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OCR A level English Literature 2019

Which texts are you studying?
How have you been revising?
What are you aiming for?
What are your current grades?

I am doing:
For paper 1:
Hamlet
A Doll’s House and The Merchants tale (comparing)
Paper 2:
Gothic literature: comparing Dracula and The Bloody Chamber

Not long left till the first exam (23rd May) it will be my first a level exam !! Feel free to ask questions on here, hopefully someone can answer them!!
(edited 4 years ago)

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I am doing for drama and poetry pre - 1900
1. Richard III
2. The Duchess of Malfi and The Merchant's Tales

And for comparative and contextual study :
1. American Literature critical appreciation
2. The Great Gatsby and The Merchant's Tales.
I am been revising since september this year.
I really want to get at least a B.
In my recent essays, I have been getting stable B. I was told by my english teacher that my coursework is borderline between B/A yesterday. I have 1 final week to make improvements before the final submission. I really want to get a high A in the english coursework, in case the exams go wrong. Can someone give me tips to write a high A grade english coursework? I am doing a comparison on the theme of trauma in war veterans in Regeneration and Pink Mist.
Original post by Wooord
Which texts are you studying?
How have you been revising?
What are you aiming for?
What are your current grades?

I am doing:
For paper 1:
Hamlet
A Doll’s House and The Merchants tale (comparing)
Paper 2:
Gothic literature: comparing Dracula and The Bloody Chamber

Not long left till the first exam (23rd May) it will be my first a level exam !! Feel free to ask questions on here, hopefully someone can answer them!!

Edit: I found out my coursework is an A.😊
(edited 4 years ago)
Original post by Sasha Limbu
I am doing for drama and poetry pre - 1900
1. Richard III
2. The Duchess of Malfi and The Merchant's Tales

And for comparative and contextual study :
1. American Literature critical appreciation
2. The Great Gatsby and The Merchant's Tales.
I am been revising since september this year.
I really want to get at least a B.
In my recent essays, I have been getting stable B. I was told by my english teacher that my coursework is borderline between B/A yesterday. I have 1 final week to make improvements before the final submission. I really want to get a high A in the english coursework, in case the exams go wrong. Can someone give me tips to write a high A grade english coursework? I am doing a comparison on the theme of trauma in war veterans in Regeneration and Pink Mist.


I submitted my coursework 2 weeks ago, and have no idea what its on! Hoping for a A. Good luck, I hope someone answers your question, that would be very useful. How have you been revising?
Original post by Wooord
Which texts are you studying?
How have you been revising?
What are you aiming for?
What are your current grades?

I am doing:
For paper 1:
Hamlet
A Doll’s House and The Merchants tale (comparing)
Paper 2:
Gothic literature: comparing Dracula and The Bloody Chamber

Not long left till the first exam (23rd May) it will be my first a level exam !! Feel free to ask questions on here, hopefully someone can answer them!!

paper 1
the tempest
the duchess of malfi and Coleridge poems

paper 2
Great Gatsby and the grapes of wrath

I need a B, think I got that in my coursework
im currently and consistently getting D's....have been since the beginning of y12 and now were around a month away from our exams so quite frankly im screwed :biggrin:
Original post by sallyjayne17
paper 1
the tempest
the duchess of malfi and Coleridge poems

paper 2
Great Gatsby and the grapes of wrath

I need a B, think I got that in my coursework
im currently and consistently getting D's....have been since the beginning of y12 and now were around a month away from our exams so quite frankly im screwed :biggrin:


Less than a month :frown: we got this though, my teacher said practicing essay questions got her student from a E to a B. English is my last hope, since I know I’ve failed biology before even sitting the exams
Reply 5
@Evil Homer This looks like a thread for A-level English lit. that can go on the list!
Original post by Wooord
Less than a month :frown: we got this though, my teacher said practicing essay questions got her student from a E to a B. English is my last hope, since I know I’ve failed biology before even sitting the exams


I have a question, what type of grade boundaries do you use as I got 18/30 on an American lit comparative essay and I only got a D, I thought that was harsh but its hard to tell because I don't know how other schools mark?
(edited 4 years ago)
hi!

