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OCR A2 English Literature, F663/01: Drama & Poetry pre-1800, 6 June 2014

Thought it might be useful to have a thread specifically for this year's exam, where we can talk about revision techniques and make predictions for what will come up for the exam etc :biggrin:

What texts is everyone studying? I'm doing Volpone and Paradise Lost for the comparison, and The Tempest for Shakespeare. Anyone got any predictions or hopes for what kind of questions will turn up in the comparison part, or questions for specific Shakespeare texts?

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Reply 1
I'm doing The Tempest, and Wife of bath & the rivals for the comparison.
I don't think a question for Caliban will come up as it came up last year. Maybe Prospero for the character question? or power for the theme question?
How are you revising? :smile:
Reply 2
Original post by zuzu096
I'm doing The Tempest, and Wife of bath & the rivals for the comparison.
I don't think a question for Caliban will come up as it came up last year. Maybe Prospero for the character question? or power for the theme question?
How are you revising? :smile:


Yeah it's a shame Caliban already came up as that would have been a pretty good question to get I think :tongue: Yeah a question on Prospero could definitely be a possibility, or maybe Ariel - I'm not sure there'd be enough to say about any of the other characters? Unless they ask one about two characters at once e.g Miranda and Ferdinand. I'd really love it if a question about Colonialism came up for the theme question, I imagine it will sometime as it's quite a common reading of the play but not sure if it will be this year!

At the moment I'm just trying to memorise quotes and make sure I have good knowledge of all texts. I'll focus on critics and contexts a bit later. I can usually memorise the general gist of the quote but it's hard to remember the exact wording due to the archaic language used, but there's still about 2 months till the exam so I'm not that worried yet. What about you? :smile:
Reply 3
Yeah I would've loved a question on Caliban, he is by far the most interesting character to write about in my opinion! Hmm, maybe a generic question on love?

Yeah I'm pretty much doing the same! I don't think they mind if you miss a couple words out...:colondollar: a lot of people i know just make up critic quotes haha. Not sure you can do the same for quotes though :P

I'm starting to practice my essay writing because I always seem to flunk when it comes to writing essays in exams. How do you structure yours? I normally do 4 points but I'm never sure if that's enough. :/
Reply 4
Original post by zuzu096
Yeah I would've loved a question on Caliban, he is by far the most interesting character to write about in my opinion! Hmm, maybe a generic question on love?

Yeah I'm pretty much doing the same! I don't think they mind if you miss a couple words out...:colondollar: a lot of people i know just make up critic quotes haha. Not sure you can do the same for quotes though :P

I'm starting to practice my essay writing because I always seem to flunk when it comes to writing essays in exams. How do you structure yours? I normally do 4 points but I'm never sure if that's enough. :/


Yeah definitely agree about Caliban. In terms of essay writing, I usually have about 3 sections which are based around one point which I go into quite a bit of detail with and try to bring in context, critical quotes and quotes and analysis etc to support it. I also usually try and add a small additional point in my conclusion because apparently they like it if you save something for the conclusion and don't just repeat yourself in it. That's about all I can manage in the time period, if I included more points I wouldn't be able to go into as much detail and it would therefore probably be more detrimental than beneficial to my mark. 4 points should be fine as long as you have sufficient detail for them, it's clichéd but I definitely would say that quality is more important than quantity in English :smile:
Reply 5
oooh awesome I didn't know about the additional point with the conclusion! I might try it your way because I never feel I have enough time with 4 points. If you don't mind me asking what did you get last year? I got an A for my coursework and a high B for the exam (hence my need for help in the exam) Do you practice writing essays at all? :smile:
Reply 6
Original post by zuzu096
oooh awesome I didn't know about the additional point with the conclusion! I might try it your way because I never feel I have enough time with 4 points. If you don't mind me asking what did you get last year? I got an A for my coursework and a high B for the exam (hence my need for help in the exam) Do you practice writing essays at all? :smile:


