A2 eng lit- WAR SYNOPTIC- how did it go?

Perdurabo

Don't worry - I found 'A' more difficult! Forgot all my critical techniques and just focused on quotes.

Concluded that 'A' was just splendour, no madness because of ordered rhythm and repitition being like the drum etc. 'B' was about the horror. Wrote absolutely tons without actually saying much on that one.

I think i forgot that although it was a shorter question, it still carried the same amount of marks!

I found 'A' more difficult to come up with interesting points about too; I liked the "rosette" metaphor in "B" for the flares in the sky and thought the language was more interesting. Overall I found question 1a harder. My critical skills seemed to fly out the window too, as did my essay structure. I think it helped get me into the swing of things though so 1b went a bit better.

Reply 22

serious narb

I said that I do not agree that A shows much spleandour, because although, it doesn't go into much gory detail, the topic is still about death and people dying

Similar to what I said :smile:

I concluded something along the lines of them both showing some splendour and some horror - eg. "A" still mentioned rotten and dead bodies and so on, whilst "B" seemed in awe of the flashy facade of war. I also played around with possible different slants of "splendour", "madness" and "horror". Ran out of time to read it through though so no idea how it turned out...

Reply 23

hester

serious narb

I said that I do not agree that A shows much spleandour, because although, it doesn't go into much gory detail, the topic is still about death and people dying

i said it did.. cos the poem was like calm an had natural imagery. and the image of the rows of scarlet seemed quite impressive.

and the horror of war wasnt really focused on, i said the splendour helped emphasise the futility of war

Reply 24

our teacher said that she thought that exam was hard and a bit unfair as they picked the most random two poems for 1a. nobody had heard of them. but isn't it wierd how edith nesbit came up when thats what i asked everyone for help on in the thread!? also 'oh what a lovely war' has come up before so i totally did not expect that!

Reply 25

slowjamz

Hehe, I think you're as bad as me when it comes to revision then :wink:

I'm using distance learning materials so no teacher for me either... and I've only read one section too! Oh well - got 3 whole days to cram right?! What other subjects are you doing?

Unfortunately Bristol want AAB from me. I think my A in English should be okay, but getting very worried about flunking one of my other two... *stomps feet* I really want to go to Bristol!

Yeah i know. Psych is gonna be SO hard! Loads to remember. My textbook is HUGE! :eek:

I'm doing English, Psychology, History and Biology.

English should, if i can pull it back on Blake and Othello, be an A.

Psychology could be anything. Got a high A overall and 100% on one unit at AS but i had a teacher back then. These ones could go anyway.

History should be A but my personal study was a C so i need to pull it out of the bag again in the exam. (Same thing happened at AS.)

Biology = Dont care. Wanted to do physics but there were conflicts. Hate it. Got a B at AS but ive got an E all this year. As i only need 3 a-levels, thsi is just filler.

Gen. Studies AS. Good old general studies. Who knows what this'll be. Some really successful students fail, other poorer candidates get an A. Don't really mind, again its just a nice few extra points to put me top of the year overall! I think my school gives a prize. Bit cheeky really. The extra subjects will give me more points than another student in our year who's far more brainier than me!

What about you?
Don't worry, you'll do fine. Bristol seem so nice i dont think they would reject you if you just missed your offer.

Reply 26

slowjamz

Ahh, I can't even remember now... a whole two hours later, lol :wink:

I just threw in as many lines from poetry as I could, and if I couldn't remember the exact wording I just paraphrased the meaning to support the point. I remember mentioning Graves' "A Dead Boche", Owen's "Dulce in Decorum est" and "Spring Offensive", Brookes' "Peace" and "The Soldier", Begbie's "Fall In", Pope's "Who's For The Game?", Elton's "The Survivor", Sassoon's

lol u did the same one's as me! but i also sis birdsong - "no one in england knows what it's like" to link to the "we all have a vague notion" from the letter.. that was in my last minutes of the exam and i dont even know if it made sense!

i need a B to get a B overall! ARGRGRGRGRGRRHHH

Reply 27

serious narb

11

sneezyme

our teacher said that she thought that exam was hard and a bit unfair as they picked the most random two poems for 1a. nobody had heard of them. but isn't it wierd how edith nesbit came up when thats what i asked everyone for help on in the thread!? also 'oh what a lovely war' has come up before so i totally did not expect that!

yeah i suppose that is true

we had it tough, the orginisation was a shambles, firstly they couldnt find a room for us, had to squeeze about 40 people doing 3 separate exams in the 1 small room.

then the teacher kept messing about with the clock, it then took me ages to start because another dozy teacher was constantly blowing her nose :frown:

Reply 28

sneezyme

also 'oh what a lovely war' has come up before so i totally did not expect that!

exactly! that just took the biscuit, because i skimmed it throughout my revision thinking... they wont put that up again!

i did alot of linking to Blackadder in that one when it came to criticism of authority

Reply 29

did you all write that all the extracts were anti-war right? i said it seems anti-war just incase-hope that right,

Reply 30

omg i was coming out with some proper rubbish for 1a u know! i said that the "crimson flowers" is a metahpor for the blood of the soldier, which has just been "splattered" all over the place,. and the use of plural on "flowers" shows how these deaths are widespread

and i think i linked THAT to housman's extract because he had something in there too that i thought represented blood... can't remmeber what it was now..

