A-Level OCR English literature | Papers 1 and 2 revision and study chat

OP

Original post by ConnieStudies

1. What are your texts?
Richard iii - Christina Rossetti poems - The Handmaid's Tale - 1984 - A Doll's House
2. What grade are you predicted?
B
3. Do you feel prepared?
Kind of, in some areas I am confident, others not so much :P
4. Why did you pick English literature at A Level?

Because I loved the books my 6th form offered and the course itself seemed interesting :tongue:

<3

Oh, that's awesome! We've almost got the same texts as each other! How many essays have you done thus far on each text?

What's your favourite text?

Reply 4

ConnieStudies

8

Original post by Tolgarda

Oh, that's awesome! We've almost got the same texts as each other! How many essays have you done thus far on each text?

What's your favourite text?

I've done essays in my dystopia unit and Richard iii, the rest we haven't covered in lesson yet. My favourite is the Handmaid's Tale as I love the TV show and I also love Margaret Atwood's new book, The Testaments which I read in 2 sittings! Highly recommend it. Could you PM me as I'd love to have an insight on how to write really good essays as I can't seem to find good resources for OCR and you have a higher predicted grade lol :smile:

Reply 5

OP

Original post by ConnieStudies

I've done essays in my dystopia unit and Richard iii, the rest we haven't covered in lesson yet. My favourite is the Handmaid's Tale as I love the TV show and I also love Margaret Atwood's new book, The Testaments which I read in 2 sittings! Highly recommend it. Could you PM me as I'd love to have an insight on how to write really good essays as I can't seem to find good resources for OCR and you have a higher predicted grade lol :smile:

Yeah sure!

Reply 6

my_man_123

15

1. What are your texts?
Dracula - Bloody Chamber - Christina Rossetti poems - A Doll's House
2. What grade are you predicted?
A
3. Do you feel prepared?
Yes
4. Why did you pick English literature at A Level?

Made a mistake lol, bloody 89% for an A, they took the piss

Reply 7

Confuro

1. Hamlet - The Duchess of Malfi v Paradise Lost - Frankenstein v The Bloody Chamber (Gothic) - NEA: Yeats' poetry; The God of Small Things v Jerusalem
2. A*
3. Yes.
4. I got a 9 and it seemed easy. It still kinda does.

Reply 8

OP

Original post by my_man_123

1. What are your texts?
Dracula - Bloody Chamber - Christina Rossetti poems - A Doll's House
2. What grade are you predicted?
A
3. Do you feel prepared?
Yes
4. Why did you pick English literature at A Level?

Made a mistake lol, bloody 89% for an A, they took the piss

You did not make a mistake! Nice to see that you feel prepared!

Original post by Confuro

1. Hamlet - The Duchess of Malfi v Paradise Lost - Frankenstein v The Bloody Chamber (Gothic) - NEA: Yeats' poetry; The God of Small Things v Jerusalem
2. A*
3. Yes.
4. I got a 9 and it seemed easy. It still kinda does.

Interesting. Let's hope you get that A* then! I hope I get it too haha.

Reply 9

Confuro

Original post by my_man_123

1. What are your texts?
Dracula - Bloody Chamber - Christina Rossetti poems - A Doll's House
2. What grade are you predicted?
A
3. Do you feel prepared?
Yes
4. Why did you pick English literature at A Level?

Made a mistake lol, bloody 89% for an A, they took the piss

How prepared do you feel about The Bloody Chamber?

Reply 10

my_man_123

15

Original post by Confuro

How prepared do you feel about The Bloody Chamber?

Less than a doll's house and Rossetti paper, not going to lie, since we started it last year whereas Dracula we only started this year but I am sure I will feel more confident as we approach the exams.

I have prepared a comprehensive table with quotes and AO3 and AO5 points for all my English Lit exams so that helps with focused revision.

Reply 11

Halloolu

1

1. What are your texts? Rossetti poems, a dolls house and twelfth night Shakespeare for paper 1
Dystopia, handmaids tale and 1984 for paper 2
streetcar named desire and beloved for coursework
2. What grade are you predicted? B
3. Do you feel prepared? not really due to the fact that we haven't done many essays yet but we have a few months left to do that!
4. Why did you pick English literature at A Level? I want to do law thats it really lol :smile:

(edited 4 years ago)

Reply 12

neko no basu

19

Let's start with a little icebreaker.
1. What are your texts? (putting down your NEA texts is optional):
The Tempest, A Doll's House, Rossetti's poetry, The Bloody Chamber, Frankenstein,The Wasp Factory
NEA: A Streetcar Named Desire and Lolita (yes, that's right, I chose to do Lolita for my NEA)

2. What grade are you predicted?
A*

3. Do you feel prepared?
Absolutely not. Had a mock for paper 1 today, felt prepared for that. Paper 2 mock in 2 days time, have not started revising.

4. Why did you pick English literature at A Level?

Did better than I expected at GCSE, didn't really know what to pick instead, thought it would slot in quite well with my other 2 subjects (geog and history) and this girl I spoke to at the sixth form open day was really passionate about English and really sold the subject to me :smile:

Reply 13

neko no basu

19

Quick question about paper 2 comparative, so you always use your set text and then do you compare it to just one or can you compare it to 2 other texts?