i’m studying for paper 1:
christina rossetti and dolls house
twelfth night

and for paper 2:
dystopian literature,
the handmaids tale and 1984

i’m so nervous abt the exam! it’s also my first a level exam. i’ve unsure about my coursework grade but i’ve been told it’s around an a grade, which i’m extremely thankful for haha. i’ve been getting b’s and a’s in practice essays so i just need to brush up on techniques.
something that i’ve found to be helpful when practicing for english is that my teachers had printed and written us practice questions and unseen extracts similar to the format of the exam and i’ve been going through them and planning my response. if i find a question which has a theme that i’m stuck on, i’ll go over it by making a mind map. in lessons, we’ve been planning our essays and responses and this has helped me sosososo much, i’d definitely recommend doing something similar because it’s moved me up from a c to a/b.
Original post by sallyjayne17
I have a question, what type of grade boundaries do you use as I got 18/30 on an American lit comparative essay and I only got a D, I thought that was harsh but its hard to tell because I don't know how other schools mark?


So mines Gothic Literature and around March time I got 21/30 and got a C, I have two different teachers so the marking can be confusing. However, it was past paper and she said she used the exam boards mark scheme
Original post by pinklemomade
hi!

i’m studying for paper 1:
christina rossetti and dolls house
twelfth night

and for paper 2:
dystopian literature,
the handmaids tale and 1984

i’m so nervous abt the exam! it’s also my first a level exam. i’ve unsure about my coursework grade but i’ve been told it’s around an a grade, which i’m extremely thankful for haha. i’ve been getting b’s and a’s in practice essays so i just need to brush up on techniques.
something that i’ve found to be helpful when practicing for english is that my teachers had printed and written us practice questions and unseen extracts similar to the format of the exam and i’ve been going through them and planning my response. if i find a question which has a theme that i’m stuck on, i’ll go over it by making a mind map. in lessons, we’ve been planning our essays and responses and this has helped me sosososo much, i’d definitely recommend doing something similar because it’s moved me up from a c to a/b.


Thank you! This was very useful, I really struggle with revising for English. Do you just do bullet points for what you would put in each paragraph? Or do you write a full practice essay? I’m also very nervous!! But we got this!!
(edited 4 years ago)
Something else I really struggle on is timing!!! I can write just about a good introduction and a good two paragraphs in the time given. So any tips on how I could improve this would be great!!
Original post by Wooord
Thank you! This was very useful, I really struggle with revising for English. Do you just do bullet points for what you would put in each paragraph? Or do you write a full practice essay? I’m also very nervous!! But we got this!!

no worries, i used to have the same problem until my teacher started to drill the techniques in! for rossetti and ibsen, i usually bullet point or mind map my points and make sure to link both texts AND include critics! super important that you add them! and for twelfth night, we have a plan structure where we also bullet point but it goes like this:
- overarching judgement (do you agree, disagree, what extent, etc.)
- support point one ( strong point )
- support point two ( weaker point if you have one, not as supported etc. )
- counter argument ( one point on opposing side, to show balanced argument )
- support point three ( your strongest point! end it w a bam whammy!!!)
and within this you need to make links, critics, if you have time, get a bit detailed but otherwise rough planning also works.
i usually spend 10-15 mins planning. what we did was time us planning a response. and then after you do it repeatedly you just get into the groove of answering it.
for the extract question, you just have to plan around the extract, not too difficult, i usually don’t make a plan for that.
for dystopia, i make a mind map and branch off any ideas i can think of, even if they’re vague or whatever and again, if you do this repeatedly, by the time it reaches to the exam, you’ll b spot on and find it so much easier!
Original post by Wooord
Something else I really struggle on is timing!!! I can write just about a good introduction and a good two paragraphs in the time given. So any tips on how I could improve this would be great!!


i’d say constantly time yourself when you’re writing. first you need to ensure you understand the q and your plan. then within a timeframe, eg. 1 hr 30min, write your essay. after this, keep shortening the length of the time when you write an essay, so if you wrote one for 1 hour 30 min, go for 1 hour 20 min, and so on until you can write enough within the exam time limit.
also practice practice practice! i cannot stress this enough, it’s usually planning which drags on for ages so just make sure you’re planning it super quick, and by practicing esp in TIMED CONDITIONS you’ll get more and more used to it and write quicker and more.
hope this helps!
Original post by pinklemomade
i’d say constantly time yourself when you’re writing. first you need to ensure you understand the q and your plan. then within a timeframe, eg. 1 hr 30min, write your essay. after this, keep shortening the length of the time when you write an essay, so if you wrote one for 1 hour 30 min, go for 1 hour 20 min, and so on until you can write enough within the exam time limit.
also practice practice practice! i cannot stress this enough, it’s usually planning which drags on for ages so just make sure you’re planning it super quick, and by practicing esp in TIMED CONDITIONS you’ll get more and more used to it and write quicker and more.
hope this helps!


