I thought I'd start a thread for the new impending GCSE Eduqas English exams that will be examined for the first time this year.
Some basic information. There are a total of 4 exams. The English exam dates are as follows:
English Literature Component 1- 22/05/2017English Literature Component 2- 26/05/2017English Language Component 1- 06/06/2017English Language Component 2- 12/06/2017This is a basic overview of all four exams.
English Literature Component 1:Shakespeare and Poetry Anthology Written examination: 2 hours 40% of qualification Section A: (20%) Shakespeare Romeo and Juliet; OR Macbeth; OR Othello; OR Much Ado About Nothing; OR Henry V; OR The Merchant of Venice
One extract question and one essay question based on the reading of a Shakespeare text from the above prescribed list.
Section B: (20%) Poetry from 1789 to the present day Two questions based on poems from the WJEC Eduqas Poetry Anthology, one of which involves comparison.
English Literature Component 2-Post-1914 Prose/Drama, 19th Century Prose and Unseen Poetry Written examination: 2 hours and 30 minutes 60% of qualification Section A: (20%): Post-1914 Prose/Drama Lord of the Flies (Golding); OR Anita and Me (Syal); OR Never Let Me Go (Ishiguro); OR The Woman in Black (Hill); OR Oranges are not the Only Fruit (Winterson); OR The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time (play script) (Stephens); OR A Taste of Honey (Delaney); OR An Inspector Calls (Priestley); OR The History Boys (Bennett); OR Blood Brothers (Russell)
One source-based question on a post 1914 prose/drama text from the above prescribed list.
Section B: (20%) 19th Century Prose A Christmas Carol (Dickens); OR Silas Marner (Eliot); OR Pride and Prejudice (Austen); OR War of the Worlds (Wells); OR Jane Eyre (Brontë); OR The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (Stevenson)
One source-based question on a 19th century prose text from the above prescribed list.
Section C: (20%) Unseen Poetry from the 20th/21st Century Two questions on unseen poems, one of which involves comparison.
English Language Component 120th century reading and creative prose writing Written Examination: 1 hour and 45 minutes 40% of qualification Section A: (20%) – Reading Understanding of one prose extract (about 60-100 lines) of literature from the 20th century assessed through a range of structured questions
Section B: (20%) – Prose Writing One creative writing task selected from a choice of four titles
English Language Component 219th and 21st century non-fiction reading and transactional/persuasive writing Written Examination: 2 hours60% of qualificationSection A: (30%) – Reading Understanding of two extracts (about 900-1200 words in total) of high-quality non-fiction writing, one from the 19th century, the other from the 21st century, assessed through a range of structured questions
Section B: (30%) – Writing Two compulsory transactional/persuasive writing tasks
Now, let's look at what the specification says about the different AOs and content overview.
Component 1: Shakespeare and Poetry Section A: (20%) Shakespeare (40 marks) Romeo and Juliet; OR Macbeth; OR Othello; OR Much Ado About Nothing; OR Henry V; OR The Merchant of Venice
This assessment will test, through one extract-based question and one essay question on the text as a whole, knowledge and understanding of a Shakespeare text. Learners will be expected to
comment on Shakespeare’s use of language, structure and form and show an understanding of key themes, characters and ideas within the text. This section will also
test learners' spelling, punctuation and grammar. Section A assesses
AO1, AO2 and AO4. Section B: (20%) Poetry 1789 to the present day (40 marks)
This assessment will test knowledge and understanding of poetry from 1789 to the present day. Learners will be assessed on two poems from the WJEC Eduqas Poetry Anthology. In the first question, learners will be asked to write about a specified poem. In the second question, learners will be asked to write about a second poem chosen from the WJEC Eduqas Poetry Anthology, and compare it to the first. Learners will be expected to
consider the context of each poem, its content and key ideas, and the poets’ use of language, structure and form.
Learners must study all of the poems in the WJEC Eduqas Poetry Anthology in preparation for this assessment. The anthology covers a range of poetry and is designed to introduce learners to the rich heritage of poetry across centuries as well as illustrating how poets explore similar themes in different ways.
