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AQA 9-1 English Language Paper 1 Thread - Tuesday 6th June 2017

Poll

How Did You Find That Exam? - AQA English Language Paper 1

Following the success of this thread - over 21,000 views - you can now discuss paper 2 in the Paper 2 Thread

Welcome To The AQA 9-1 English Language Thread 2017!

As we are the first cohort to take the 9-1 GCSE, there is limited information available about many things at the moment. However, AQA has produced various specimen papers, significantly more than they did for English Literature. This thread contains lots of revision resources, and hopefully, answers to your questions - from everything about grade boundaries to predictions of what themes could come up in the exam questions.

An overview of the exam, the skills needed and suggested timings for each question can be found here

Any questions, post away. Good luck everyone - we're all in this together!

Ideas for this thread;

How are you feeling about this exam?

How are you revising?

And after the exam, how did it go?



Resources

If you're a fan of videos, you might find MrBruff useful on YouTube. His extensive collection of videos can be found here

For Specimen Papers from AQA, you can find 3 sets including a mock paper available here.
If you have exhausted all the specimen materials, check out this revision booklet with plenty more questions to try out.

Paper 1 consists of two sections - unsurprisingly Section A and Section B!
Section A - 40 marks - 4 Questions about a given insert, unseen until the exam
Section B - 40 marks - 2 Questions, choose 1 to answer. Will require a descriptive or narrative piece of writing

For the Section B mark scheme, see below;

Spoiler

(edited 6 years ago)

Scroll to see replies

Do you think that for q5 they will give us an option for story or description or just give us 2 descriptions or 2 narratives... i hope they give us an option or description as we are the first year.
Reply 2
anyone have an estimate for 9-1 grade boundaries???
Hi all - if it helps I've given a few tips on my blog. Have a look if you haven't done so already! examinershead.wordpress.com
Reply 4
Do you guys know how to revise for it like at home?
Original post by mem123
Do you think that for q5 they will give us an option for story or description or just give us 2 descriptions or 2 narratives... i hope they give us an option or description as we are the first year.


I would imagine we would get both, but exam boards seem to be doing all sorts of unusual stuff this year so who knows. Personally I prefer doing the narrative, how about you?
Original post by Katiee01
anyone have an estimate for 9-1 grade boundaries???


Before sitting the exam, here's my estimates;

1 - 13
2 - 24
3 - 39
4 - 66
5 - 82
6 - 102
7 - 121
8 - 139
9 - 148

Thoughts?
Original post by J116
Do you guys know how to revise for it like at home?


It's hard for English Language as unlike Literature, there's not really any content to it. It's just revising to make sure you can identify language and structural devices and you know what they are, and that can only be done through specimen papers and questions.

If anyone has found any good revision resources, please share here.
Reply 8
I made small posters for each question, which included how to answer the question, along with things to include in your answer. Also, it's a good idea to memorize the assessment objectives so you know what to write about.
Reply 9
Original post by the_nshoesmith
It's hard for English Language as unlike Literature, there's not really any content to it. It's just revising to make sure you can identify language and structural devices and you know what they are, and that can only be done through specimen papers and questions.

If anyone has found any good revision resources, please share here.


I was thinking the same, I'm just really worried
Original post by the_nshoesmith
I would imagine we would get both, but exam boards seem to be doing all sorts of unusual stuff this year so who knows. Personally I prefer doing the narrative, how about you?


description because it's easier to get good marks i feel like with narrative its hard to make an interesting story opening or ending without getting carried away and not focusing on punctuation , similes , metaphors etc.
Original post by mem123
description because it's easier to get good marks i feel like with narrative its hard to make an interesting story opening or ending without getting carried away and not focusing on punctuation , similes , metaphors etc.


I think for the narrative, you need to have several ideas prepared that you can adapt around the question. A description could be easier, dependant on the thing you are describing.
Original post by the_nshoesmith
I think for the narrative, you need to have several ideas prepared that you can adapt around the question. A description could be easier, dependant on the thing you are describing.


yeah ... i know this may sound stupid but any predictions for the image that's going to be used :biggrin:
Hopefully it's something dark and gloomy those descriptions always better than happy ones in my opinion. i.e like a haunted house.
Original post by mem123
yeah ... i know this may sound stupid but any predictions for the image that's going to be used :biggrin:
Hopefully it's something dark and gloomy those descriptions always better than happy ones in my opinion. i.e like a haunted house.


Not necessarily going to be the topic of a picture, but just saying that almost all of the Language specimens have had a very strong focus on the weather....
Reply 14
Original post by the_nshoesmith
Welcome To The AQA 9-1 English Language Thread 2017!

As we are the first cohort to take the 9-1 GCSE, there is limited information available about many things at the moment. However, AQA has produced various specimen papers, significantly more than they did for English Literature.

Ideas for this thread;

How are you feeling about this exam?

How are you revising?

And after the exam, how did it go?




For Specimen Papers, see below;

Spoiler




The links to the specimen papers dont work, help!
I use Mrbruff on youtube he goes through each question in each paper and tells you how to answer the question.Its helpful for some people.
Original post by Hiwak99
The links to the specimen papers dont work, help!


For some reason, they weren't attaching properly. I've added a new link in the original post.
Hope this works!
Original post by the_nshoesmith
Before sitting the exam, here's my estimates;

1 - 13
2 - 24
3 - 39
4 - 66
5 - 82
6 - 102
7 - 121
8 - 139
9 - 148

Thoughts?


Agree with the 9, definitely going to be 90s%
But for 7/8 our teacher told us will be equivalent to low/high A respectively.
Is that what you've heard, or something different?
If they are low/high A, I would have thought maybe;
7 - 112 (70%)
8 - 128 (80%)
Because in previous years (+/- a few %)
A - 70%
A* - 80%
But if I've been misinformed by my teacher, my guess is probably too low...
I'm not the greatest at English, and in my predicted grades I got A/A* (got 127 in my mock) so I don't even know what number that corresponds to!
Original post by Katiee01
Agree with the 9, definitely going to be 90s%
But for 7/8 our teacher told us will be equivalent to low/high A respectively.
Is that what you've heard, or something different?
If they are low/high A, I would have thought maybe;
7 - 112 (70%)
8 - 128 (80%)
Because in previous years (+/- a few %)
A - 70%
A* - 80%
But if I've been misinformed by my teacher, my guess is probably too low...
I'm not the greatest at English, and in my predicted grades I got A/A* (got 127 in my mock) so I don't even know what number that corresponds to!


127 should be at least a 7, which is roughly equivalent to an A - I'm not sure 127 would be an 8, but can't really guess that until after the exam.
I'm personally fairly nervous- despite not doing too badly in my exams. Out of the mocks I have done, my scores were as follows:

First Mocks:
Paper 1: 66 marks
Paper 2: 67 marks
Total: 133 marks

Second Mocks:
Paper 1: 63 marks
Paper 2: 70 marks
Total: 133 marks

Third Mocks:
Paper 1: 77 marks
Paper 2: 71 marks
Total: 148 marks

I think I'll be looking at 7 - 8 in my grades...