I got pretty much the exact opposite of you actually - a high B in my coursework but an A in the exam to bring it up to an A overall, not really sure how that happened exactly as I always assumed I was better at coursework :tongue: I don't really practice writing essays at home although we've been given a few timed essays in class which have helped with revision, and I have some English mocks after Easter which should give some good practice as well. I think I'll probably plan what I would write to certain questions surround themes and characters that might come up sooner to the time of the exam, but I'm not sure if I'll do that much practice of essay writing at home as I find it a really tedious revision exercise :tongue: I've had the same structure for a while now and my teacher's have always been positive about it in essay feedback so I assume it works :smile:
Reply 7
Haha really? I guess it's better to do well in the exam since it's weighted more highly :P I only JUST scraped an A! I see, yeah I hate writing the essay it is definitely so tedious, but I need all the practice I can get. I might it try it your way as it works so well for you! :smile: Do you memorise quotes by themes/characters etc? I'm doing it by themes for The Tempest as I feel it's easier. I've stuck to generic quotes too so they can be applied to more questions! :smile:
Reply 8
Original post by zuzu096
Haha really? I guess it's better to do well in the exam since it's weighted more highly :P I only JUST scraped an A! I see, yeah I hate writing the essay it is definitely so tedious, but I need all the practice I can get. I might it try it your way as it works so well for you! :smile: Do you memorise quotes by themes/characters etc? I'm doing it by themes for The Tempest as I feel it's easier. I've stuck to generic quotes too so they can be applied to more questions! :smile:


Kind of, I'm just going through the texts chronologically at the moment and picking out quotes with a specific theme/question in mind that could be applied to, as well as general quotes like you that I'll just use for evidence of specific events etc I think a bit later on I'll probably try and be a bit more organised and sort them properly into groups, at the moment I'm just noting them down but I do have in mind what kind of questions I'd be using them for :smile:
Reply 9
Original post by NiallD
Kind of, I'm just going through the texts chronologically at the moment and picking out quotes with a specific theme/question in mind that could be applied to, as well as general quotes like you that I'll just use for evidence of specific events etc I think a bit later on I'll probably try and be a bit more organised and sort them properly into groups, at the moment I'm just noting them down but I do have in mind what kind of questions I'd be using them for :smile:


Yeah it's good to have a good understanding of the texts first so you've got a solid foundation :smile: Which do you find easier: the tempest, or the comparative texts? I know in the comparative essay AO3 and AO4 are more widely focused on so do you mostly compare with historical context etc?

(sorry for all the questions, I feel like hardly anone on TSR does a2 ocr english lit!)
Reply 10
Original post by zuzu096
Yeah it's good to have a good understanding of the texts first so you've got a solid foundation :smile: Which do you find easier: the tempest, or the comparative texts? I know in the comparative essay AO3 and AO4 are more widely focused on so do you mostly compare with historical context etc?

(sorry for all the questions, I feel like hardly anone on TSR does a2 ocr english lit!)


I think probably The Tempest just because it's a lot more straight forward and easier to get my head around as it's so short and well structure, and I really like Shakespeare anyway so find it easier to connect with it. For comparative, Volpone is annoyingly long and repetitive and Paradise Lost is pretty hard to get my head around in terms of language. Yeah I'm not sure how much you need to compare the context etc, the texts I'm doing were written relatively close to each other so have quite similar context - a good thing to do is compare them in terms of their genre though, as I'm doing a play and an epic poem so there's obviously a lot you can say about how different people will react to those different mediums and what impact it can have - that should be good for getting A03/A04 points!

And don't worry it's fine haha, I actually think it's really useful to talk to people from other schools about the exam as most people from my school will have similar ideas on revision techniques and predictions for what will come up in the exam etc
Reply 11
Original post by NiallD
I think probably The Tempest just because it's a lot more straight forward and easier to get my head around as it's so short and well structure, and I really like Shakespeare anyway so find it easier to connect with it. For comparative, Volpone is annoyingly long and repetitive and Paradise Lost is pretty hard to get my head around in terms of language. Yeah I'm not sure how much you need to compare the context etc, the texts I'm doing were written relatively close to each other so have quite similar context - a good thing to do is compare them in terms of their genre though, as I'm doing a play and an epic poem so there's obviously a lot you can say about how different people will react to those different mediums and what impact it can have - that should be good for getting A03/A04 points!