This is very useful, thank you so much!! I find the gothic unseen text to be my strongest question, and the 2 Shakespeare questions to be my weakest
For paper 1 I’m doing Hamlet with Rossetti and dolls house comparison
Paper 2 is The immigrant experience and The Reluctant Fundamentalist and Brick Lane
As far as my coursework goes I got 37/40 which may be a high A as my school did well in the coursework. I’m mostly getting around Bs in my essays but that’s fine for now. I’m hoping to be able to work on making my context relevant and having a sustained argument as well as learning more Ao5 as I’ve been lacking on that!
1. Which texts are you studying?
drama and poetry pre-1900: the merchant's tale/the duchess of malfi & richard iii
american literature: the grapes of wrath & the great gatsby
2. How have you been revising?
drama and poetry pre-1900 - went through the texts (re-read) for merchant and malfi and made a document on different pieces of context linked to quotes and critics... took ages
gatsby and grapes - made detailed essay plans... gonna finish them off during half term tho... i hope
richard iii - reread the text, made act and scene summaries, made a longass table w/ different themes and characters & linked it to interpretations, performances, blah blah and spent ****ing ages this weekend going through key scenes and doing in-depth analysis (not finished tho so hopefully i can finish by the end of this week)
i wanna spend the week before the exam memorising all these notes otherwise i would have just wasted my time
3. What are you aiming for?
A* pls jesus work a miracle
4. What are your current grades?
usually get 27/30, my highest mark is 29/30
i don't even know for richard iii because we havent done any essays -____-:dancing2:
coursework hopefully full marks?????? idk cus my teachers said they need to moderate it . i really wanna get a solid/high A* in coursework to boost up my grade cus i need it m8
Does anyone know if for the critical appreciation question you can use texts originally written in another language for literary context?
Original post by HazzleBazzle
Does anyone know if for the critical appreciation question you can use texts originally written in another language for literary context?


I have no idea! My first thought is that yes, you can as long as the text is part of the gothic genre. Hopefully someone can answer your question properly, since I’m not a teacher or examiner
Original post by Deliciate
1. Which texts are you studying?
drama and poetry pre-1900: the merchant's tale/the duchess of malfi & richard iii
american literature: the grapes of wrath & the great gatsby
2. How have you been revising?
drama and poetry pre-1900 - went through the texts (re-read) for merchant and malfi and made a document on different pieces of context linked to quotes and critics... took ages
gatsby and grapes - made detailed essay plans... gonna finish them off during half term tho... i hope
richard iii - reread the text, made act and scene summaries, made a longass table w/ different themes and characters & linked it to interpretations, performances, blah blah and spent ****ing ages this weekend going through key scenes and doing in-depth analysis (not finished tho so hopefully i can finish by the end of this week)
i wanna spend the week before the exam memorising all these notes otherwise i would have just wasted my time
3. What are you aiming for?
A* pls jesus work a miracle
4. What are your current grades?
usually get 27/30, my highest mark is 29/30
i don't even know for richard iii because we havent done any essays -____-:dancing2:
coursework hopefully full marks?????? idk cus my teachers said they need to moderate it . i really wanna get a solid/high A* in coursework to boost up my grade cus i need it m8


Hey! Good luck with this. There’s not long left now. Your current marks are great, and your revision is very in-depth (more than what I have ever done for English)
Original post by blurryleo
For paper 1 I’m doing Hamlet with Rossetti and dolls house comparison
Paper 2 is The immigrant experience and The Reluctant Fundamentalist and Brick Lane
As far as my coursework goes I got 37/40 which may be a high A as my school did well in the coursework. I’m mostly getting around Bs in my essays but that’s fine for now. I’m hoping to be able to work on making my context relevant and having a sustained argument as well as learning more Ao5 as I’ve been lacking on that!


AO5 is something I struggle with too, especially for Hamlet (second question)
Reply 19
Paper 1:
Hamlet
Duchess of Malfi and Coleridge

Paper 2:
Unseen dystopia
THMT and 1984

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