Section B assesses
AO1, AO2 and AO3. English Literature Component 2-Section A (20%) Post 1914 Prose/Drama (40 marks)
Lord of the Flies (Golding); OR Anita and Me (Syal); OR Never Let Me Go (Ishiguro); OR The Woman in Black (Hill); OR Oranges are not the Only Fruit (Winterson); OR The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time (play script) (Stephens); OR A Taste of Honey (Delaney); OR An Inspector Calls (Priestley); OR The History Boys (Bennett); OR Blood Brothers (Russell)
This assessment will test, through a source based response, knowledge and understanding of the post-1914 prose/drama text. Learners will be expected to
comment on the writer's use of language, structure and form and show an understanding of key themes, characters and ideas within the text. This assessment will also
test learner's spelling, punctuation and grammar.
Section A assesses
AO1, AO2 and AO4. Section B (20%) 19th Century Prose (40 marks)
A Christmas Carol (Dickens); OR Silas Marner (Eliot); OR War of the Worlds (Wells); OR Pride and Prejudice (Austen); OR Jane Eyre (Brontë); OR The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (Stevenson)
This assessment will test, through a source based response, knowledge and understanding of the 19th century prose novel. Learners will be expected to
comment upon the context of the prose text, the language, structure and form of the text and key themes, characters and ideas within the text. Section B assesses
AO1, AO2 and AO3. English Language Component 1:Section A: (20%) – Reading (40 marks) This section will test through structured questions the reading of an unseen extract from one 20th century literary prose text (about 60-100 lines). This section assesses AO1, AO2 and AO4.
Section B: (20%) – Prose Writing (40 marks) This section will test creative prose writing through one 40-mark task. Candidates will be offered a choice of four titles giving opportunities for writing to describe and narrate, and imaginative and creative use of language. This response should be a narrative / recount. Candidates who write purely descriptively, or use a form other than that specified, such as poetry or drama, will not be able to access the full mark range as shown in the assessment criteria.
This section assesses
AO5 and AO6. English Language Component 2:Section A: (30%) – Reading (40 marks) This section will test through structured questions the reading of two high-quality unseen non-fiction texts (about 900-1200 words in total), one from the 19th century, the other from the 21st century. Non-fiction texts may include, but will not be limited to:
letters, extracts from autobiographies or biographies, diaries, reports, articles and digital and multi-modal texts of various kinds from newspapers and magazines, and the internet. This section assesses
AO1 (and 2), AO2, AO3 and AO4. Section B: (30%) – Writing (40 marks) This section will test transactional, persuasive and/or discursive writing through two equally weighted compulsory tasks (20 marks each). Across the two tasks candidates will be offered opportunities to write for
a range of audiences and purposes, adapting style to form and to real-life contexts in, for example, letters, articles, reviews, speeches, etc.
This section assesses
AO5 and AO6. Here are the AOs explained:
English Literature:AO1: Read, understand and respond to texts. Students should be able to:
• maintain a critical style and develop an informed personal response
• use textual references, including quotations, to support and illustrate interpretations.
AO2: Analyse the language, form and structure used by a writer to create meanings and effects, using relevant subject terminology where appropriate.
AO3: Show understanding of the relationships between texts and the contexts in which they were written.
AO4: Use a range of vocabulary and sentence structures for clarity, purpose and effect, with accurate spelling and punctuation.
English Language:AO1: Identify and interpret explicit and implicit information and ideas. Select and synthesise evidence from different texts.
AO2: Explain, comment on analyse how writers use language and structure to achieve effects and influence readers, using relevant subject terminology to support their views.
AO3: Compare writers' ideas and perspectives, as well as how these are conveyed, across two or more texts.
AO4: Evaluate texts critically and support this with appropriate textual references.
AO5: Communicate clearly, effectively, and imaginatively, selecting and adapting tone, style and register for different forms, purposes and audience. Organise information and ideas, using structural and grammatical features to support coherence and cohesion of texts.
AO6: Candidates must use a range of vocabulary and sentence structures for clarity, purpose and effect, with accurate spelling and punctuation.
I can't stress how important the AOs are. It's literally how I form my responses to all the different types of questions. In the next post I'll show my techniques for ALL the types of questions. I also have some resources that I want to add share, as there are limited resources available online.