And don't worry it's fine haha, I actually think it's really useful to talk to people from other schools about the exam as most people from my school will have similar ideas on revision techniques and predictions for what will come up in the exam etc


I agree! I think there's a lot to say about The Tempest also as you can easily analyse it and apply your own interpretations. Also there are SO many more resources on the internet for The Tempest, I've found this one so helpful: http://millingtoncentralhs-odr.scsk12.org/~dschnetzler/MCHS_Reference_Library/Dr._Forbess_files/The%20Tempest%20BookRags%20Unit.pdf
it comments on things through themes so it's quite good!

I'm struggling on finding resources for my other texts though, and lessons just don't cover everything in enough detail.

Ahh I see, I'm the same with Wife of Bath as it's written in middle english so remembering the quotes is really tricky. That's a good idea I hadn't thought of that. Mine are of different genre's(ish) so I could compare that!
So glad this thread has been made! I'm sure I'll be back asking a ton of questions when it's not 1:30AM (no idea why/how I've ended up on here tonight..)

I'm also doing The Tempest for Shakespeare! Although my comparison essay is Tis Pity She's a Whore (John Ford) and Songs of Innocence and Experience (William Blake). Anyone out there doing those?

1/3 of the A2 classes in my school are doing Paradise Lost for the poetry - I had a little read of Book 9 earlier as I was planning on teaching it to myself... Seriously underestimated the complexity of Milton! I'm not a big fan of Blake, though my teacher studied him when she was sitting her A Levels so I'm assuming that's why we're doing it. Tis Pity is usually paired with Paradise Lost so perhaps we're an experiment to see if producing essays is possible...

Feeling pretty confident about The Tempest though - I do love Shakespeare. For my revision at the moment I've simply wrote down character quotes and stuck them on the ceiling above my bed so I read them before I go to sleep... Sounds silly but I've learnt almost all of them! After the half term I'm going to start grouping them and do some more research into the characters and stuff. In terms of predictions, I have a feeling they might be really sly and do a question about humour...
Heys Guys!

I too am sitting this exam in June! Really scared for it.. Predicted an A* but I doubt I will get it because of the coursework module (our school has been routinely moderated down for coursework... so frustrating!). I did get an A at AS, so with enough preparation I am hoping for a strong A!

The texts I'm doing are 'King Lear' and for the comparative 'Paradise Lost' and Jonson's 'Volpone'. I'm pretty solid on all of the plots but atm just reading through them casually and noting down random interesting points. Learning quotations at this point is useless for me because I just would not remember them... I'm going to start about a month before the exam.

Context is obviously a big part of this exam, and I think whilst revising that should always be a priority. Whilst understanding the plot is imperative, understanding the religious/political/social influences is really important. I absolutely love all this stuff so I find it all quite easy to revise! Anyone got any tips for actually learning the quotations? It's such a tedious task, but I would appreciate anyone suggesting methods they have of making it a little less taxing! Last year was just one massive panic a few days before the exam where I literally locked myself in my room and memorised them all:frown:
Hi guys :-) great thread! Really going to help! I am doing William Blake's 'Songs of Innocence and of Experience' with a comparison to John Webster's 'The White Devil' and then a singular essay on Shakespeare's 'The Tempest'. Is anyone doing these too? I am slightly worried because, due to family circumstances, I didn't do as well as I wanted to have done last year. I am therefore retaking that exam on Shelley's 'Frankenstein' and Robert Browning poetry. Slightly freaking out about learning five texts and five critics as well as my other exams!! And breathe! I suppose it's taught me to have tried harder this year though! ;-) If anyone is doing Blake, a really good quote on him is, 'There is no doubt this poor man was mad but there is something in the madness of this man.' (William Wordsworth) - Though my teacher told me it sounded as if I had made it up :eek: haha. She seems pretty convinced Prospero will come up for 'The Tempest' though. Just have to wait and see...
Reply 15
Original post by zuzu096
I agree! I think there's a lot to say about The Tempest also as you can easily analyse it and apply your own interpretations. Also there are SO many more resources on the internet for The Tempest, I've found this one so helpful: http://millingtoncentralhs-odr.scsk12.org/~dschnetzler/MCHS_Reference_Library/Dr._Forbess_files/The%20Tempest%20BookRags%20Unit.pdf
it comments on things through themes so it's quite good!