Reply 31

sneezyme

did you all write that all the extracts were anti-war right? i said it seems anti-war just incase-hope that right,

yeah i wrote how all three extracts are similar because they all criticise war methods... but extract E is different because it's more openly critical e.g. naming and stuff whereas extract C and D are more indirect? lol i duno WHAT i was goin on about there, but it was something along the lines of that (related it to time of comp)

Reply 32

serious narb

I kind of mentioned that, but in a way estract D wasn't really negative, unless i didn't intepret(sp?) it correctly, I think it was saying that soon things will be better again

i ran out of time before i could say that, which totally peed me off because i'll probably fail because they think im dumb now

Reply 33

slowjamz

I found 'A' more difficult to come up with interesting points about too; I liked the "rosette" metaphor in "B" for the flares in the sky and thought the language was more interesting. Overall I found question 1a harder. My critical skills seemed to fly out the window too, as did my essay structure. I think it helped get me into the swing of things though so 1b went a bit better.

Yeah, i liked the rosettes of fire quote too. I said it played on the idea of rosettes being used in remeberence of the heroes who fought in the war. Ironically, this bloke remembers carnage.

A was difficult. Just talked about the drum.

I SO wanted to talk about other poems! I'd have had a great answer then.
That's the key. I think they just wanted criticism.

Reply 34

SparklLZz

omg i was coming out with some proper rubbish for 1a u know! i said that the "crimson flowers" is a metahpor for the blood of the soldier, which has just been "splattered" all over the place,. and the use of plural on "flowers" shows how these deaths are widespread

and i think i linked THAT to housman's extract because he had something in there too that i thought represented blood... can't remmeber what it was now..

wow thats good-u must have wrote about 'splattered' in housman's poem

Reply 35

Wow, good luck! I hope they all go okay. When's your last paper?

Hey I was right about you having good taste - I'm doing English, Psychology and History as well :wink:

Pretty happy with English - 100% in 4 modules means a guaranteed C even if I didn't sit these last two papers, so hopefully I can pick up enough marks for an A.

Psychology: Also got 100% in one of my AS modules, an A at AS overall and an A in my coursework this year, so I think Bs in the remaining papers should be enough for an A. However, there seems to be so much to learn that I'm starting to get worried about this one.

History: Got 100% in two AS modules so also a high A overall, but all 3 exams are next week and my current lack of revision doesn't bode well.

Am also doing Politics AS (finished last week, didn't go brilliantly and I took it with raging tonsillitis but it's also a filler so doesn't matter for uni) and Philosophy AS (only had one module to sit this summer and from my other marks it should leave me with either a high B or low A). Fun huh?!

I'm not really expecting Bristol to accept me if I drop a grade :frown:

I'm doing English, and their English department is so oversubscribed (1800+ applicants for 65 places as they told me on the open day) that I don't think I'd stand a chance. Nottingham is my insurance... but I'm aiming to cram so hard I won't need it :smile:

Bristol is the only place I really want to go.

Reply 36

ok anyway i'd best get off now and revsie for next tues! othello and keats here i come! don't worry about it too much everyone, it's not good to dwell what's dont is done. well done for all your effort though

Reply 37

SparklLZz

omg i was coming out with some proper rubbish for 1a u know! i said that the "crimson flowers" is a metahpor for the blood of the soldier, which has just been "splattered" all over the place,. and the use of plural on "flowers" shows how these deaths are widespread

and i think i linked THAT to housman's extract because he had something in there too that i thought represented blood... can't remmeber what it was now..

Yeah! I did that. Again, its all about memory and reflection. We see poppy's etc. he sees his mates being blown to bits.

Oh yeah, and scythe. Grim reaper connotations but also what does a sycthe do? (Can't believe i actually write that in my exam! - i like to talk to the examiners) I said a scythe cuts large quantities of corn stalks down at a time. Just as the slodiers were cut-down by machine gun fire as they went over the top.

Reply 38

True, but the more past results you quote the more inadequate i feel!
You probably did no revision last year either so you should do well again!

Don't go to Nottingham! You HAVE to go to Bristol. I have to have at least one person i can talk to there!

Reply 39