AQA A2 English Literature LITA3: Love Through the Ages, 11 June 2015

My teacher has put a lot of emphasis on time periods and how they influence love through the ages! Does anyone have any advice on time periods and revising that?

Also, is it just me, but i feel like there's not enough time to plan!! How do you guys go about planning your essays? Like what do you do and write in your plans?

Can I just add, nowhere in the spec does it specify that you have to quote wider reading in order to gain the marks, all it specifies is that you must make relevant reference to wider reading. I've seen a number of exemplars with 40/40 that don't use a single quote from wider reading, they tended to compare themes and occasionally how the form/structure/language of the wider reading reference relates to the passage. The most important part in the words of my teachers is making sure your WR is relevant and that you add to the essay by including these references, quotes or no quotes.

One thing to bear in mind however, is that by the end of the paper you should have made WR reference to all of Poetry, Prose and Drama. You should never make reference to any Genre if it is not in the extract (i.e. never have a WR reference to drama or prose if the extracts are both poetry). Ultimately, your performance is most heavily reliant on your knowledge of analysing literature and writing a good essay under timed conditions. I have a quote bank of 30 examples for poetry, 20 for drama and 15 for prose. My teacher told me this was far too many and suggested having 5-10 solid examples for each.

Another thing he told my class was to only reference context when it is suitable and when you can make a good point from it, that will add to your argument. Also making sure the basics are covered; punctuation, grammar, spelling, vocabulary, structure (intro, main, conclusion).

This exam is quite competitive and the UMS to Raw mark ratio is still fairly high so it's probably the exam that worries me the most. That being said, lets hope the extracts we're given allow for good interpretation and in depth analysis because it makes our lives much easier

Hello Do you have any of the exemplar essays you could send me.. or do you know where I can find any? - No worries if you don't, thanks!

For each paragraph I'll link to a large quote and then link that to other parts of the same book with 1 or 2 other quotes to enhance the point.
What do you think? Is it worth me adding in those extra quotes?

Just out of curiosity, does anyone conclude their essay answers? I never do and still manage to get a good grade, but I was wondering if anyone says anything specific in their conclusion to tie the essay up. If you do conclude, could you give me a few tips/ideas of what to include.

Thank you in advance x

I don't think there's been two prose extracts in Q1 in all the past papers I've done? Two drama and three poems.

We did one past paper on two novels, I think they tried it once and everyone did so badly they never did it again

I've heard a few people say that contrasts are likely to come up, others have said they think John Donne will come up (again) because (apparently) he tends to appear every 2/3 years.

Other than that, the paper is based on unseen texts so it really could be anything.

Hey, John Donne came up last year so hopefully not?! I fully despise his poetry after last year's awful exam (I'm retaking)

I don't think it'll be Donne, I'm sure on a shakespeare play (I think Q1 will be drama, what does everyone else think?)

I'm so nervous about this exam especially because I'm not doing well at all on essays! Do you guys have any predictions for which theme would come up in Q2?
I've got all my wider reading and quotes, the only thing that worries me is repeating points or not having sophisticated points about the essay!

How many points does everyone manage to write in timed conditions because I only manage to write two comparison points (which of course include wider reading, context, form, structure and language). I really need to work on how to be concise with how I write

Any responses would be amazing, good luck everyone!

Ugh me too! And it's my second time round haha but I just don't feel I've improved at all.

As for the theme, I think it'll be something less romantic/sexual this time, since we've had that a lot, maybe familial or platonic?

What kind of structure do you think you'll use? I seem to end up just going back and forth all the time.

I'd be happy to read anybody's practice essays if anyone wants to swap??

My teacher said that the topic for q2 is always to do with romantic love.


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I've looked at past papers and mark schemes and it seems like in some cases Q1 isn't even about love? For example sometimes it's entirely about power... so do you think you can get away with saying something in tge context of a relationship, but not actually mentioning love explicitly?

Well the power is normally to do with a relationship, so love is relevant. You don't have to explicitly mention love, I think a better title for the unit would be relationships through the ages


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I don't think it'll be Donne, I'm sure on a shakespeare play (I think Q1 will be drama, what does everyone else think?)

I'm so nervous about this exam especially because I'm not doing well at all on essays! Do you guys have any predictions for which theme would come up in Q2?
I've got all my wider reading and quotes, the only thing that worries me is repeating points or not having sophisticated points about the essay!

How many points does everyone manage to write in timed conditions because I only manage to write two comparison points (which of course include wider reading, context, form, structure and language). I really need to work on how to be concise with how I write

Any responses would be amazing, good luck everyone!

Hi everyone. I'm sitting this exam this year, I've been getting into Band 4 consistently on my exam prep questions and my teacher has faith in me but I'm ridiculously nervous for this exam. Sometimes I get overwhelmed that I will forget all the quotes I've learnt etc. I found out last week that I got an A in my coursework which isn't too bad. For the exam I have been doing past papers every day, remembering (or at least trying to) wider reading quotes and focusing on context, gosh I'm nervous. I have History A2 on 8th June too! It's all a little crazy. I also bought a book which is called 'Oxford Student Texts : Love Through The Ages' which is helpful. My wider reading is as follows:
Novel - The Handmaid's Tale, Great Gatsby, Thousand Splendid Sons, Sons and Lovers.
Drama - The Glass Menagerie, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Romeo and Juliet
Poetry - Marvell and Donne (Metaphysical), Shakespeare, Browning, Rosetti, Jennings, Carol Ann Duffy.
A couple of other points, I don't think there's been two prose extracts in Q1 in all the past papers I've done? Two drama and three poems.
How do people structure their essays? I do Intro (Brief comparison and possibly context), Main body (Make a point about first text, link two texts and talk about second text, compare similarities/differences, link to wider reading and possibly reaffirm argument) and repeat this for point two. Plus I try to include context where necessary.
My teacher gave the class some exemplar answers if anybody is lacking in them I could try and send them over an attachment? The writing is crazy so It takes a few reads to understand .
Good luck everyone and P.s. Try to stay calm-ish.