea I get that problem, it comes up a lot in our English class. I think the idea is that the context informs what you're saying. Eg In a time of staunch Catholicism, the crude sexual humour of the Wife of Bath is striking. Or whatever it is. But yea, it definitely is hard not to veer off into a historical tangent. Luckily history was never my thing so I tend not to do that. xP

Hehe long time no see, took a bit of a hiatus for revision and it worked! I got A*A*AA.

Congrats reapplying?

Definitely considering it!
Like your new avatar btw!