Edexcel A2 Drama Exam - please help!

Thank God for TSR. I'm struggling with this whole exam, and we haven't even done any mocks yet. To be honest I'm really struggling with my concept for Woyzeck, I still don't have a clear idea of what I'd really want to do with the play.

OK, for Section B, I can't give a sample paragraph, at least not until I have a much clearer idea of what I'm doing myself, but your answer will depend on the question. Some are more general, and they'll ask about your concept in relation to your understanding of the historical context. Some will be more specific, for example they might ask you to talk about how you would explore two design elements. In either case, do not talk about the entire play - not that you'd even have time for that, anyway. But pick key moments or scenes that best illustrate what you're trying to say and make sure you justify why you would make certain decisions, for example if you talk about lighting you might want to reference the murder scene, explain how you would use lighting there and why.

Hope this helps! :smile:

Does anyone know how to answer Section A? They give loads of space in the paper, and it's really worrying me, particularly as the first couple questions are only worth a few marks.

And do you guys also know your exact concept? I have really vague ideas, nothing concrete, and the one idea that I liked I had to scrap because of the play's end.

Reply 3

Ccf 1k

We chose the play's concept together as a class. Also we decided what rehearsal techniques we would do for each scene and tried these for ourselves (on our class) to see how well they worked.

Not sure about section C though

Reply 4

Flounder1

1

This exam is seriously the worst :frown:

This was posted from The Student Room's iPhone/iPad Ap

Reply 5

lillollystar

6

My only advice is (from looking at an A* past paper) put loads and loads and loads of original performance conditions in!

Reply 6

Dzendzen

struggling with Woyzeck too, how is everyone with the other part of the exam? I'm doing Shakespeare's 'The Tempest'.. Anyone else doing this? Would love to give and receive some help!

Reply 7

I think I'll be OK with the Shakespeare one, but I need to do some more practice questions and compare them with some old exemplar answers. I'm doing Macbeth. But Woyzeck...I have no idea.

Reply 8

I'm doing Woyzeck and Macbeth. Section A and C are quite cool lol, have your teachers given you materials? Section B is mad though... completely messed up. However, the grade boundaries don't look too bad :smile:

Any advice for Section B?

Reply 9

Original post by butchh

I'm doing Woyzeck and Macbeth. Section A and C are quite cool lol, have your teachers given you materials? Section B is mad though... completely messed up. However, the grade boundaries don't look too bad :smile:

Any advice for Section B?

Oh, they don't? Could you either put them up here or link us, please? :smile:

Reply 10

http://www.edexcel.com/migrationdocuments/QP%20GCE%20Curriculum%202000/June2010-ER/6DR04_01_pef_20100818.pdf

Our class got given a bunch of exemplar answers for all the sections from all the plays, which we've literally just started going through. But I'm also going through the examiner reports and stuff myself. I put a bit about Section B at the top, and I've picked up a couple of more things from reading an old answer.

Obviously have a clear idea of what you're going to do, and sound confident in your concept from the beginning, letting the examiner know where you're going to go in your essay. We need to show evidence that we understand the context of the play, so things like the playwright's life, the play in performance then and the key themes etc. Pick out key points in the play that you can use to illustrate your concept.
I'll leave the link for the June 2010 examiner report below, which is the only one I've managed to take a look at so far. It goes through the entire paper, but starting from page 39 there's a Woyzeck Section B answer that they really liked. Be warned, the handwriting is a little difficult. :wink:

Reply 11

http://www.edexcel.com/migrationdocuments/QP%20GCE%20Curriculum%202000/June2010-ER/6DR04_01_pef_20100818.pdf

Original post by Aa'Ishah

Our class got given a bunch of exemplar answers for all the sections from all the plays, which we've literally just started going through. But I'm also going through the examiner reports and stuff myself. I put a bit about Section B at the top, and I've picked up a couple of more things from reading an old answer.

Obviously have a clear idea of what you're going to do, and sound confident in your concept from the beginning, letting the examiner know where you're going to go in your essay. We need to show evidence that we understand the context of the play, so things like the playwright's life, the play in performance then and the key themes etc. Pick out key points in the play that you can use to illustrate your concept.
I'll leave the link for the June 2010 examiner report below, which is the only one I've managed to take a look at so far. It goes through the entire paper, but starting from page 39 there's a Woyzeck Section B answer that they really liked. Be warned, the handwriting is a little difficult. :wink:

Hey, unfortunately i can't get the link because my teacher showed us but June 2012, it was 51/80 for an A so doesn't seem too bad. I had my first TIMED mock today and i think it went well but I was up until 2 last night revising like a maniac lol! My advice is just go over A* example answers because even if they teach you nothing about your play, you'll understand how to structure the question so much better!

Reply 12

Oh, OK, no worries! Hmm, that's not as bad as I might have thought. Haha, well done! Have you done any that weren't timed? We're not doing any until after half term, but I'm thinking I might have a go at home. Yeah, definitely! We've been going over various old answers, some of which are not so good, and becoming clear on what we need to be doing and including.

Reply 13

Yeah i did one that wasn't timed like 3 months ago but i didn't know anything so i got an E :/ The problem is it's a new paper so there are only three past papers! To be honest there's still over 3 weeks so I wouldn't worry too much, I'm sure you'll be ready for it! Yeah LOL some of the past answers are badddd... i guess one thing that's obvious is not to write under like 5/6 pages for Sections B and C :tongue:

Reply 14

Linds9

The grade boundaries are so low because the marks are so difficult to accumulate :frown:

I got 93% on the coursework unit last year, and scraped a C on my last mock for unit 4. Off topic, but how did people's grades come out in the performance unit last year? Our school went down 2 grades on their average, and nobody could work out why. We're not all awful performers, honest!

Reply 15

The good thing is that at least for Sections B and C, there are two questions to pick from, so we can practise from both of them. I hope so!

Reply 16

Original post by Linds9

The grade boundaries are so low because the marks are so difficult to accumulate <img src="images/smilies/frown.png" border="0" alt="" title=" :frown:

" smilieid="11" class="inlineimg" /> I got 93% on the coursework unit last year, and scraped a C on my last mock for unit 4. Off topic, but how did people's grades come out in the performance unit last year? Our school went down 2 grades on their average, and nobody could work out why. We're not all awful performers, honest!

<br />
<br />

You mean for the AS year? Our class got bad grades as well.

Reply 17

Linds9

Original post by Aa'Ishah

<br />
<br />

You mean for the AS year? Our class got bad grades as well.

Yeah. Our highest grade was a C, absolutely shocking. Examiners notes were useless too, no constructive criticism but ridiculously low marks. Didn't even bother resitting, just hoping the other units can pull it up to an A!

Reply 18