So I'm studying the Bloody Chamber as my set text but we've also studied Frankenstein and The Wasp Factory so in an exam, could I talk about both Frankenstein and Wasp Factory or just pick one?

Reply 14

my_man_123

15

Original post by neko no basu

Quick question about paper 2 comparative, so you always use your set text and then do you compare it to just one or can you compare it to 2 other texts?

So I'm studying the Bloody Chamber as my set text but we've also studied Frankenstein and The Wasp Factory so in an exam, could I talk about both Frankenstein and Wasp Factory or just pick one?

It is probably better to focus your efforts on one text since there is only 15% available for AO4 comparison and I would suggest that you bring in the other one you may have ommitted by talking about the wider Gothic genre, earning you vital AO3 marks which is 50% of the question. You can talk about both of them equally if you want to.

Reply 15

annabelle.reyes

Original post by Tolgarda

Welcome, all of you! I hope that this will be a good place to share ideas, discuss our thoughts and talk about how we feel about the exams.

The official exam timetable has revealed the date and time of day of our exams this examination series:

Paper 1 (Drama and poetry pre-1900) - Thursday, May 21, 2020 (afternoon)
Paper 2 (Comparative and contextual study) - Monday, Jun. 1, 2020 (morning)

Let's start with a little icebreaker.
1. What are your texts? (putting down your NEA texts is optional)
2. What grade are you predicted?
3. Do you feel prepared?
4. Why did you pick English literature at A Level? :smile:

My answers:

Spoiler

Resources are all here on OCR's website! These contain past papers, examiner reports and candidate exemplars!

Good luck to all!

@Evil Homer. This is a revision-and-study thread ready to go!

what are your texts?
the Duchess of Malfi by John Webster, The Great Gatsby, Native son, The Merchants Tale by Chaucer, Hamlet
predicted grade:
C - if anyone that is predicted an A* can send me one of their essays just so I can learn like the structure I would appreciate. my teacher says I have the ideas but she doesn't like my phrasing :/
Do you feel prepared?
slowly getting there
Why did you pick English lit at A level
Got a 9 at igcse and now look at me... I actually really enjoy it

Reply 16

OP

Original post by annabelle.reyes

what are your texts?
the Duchess of Malfi by John Webster, The Great Gatsby, Native son, The Merchants Tale by Chaucer, Hamlet
predicted grade:
C - if anyone that is predicted an A* can send me one of their essays just so I can learn like the structure I would appreciate. my teacher says I have the ideas but she doesn't like my phrasing :/
Do you feel prepared?
slowly getting there
Why did you pick English lit at A level
Got a 9 at igcse and now look at me... I actually really enjoy it

I am predicted a starred A. I do not, however, have any set structures that I can share with you because that's not how I like to write essays. I can give you some of my ‘Hamlet’ ones if you want though.

I bet most of our year-eleven essays look quite average now lol. This A Level definitely taught me not to rest on my laurels!

Original post by Halloolu

1. What are your texts? Rossetti poems, a dolls house and twelfth night Shakespeare for paper 1
Dystopia, handmaids tale and 1984 for paper 2
streetcar named desire and beloved for coursework
2. What grade are you predicted? B
3. Do you feel prepared? not really due to the fact that we haven't done many essays yet but we have a few months left to do that!
4. Why did you pick English literature at A Level? I want to do law thats it really lol :smile:

Damn! We almost had a completely identical set of exam texts!

Also, were there no other options for you? Like, you can easily go into law without English literature haha.

Original post by neko no basu

Let's start with a little icebreaker.
1. What are your texts? (putting down your NEA texts is optional):
The Tempest, A Doll's House, Rossetti's poetry, The Bloody Chamber, Frankenstein,The Wasp Factory
NEA: A Streetcar Named Desire and Lolita (yes, that's right, I chose to do Lolita for my NEA)

2. What grade are you predicted?
A*

3. Do you feel prepared?
Absolutely not. Had a mock for paper 1 today, felt prepared for that. Paper 2 mock in 2 days time, have not started revising.

4. Why did you pick English literature at A Level?

Did better than I expected at GCSE, didn't really know what to pick instead, thought it would slot in quite well with my other 2 subjects (geog and history) and this girl I spoke to at the sixth form open day was really passionate about English and really sold the subject to me :smile:

Don't worry about it too much. Everyone can have little slips during their mocks. Also, your teacher's predicted you an A*. You must know what you're doing to some extent.

I'm glad someone made English more appealing. I hope I can do that in the future. :smile:

Reply 17

neko no basu

19

Original post by Tolgarda

I am predicted a starred A. I do not, however, have any set structures that I can share with you because that's not how I like to write essays. I can give you some of my ‘Hamlet’ ones if you want though.

I bet most of our year-eleven essays look quite average now lol. This A Level definitely taught me not to rest on my laurels!

Damn! We almost had a completely identical set of exam texts!

Also, were there no other options for you? Like, you can easily go into law without English literature haha.

Don't worry about it too much. Everyone can have little slips during their mocks. Also, your teacher's predicted you an A*. You must know what you're doing to some extent.

I'm glad someone made English more appealing. I hope I can do that in the future. :smile:

I think my teachers are very generous markers lol so that A* might be kinda out of reach considering how tight the grade boundaries were last year!

Reply 18

annabelle.reyes