I'm struggling on finding resources for my other texts though, and lessons just don't cover everything in enough detail.

Ahh I see, I'm the same with Wife of Bath as it's written in middle english so remembering the quotes is really tricky. That's a good idea I hadn't thought of that. Mine are of different genre's(ish) so I could compare that!


Thanks for that link looks like a really great resource! Yeah I definitely agree with you in terms of there being more resources for Shakespeare - one I found really good was this: http://nfs.sparknotes.com/ which has The Tempest and other lagely studied Shakespeare texts translater in modern English. Whilst I feel like I've gained a better understanding of Shakespeare over the years, there are still lines that go over my head so this is definitely really useful to look at. If you look at the 'No Fear literature titles' as well I think they also have all of The Canterbury Tales so that might help you in terms of the Wife of Bath as well. I really wish they had something like this for Volpone :tongue:

Original post by Zoelingua
So glad this thread has been made! I'm sure I'll be back asking a ton of questions when it's not 1:30AM (no idea why/how I've ended up on here tonight..)

I'm also doing The Tempest for Shakespeare! Although my comparison essay is Tis Pity She's a Whore (John Ford) and Songs of Innocence and Experience (William Blake). Anyone out there doing those?

1/3 of the A2 classes in my school are doing Paradise Lost for the poetry - I had a little read of Book 9 earlier as I was planning on teaching it to myself... Seriously underestimated the complexity of Milton! I'm not a big fan of Blake, though my teacher studied him when she was sitting her A Levels so I'm assuming that's why we're doing it. Tis Pity is usually paired with Paradise Lost so perhaps we're an experiment to see if producing essays is possible...

Feeling pretty confident about The Tempest though - I do love Shakespeare. For my revision at the moment I've simply wrote down character quotes and stuck them on the ceiling above my bed so I read them before I go to sleep... Sounds silly but I've learnt almost all of them! After the half term I'm going to start grouping them and do some more research into the characters and stuff. In terms of predictions, I have a feeling they might be really sly and do a question about humour...


Hey! Yeah Paradise Lost is definitely very complex and hard to get my head around, luckily Book 9 in itself is quite short so which makes it more manageable. I'd hate if it a question on humour came up for The Tempest, I wouldn't know what to write :eek: And yeah I do exactly the same as you with the sticking up quotes around my room, my room is absolutely full of quotes from all three texts :tongue: It looks silly but I think it will be really useful and I can imagine that by the time of the exam I would have seen them all so much that I'll be able to remember them all off the top of my head!

Original post by jamesmact
Heys Guys!

I too am sitting this exam in June! Really scared for it.. Predicted an A* but I doubt I will get it because of the coursework module (our school has been routinely moderated down for coursework... so frustrating!). I did get an A at AS, so with enough preparation I am hoping for a strong A!

The texts I'm doing are 'King Lear' and for the comparative 'Paradise Lost' and Jonson's 'Volpone'. I'm pretty solid on all of the plots but atm just reading through them casually and noting down random interesting points. Learning quotations at this point is useless for me because I just would not remember them... I'm going to start about a month before the exam.

Context is obviously a big part of this exam, and I think whilst revising that should always be a priority. Whilst understanding the plot is imperative, understanding the religious/political/social influences is really important. I absolutely love all this stuff so I find it all quite easy to revise! Anyone got any tips for actually learning the quotations? It's such a tedious task, but I would appreciate anyone suggesting methods they have of making it a little less taxing! Last year was just one massive panic a few days before the exam where I literally locked myself in my room and memorised them all:frown:


