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AQA AS Literature June 2015 LTA1B

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I think it's really unfair that there's 2 stallworthy books, people can get so easily confused. And yeah I initially panicked for section 1 cause it didn't look like any section 1 I'd ever done, but I managed to have a pretty coherent line of argument. Did you pick up on the fact that the figures were constantly revised over the months following? You can engage with the debate of what is true and what is truthful, which Robert Graves talks about a lot in Goodbye to All That.

I agree with you, people sometimes panic in the moment of the exam and immediately go to where they see Stallworthy! There's always one person every year and they still end up with A's! But luckily it was an okay question for the guy who did it, he didn't seem to stressed about it. Luckily in our exam we didn't have to use those awful white books and had the same (clean) print copies we analysed in class so it made navigating so much easier. I managed to use that as an evaluative point and I picked up on the fact that there were no statistics on Generals and related that to the modern critique presented in 'Blackadder' and 'Oh What a Lovely War!' but then managed to get the fact that Generals were actually banned from going over the top and the potential inaccuracy of the critique. The contrasts and similarities that could were possible to comment on were really nice so I was quite pleased with that paper :smile:
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Original post by chronicmusic
Sorry but you can't get out of band 4 if you just use quotes from poems in the anthology



Haha i don't mind staying in band 4 XD
hi! did anyone pick the first question in the Oxford Book of War Poetry anthology about how contrast is used for effect in poems? That was a strange question compared to last year!!
Original post by katielouise_x
hi! did anyone pick the first question in the Oxford Book of War Poetry anthology about how contrast is used for effect in poems? That was a strange question compared to last year!!


Hi,

Yes it confused me at first. I don't know whether this is me over thinking the question, but did you interpret it as the 'contrasts' within each individual poem or the way the poems within the collection contrast with one other? So worried I've misinterpreted the question!
I used The Volunteer and wrote about the contrasts in the poem that highlight his life before and his death as a result of war, and also Glory of Women and wrote about how Sassoon uses less linguistic contrasts as his poem is more 'to the point', and the poem is therefore perhaps more "powerful".
What did everyone put for thoughts and feelings presented in the extract?
Original post by Jadefranks99
Hi,

Yes it confused me at first. I don't know whether this is me over thinking the question, but did you interpret it as the 'contrasts' within each individual poem or the way the poems within the collection contrast with one other? So worried I've misinterpreted the question!
I used The Volunteer and wrote about the contrasts in the poem that highlight his life before and his death as a result of war, and also Glory of Women and wrote about how Sassoon uses less linguistic contrasts as his poem is more 'to the point', and the poem is therefore perhaps more "powerful".


I personally interpreted it as the contrasts within the poems themselves and used Brooke, Sassoon and Owen that show this (youth against living forever in death, The Hero which contrasts and lie and reality and nature as the enemy for Exposure by Owen) and In Flander's Field's and Dead Man's Dump to show a clear view on the war in death and suffering - but I don't know whether this interpretation of the question is right?? Why couldn't it have been a clear cut question like last year :frown: the extract was decent, however there was no writer for the article which annoyed me!!
Original post by katielouise_x
I personally interpreted it as the contrasts within the poems themselves and used Brooke, Sassoon and Owen that show this (youth against living forever in death, The Hero which contrasts and lie and reality and nature as the enemy for Exposure by Owen) and In Flander's Field's and Dead Man's Dump to show a clear view on the war in death and suffering - but I don't know whether this interpretation of the question is right?? Why couldn't it have been a clear cut question like last year :frown: the extract was decent, however there was no writer for the article which annoyed me!!


Ah good! So relieved I thought I'd totally confused the question (lets hope we are both right)! I know, I felt that the question was so unfair compared to last years. And yes it was hard to write about the thoughts and feelings of the writer (in terms of context) when we knew little of who they were other than that they wrote for the Daily Mirror!
Just thought I should throw it out there- incase it wasn't resolved- you can, in question 1, use Owen as your wider reading link, however, you cannot use the any of the poems that you used in the Owen question unless you don't mind being stranded in band 3 or below.

As far as the questions are concerned: question 1, whilst I found difficult to be particularly analytical about, I feel as if there was a lot of contextual detail (that being the dominant AO of 27 marks) that could be mentioned such as the naivety of those at the home-front, the corrupted minds of the soldiers fighting etc etc. And question 2- the "Owen always associates war with pain" one- I thought was rather brilliant and pretty generous of AQA if I'm honest. Just to clarify, in the Owen question, the dominant AO focuses on analysis and a sense of debate throughout your answer☺️
Original post by Jadefranks99
Ah good! So relieved I thought I'd totally confused the question (lets hope we are both right)! I know, I felt that the question was so unfair compared to last years. And yes it was hard to write about the thoughts and feelings of the writer (in terms of context) when we knew little of who they were other than that they wrote for the Daily Mirror!


Omg thank God...... I did that question and wrote about contrasts WITHIN the poems, and then I walked out and heard someone saying they did contrasts BETWEEN poems and I freaked out!! I think they'll credit either interpretation, but this has reassured me!
I'm really surprised people liked the extract- I hated it. I only had enough time for two points and because I'm retaking I'm a bit worried I might have messed up again. For section B I answered the second Owen question on 'Disabled' which I quite liked (at least more so than section a) so I'm hoping I've done okay. What thoughts and feelings did everybody else get out of the extract?
Original post by saimahkhan
I'm really surprised people liked the extract- I hated it. I only had enough time for two points and because I'm retaking I'm a bit worried I might have messed up again. For section B I answered the second Owen question on 'Disabled' which I quite liked (at least more so than section a) so I'm hoping I've done okay. What thoughts and feelings did everybody else get out of the extract?


