AQA A-level English Literature B new 7717/1B & 7717/2B - 15 & 22 Jun 2017

Has anyone got any sample questions from mocks etc for tragedy and social/political?

Anyone doing Blake, The Handmaid's Tale and The Kite Runner?

Me! I love The Kite Runner, it's so great! I also like The Handmaid's Tale, but I feel like I haven't fully unlocked all it's secrets as it's such a rich, dense text. Atwood is a genius. Blake's pretty good too, but as it's poetry, it's quite 'bitty'.

How did you find it?? I did the Blake single question and loved it, and the force question for Handmaid's and Kite Runner because you could interpret 'force' in so many different ways

I did the Blake single question too, was such a good one to have! I did the authority question instead, think it went relatively ok... just glad it's done!

How did you find it?? I did the Blake single question and loved it, and the force question for Handmaid's and Kite Runner because you could interpret 'force' in so many different ways

I went for The Kite Runner single question - The Handmaid's Tale one was awful - and did authority figures for Blake and THT

Wasn't it just, like there's hardly anything to write about Moira Ah nice!

Yeah. I mean, I know she's an important character, but she plays quite a minor role. I couldn't have written about her for a whole hour! How did you find the unseen? It was full of things to write about, but since I read Fahrenheit 451 only a few months ago, I had to resist the temptation to talk about the rest of the book!

Wonderful exam (I did political and social protest).
Firstly, I've not practised a single unseen extract all year, yet that unseen was actually quite, lot's to talk about with the mentioning of black skies, asylums, burning of books, America etc.
As for section B, I did the question on William Blake which was quite straight forward, talking about capitalism, nature, organised religion/education, protest tc.
Section C also went very well, which was surprising as I still haven't read all of 'The Kite Runner' and I hate 'A Doll's House'. I did the question regarding the use of force, which was actually quite easy to write about.

Overall, I'd say both exams were wonderful and I'm hopeful of at least a B overall. Good luck to everyone moving on to higher education and congratulations on completing the course!

Agreed, It allowed me to use force more metaphorically than actually physically.
I mentioned how Amir oppressed Hassan with his ability to read and write, and the forced upon guilt and blood on the hands of Amir after his death. Baba forcing his ideals of standing up for yourself on Amir, and of course the rape of Hassan/Afghanistan by Assef/Taliban.

I went for The Kite Runner single question - The Handmaid's Tale one was awful - and did authority figures for Blake and THT

I did the same section C as you. What points did you talk about?? Also how many analytical paragraphs do you guys manage to write? And what do you think the boundary will be for A*?

For Blake I talked about teachers in 'The Schoolboy', parents in 'Infant Sorrow', the Crown in 'London', the Church in 'London' and then the Church in 'Holy Thursday' (both of the poems of that title). For Handmaids I did the Commander and the Aunts (namely Aunt Lydia) and then I ran out of time to talk about the Angels/Eyes/Guardians.