I'm doing Volpone and Paradise Lost for comparison as well! Any predictions on what will come up? I'm hoping something on Women comes up, and I think it's likely considering the other texts in the syllabus as well. I know something about women and their use of wit came up last year but that wouldn't have really been relevant to Volpone or Paradise Lost, I'd love something about women's roles as passive figures as I reckon I could challenge that well :tongue: I think a question about Evil/Immorality and a question about persuasion would be good for the two texts as well, hopefully something similar to one of those three comes up! Looking at the questions that came up last year, I wouldn't have really been happy answering any of them for Volpone and Paradise Lost so that worries me slightly :eek:

And as I said above, in terms of techniques for learning quotes I think posting stick it notes of them all around your room (or house) is really useful as you'll just be able to look at them at random points of the day and will eventually learn them by the time of the exam. It doesn't work for everyone and it's definitely a bit of a hassle (especially as the sticky notes I bought don't stick up so I have to use sellotape :mad:) but hopefully it should be worth it!

Original post by dramaqueenx
Hi guys :-) great thread! Really going to help! I am doing William Blake's 'Songs of Innocence and of Experience' with a comparison to John Webster's 'The White Devil' and then a singular essay on Shakespeare's 'The Tempest'. Is anyone doing these too? I am slightly worried because, due to family circumstances, I didn't do as well as I wanted to have done last year. I am therefore retaking that exam on Shelley's 'Frankenstein' and Robert Browning poetry. Slightly freaking out about learning five texts and five critics as well as my other exams!! And breathe! I suppose it's taught me to have tried harder this year though! ;-) If anyone is doing Blake, a really good quote on him is, 'There is no doubt this poor man was mad but there is something in the madness of this man.' (William Wordsworth) - Though my teacher told me it sounded as if I had made it up :eek: haha. She seems pretty convinced Prospero will come up for 'The Tempest' though. Just have to wait and see...


Hey! I'm doing The Tempest as well :biggrin: Yeah I can definitely see Prospero coming up. My dream questions though would be Ariel for the character question (or Caliban but there's 0% of that) and Colonialism for the theme question. I would literally be so happy if they came up :biggrin:

Wow that must be pretty tough with the retakes, although I imagine you should ace the AS stuff now as it will seem easy in comparison to A2? I did Yeats and Frankenstein last year and I miss them so much now considering what we have to learn for A2, I really did not appreciate them enough at the time :biggrin:
Reply 16
Original post by jamesmact
Heys Guys!

I too am sitting this exam in June! Really scared for it.. Predicted an A* but I doubt I will get it because of the coursework module (our school has been routinely moderated down for coursework... so frustrating!). I did get an A at AS, so with enough preparation I am hoping for a strong A!

The texts I'm doing are 'King Lear' and for the comparative 'Paradise Lost' and Jonson's 'Volpone'. I'm pretty solid on all of the plots but atm just reading through them casually and noting down random interesting points. Learning quotations at this point is useless for me because I just would not remember them... I'm going to start about a month before the exam.

Context is obviously a big part of this exam, and I think whilst revising that should always be a priority. Whilst understanding the plot is imperative, understanding the religious/political/social influences is really important. I absolutely love all this stuff so I find it all quite easy to revise! Anyone got any tips for actually learning the quotations? It's such a tedious task, but I would appreciate anyone suggesting methods they have of making it a little less taxing! Last year was just one massive panic a few days before the exam where I literally locked myself in my room and memorised them all:frown:



I am THE WORST with quotes, I find it quite difficult because my other subjects are sciences so more application based whereas this is obviously really heavy on memorisation. Last year I organised my quotes character wise, but this year I think I may do it for both. I just go through the texts and pick key quotations from each scene/chapter and also stage directions (I think they are so key when analysing structure). I make sure they're only a couple words long, so not huge quotations, or if a certain word or phrase is repeated then I remember that.

I think in terms of memorising, I know it's really old school but maybe try the write check cover repeat method? I got flashcards last year and got people to test me.

