2017 AQA A Level English Literature B (7717) Political and Social Protest Writing

Hi!

I haven't found a thread for this unit so I thought I'd create one. Hopefully we can get a great resource thread going. Personally, I'm really struggling with finding example questions to practice with so if you have any of those please do share!

Reply 1

aissa777

Original post by abcdeffy

Hi, i also struggling with this course paticulary the coursework?
what books are you studying, im doing Remains of the day and thomas hardy poems for each of the courseworks?

have you done the essays yet and what theory did you base them on? how is it going for you?

Reply 2

Chris-Graham

Thank God there's a thread - what books are you guys studying?

Reply 3

Fox Corner

Hiya! This is a nice exam thread - I've added it to the Exam Thread Directory 2017

If you see any other exam threads threads that aren't in the directory yet - let me know by either tagging me in, or linking it in the directory and I can add it in! You can also find discussions for your other exams there.

If any of your other exams aren't on there yet - feel free to make the exam thread for it yourself

Good luck in your exams

Reply 4

AvalonianBear

Hey! I am doing 'The Handmaid's Tale', 'The Kite Runner' and 'Songs of innocence and experience'. I was wondering whether anybody knew what the grade boundaries might be like for an A or an A*. I've found it very difficult to focus on the question and not go off task, but I hope I am not the only one!

Any revision tips and especially for the unseen extract?

Reply 5

crazysteve

Original post by AvalonianBear

Hey I'm doing the same texts! Our teachers are """teaching""" (not very well) us to do the single question on Blake and the "linking" texts on THT and KR, are yours doing that too? We've had literally no practice, barely went through the books/poetry...have you got any key things or tips? :h:

Our teachers are using 80% for an A (so 20/25 per question, although part of me feels this is a bit low idk I'm extremely paranoid about grade boundaries and stuff) and then they counted my 21/25 as an A* which I don't think is right at all but again maybe I'm just super paranoid.

For the unseen we've just been going through extracts given by one of our teachers then finding elements of political and social protest from the general list provided by AQA and choosing 3 to explore but there's only 6 in my class and they aren't really high achievers so not much exploration happens. Have you got any tips?

Also in terms of essay structure I'd love some help if you have any ideas to get an A/A*, I think I'm slowly getting the hang of it but I feel like it's a bit too little too late idk can only pray, hope this has been marginally helpful and I'd really appreciate any tips you have :colondollar:

Reply 6

tillpills

My teachers have been putting me as a 21/25 as a B so yeah I'd say that A* is pretty unrealistic. Hopefully, its somewhere in between and we both get As haha

Reply 7

AvalonianBear

Same here, my teachers think that having English degrees makes them qualified to teach😂I've always felt like my teachers have given me marks that weren't representative of what I would get in the real thing! But let's hope the boundaries stay at 73% and hopefully lower (although I really hope they give us a nice question!) With the unseen, it is a bit of hit and miss. Have you read the exemplar band 5 essay they put up online? Honestly I think to write something like that, in timed conditions is stretching it. I noticed that they like students to summarise what they understand about the extract and go from there and of course, they love people who can talk about form and structure. With the essay structure, I can only pray that I answer the question and not my own in the exam!

Reply 8

AvalonianBear

Original post by tillpills

My teachers have been putting me as a 21/25 as a B so yeah I'd say that A* is pretty unrealistic. Hopefully, its somewhere in between and we both get As haha

Isn't that quite high for a B?
Last year's boundaries showed that you needed to average 19 on each question to get an A.

Reply 9

tillpills

Original post by AvalonianBear

Isn't that quite high for a B?
Last year's boundaries showed that you needed to average 19 on each question to get an A.

seems generous to me but i hope youre right

Reply 10

abcdeffy

Does anyone have any advice for:
a) structural / authorial method in The Kite Runner? Hosseini is rather explicit in his use of these so I do not know how to analyse them
b) how much you should talk about poem structure / poetic technique for Blake? I'm going to struggle to memorise all necessary. How many are you guys learning?

Reply 11

Jmie1

Any comparisons for all three texts (The Handmaid's Tale, The Kite Runner and William Blake?)

^^^^^

I have the same problem with Hosseini! (and form apart from narrative voice what is there that you can analyse about the form -.-) I usually talk about the fragmented structure of then narrative during the rape passage and how this reflects Amir's difficulty in dealing with the betrayal of his friend even 25 years after it happened, and then you could maybe talk about it from the psychoanalytical point of view because the content of the dreams and stuff reflect Hassan's position at the bottom of the Afghan hierarchy and how he has tragically accepted this maybe? (as he has the look of the lamb or whatever). And then you could talk about the broken sentence structure as well during times of extreme anxiety that just convey the same thing, that it is painful for Amir to recount (and further establishes him as an unreliable narrator maybe), and then you could maybe also talk about parallels in the structure how things repeat themselves like when Sohrab threatens Assef with a slingshot to save Amir, like Hassan did although considering their social status it should really be Amir protecting Hassan/Sohrab? I don't know those are the only things I can really think of with structural method, I know the exam is tomorrow so I hope this helps!

Reply 14

ChefExxxcellence

Original post by emilykg2329

The book is written in Bildungsroman form, meaning it's a story about someone's self-redemption which takes place in two different times and places in the protagonist's life. You can talk about the fact that Amir is an unreliable narrator and how this relates to the idea of The Kite Runner potentially not being a true Bildungsroman text as Amir might be lying or exaggerating about certain things.

Amir not protecting Hassan/Sohrab occurs because he's sheltered and scared. While Baba has supposedly fought a bear and built an orphanage by himself, Amir is constantly hiding and running. This is further seen when Amir is crying on the way home from the horse thingy. Baba knew Amir would see bloodshed and thought this would harden him up, however, Amir cries instead. There is also another quote which goes like "A boy who doesn't stand up for himself becomes a man who stands up for nothing", which further demonstrates what Baba thinks of Amir.

Good luck, tomorrow!

Reply 15

Carpenter12

Does anyone have any tips on the unseen? I literally can never think of any contextual factors from 1500s-1700s so I’m lacking in my interpretations