I thought it was really hard to find actual feelings from the writer (especially as his/her identity is unknown) but I basically just kept repeating how it was respectful, mournful, commended the dead and aimed to console the "mothers, fathers, wives and children" as well as just stating the numbers of casualties.
I focused a lot on how the extract, although being genuine in its information, attempts (at every step) to defend the war so I used a lot of anti-war stuff. Also, in the forward, it said that the figures had been revised for months following the publishing of this article, so even what is 'genuine' is not entirely truthful. I was really miffed off that they didn't mention a writer or any dates or anything, because it's really easy to get a grasp of what the writer's mindset is when you have that info. I also drew attention to the fact that the number of casualties (3,000,000, I think) was referred to as a 'grand total', so it taints the honour of the soldiers who'd given their lives and whatnot. To be honest, I actually found quite a lot of stuff to talk about, even if the extract itself was pretty rubbish.
Original post by Qonnor
Did anyone here do the Wilfred Owen anthology? And if so what did you think? :biggrin:


I did! I chose the 'pain' question just because Disability wasn't a poem I was familiar with. I split the essay in half and did physical pain, and then emotional pain/lack of care. I used Dead-Beat and Miners to agree witht eh statement and Futility to disagree :smile:

I found Section A quite hard initially, but I got going eventually! A lot of people have said it was respectful and mournful etc, a lot of people from my school, myself included put about the falseness of it, the class divide between officers and 'other ranks', and the attempt to cover up the losses by boosting morale. How did you find it?
Original post by Jadefranks99
I thought it was really hard to find actual feelings from the writer (especially as his/her identity is unknown) but I basically just kept repeating how it was respectful, mournful, commended the dead and aimed to console the "mothers, fathers, wives and children" as well as just stating the numbers of casualties.

I think I missed out the most obvious things. I talked about patriotism and religion and how the home front was ignorant- think I may have misinterpreted it a bit. I might be screwed.
Original post by saimahkhan
I think I missed out the most obvious things. I talked about patriotism and religion and how the home front was ignorant- think I may have misinterpreted it a bit. I might be screwed.


I wrote some pretty random things too that don't seem quite right now that I'm thinking about it haha! I wouldn't worry honestly as long as you've backed up your point with evidence from the extract you'll be fine! I'm just annoyed at myself for not writing anything on how the numbers were just the initial total even though it basically told you to mention it in the intro :mad::mad:
Original post by Jadefranks99
I wrote some pretty random things too that don't seem quite right now that I'm thinking about it haha! I wouldn't worry honestly as long as you've backed up your point with evidence from the extract you'll be fine! I'm just annoyed at myself for not writing anything on how the numbers were just the initial total even though it basically told you to mention it in the intro :mad::mad:


What did you put as your wider reading links? I did Margery from Black 'Ell for the patriotism and overpowering Harold at end, like the patriotism is over powering the losses. I did Anthem for Doomed Youth - where the table of casualties was split into officers and just everyone else, and then Vera Brittain Testament of Youth for how war will carry on affecting people and stuff :smile:
Original post by lilyelisabeth
What did you put as your wider reading links? I did Margery from Black 'Ell for the patriotism and overpowering Harold at end, like the patriotism is over powering the losses. I did Anthem for Doomed Youth - where the table of casualties was split into officers and just everyone else, and then Vera Brittain Testament of Youth for how war will carry on affecting people and stuff :smile:


Sounds really good! I remember thinking in the exam about the split between officers and other ranks but didn't have time to write anything more, I was gutted cause its such a good point! I used Oh What a Lovely War and linked the bit where Haig and the men are putting up all the numbers of casualties, Six Young Men as the extract said something about them being young and immortal like how the men are in the photo in the poem are and Birdsong where Stephen is talking about how the men are fathers of children cause the writer in the extract sympathised with the families also :smile:
Original post by Jadefranks99
Sounds really good! I remember thinking in the exam about the split between officers and other ranks but didn't have time to write anything more, I was gutted cause its such a good point! I used Oh What a Lovely War and linked the bit where Haig and the men are putting up all the numbers of casualties, Six Young Men as the extract said something about them being young and immortal like how the men are in the photo in the poem are and Birdsong where Stephen is talking about how the men are fathers of children cause the writer in the extract sympathised with the families also :smile:


Sounds fab, the texts you mentioned are all things that I thought 'I should probably read that' and then never did. I planned my whole essay out really thoroughly and then got carried away and used different links the whole way through oops. How were you time wise? I had time to spare at the end which was weird???
Original post by lilyelisabeth
Sounds fab, the texts you mentioned are all things that I thought 'I should probably read that' and then never did. I planned my whole essay out really thoroughly and then got carried away and used different links the whole way through oops. How were you time wise? I had time to spare at the end which was weird???


I thought the exact same about the texts you mentioned! And same I think its so much easier to plan it out loads then so you know exactly what to write up. And for section A I finished just under the hour but section B I didn't get a chance to even read over my work and ended up writing a tiny sentence on the pink bit of the page at the bottom cause I didn't even have the time to ask for more paper, oops sorry examiner
Original post by Jadefranks99
I thought the exact same about the texts you mentioned! And same I think its so much easier to plan it out loads then so you know exactly what to write up. And for section A I finished just under the hour but section B I didn't get a chance to even read over my work and ended up writing a tiny sentence on the pink bit of the page at the bottom cause I didn't even have the time to ask for more paper, oops sorry examiner


I didn't use all the paper but 1 side planning plus 4 sides writing is kinda my average for every essay I do so I think I was alright haha

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