That's the only method-(ish) I have really :/
Reply 17
Original post by NiallD
Thanks for that link looks like a really great resource! Yeah I definitely agree with you in terms of there being more resources for Shakespeare - one I found really good was this: http://nfs.sparknotes.com/ which has The Tempest and other lagely studied Shakespeare texts translater in modern English. Whilst I feel like I've gained a better understanding of Shakespeare over the years, there are still lines that go over my head so this is definitely really useful to look at. If you look at the 'No Fear literature titles' as well I think they also have all of The Canterbury Tales so that might help you in terms of the Wife of Bath as well. I really wish they had something like this for Volpone :tongue:



That's ok! ahh yeah sparknotes is a life saver! I've used it for wife of bath too, I'm forever in debt to that site haha.
Original post by NiallD
Thanks for that link looks like a really great resource! Yeah I definitely agree with you in terms of there being more resources for Shakespeare - one I found really good was this: http://nfs.sparknotes.com/ which has The Tempest and other lagely studied Shakespeare texts translater in modern English. Whilst I feel like I've gained a better understanding of Shakespeare over the years, there are still lines that go over my head so this is definitely really useful to look at. If you look at the 'No Fear literature titles' as well I think they also have all of The Canterbury Tales so that might help you in terms of the Wife of Bath as well. I really wish they had something like this for Volpone :tongue:



Hey! Yeah Paradise Lost is definitely very complex and hard to get my head around, luckily Book 9 in itself is quite short so which makes it more manageable. I'd hate if it a question on humour came up for The Tempest, I wouldn't know what to write :eek: And yeah I do exactly the same as you with the sticking up quotes around my room, my room is absolutely full of quotes from all three texts :tongue: It looks silly but I think it will be really useful and I can imagine that by the time of the exam I would have seen them all so much that I'll be able to remember them all off the top of my head!



I'm doing Volpone and Paradise Lost for comparison as well! Any predictions on what will come up? I'm hoping something on Women comes up, and I think it's likely considering the other texts in the syllabus as well. I know something about women and their use of wit came up last year but that wouldn't have really been relevant to Volpone or Paradise Lost, I'd love something about women's roles as passive figures as I reckon I could challenge that well :tongue: I think a question about Evil/Immorality and a question about persuasion would be good for the two texts as well, hopefully something similar to one of those three comes up! Looking at the questions that came up last year, I wouldn't have really been happy answering any of them for Volpone and Paradise Lost so that worries me slightly :eek:

And as I said above, in terms of techniques for learning quotes I think posting stick it notes of them all around your room (or house) is really useful as you'll just be able to look at them at random points of the day and will eventually learn them by the time of the exam. It doesn't work for everyone and it's definitely a bit of a hassle (especially as the sticky notes I bought don't stick up so I have to use sellotape :mad:) but hopefully it should be worth it!



Hey! I'm doing The Tempest as well :biggrin: Yeah I can definitely see Prospero coming up. My dream questions though would be Ariel for the character question (or Caliban but there's 0% of that) and Colonialism for the theme question. I would literally be so happy if they came up :biggrin:

Wow that must be pretty tough with the retakes, although I imagine you should ace the AS stuff now as it will seem easy in comparison to A2? I did Yeats and Frankenstein last year and I miss them so much now considering what we have to learn for A2, I really did not appreciate them enough at the time :biggrin:


As far as predictions of questions goes.. it could really be anything :/ They give you so many options and it's possible that a couple won't relate to either text. If we get something on oppression and women that would be a dream come true. Alternatively, as you suggest, persuasion/temptation may come up although temptation was also a question on last year's paper. I sat that paper for my mock and I did the temptation question. I forget what the precise wording was and I can't seem to find a link to the appropriate exam.

Thank you for the advice for quotations! I think everyone finds it such a daunting concept, especially at A2 where they expect you to go into a lot more historical detail. Paradise Lost is just fantastic though... We studied Book X in just as much detail, then we moved onto Books I and II. Even if you can't be bothered to battle through the density of the text, reading up about summaries and connections between the different Books is really useful and constitutes AO3/4 (I'm guessing?!). Volpone I just find too long and quite frankly fairly dry in a lot of areas... The only bits I actually enjoy are the scenes with the Avocatti and the whole issue of the fairness of their judgment
Anyone know how old Timon of Athens is nearing his death?

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