OCR English Literature - 20/5

So how did everyone find the paper today and what questions did you answer?

i did death of a salesman and did the extract question: i thought it was quite a good extract and there was a fiar bit to say about tempo, stagecraft, conflict, etc. i did forget the really good point i had learnt for this extract until it was too late: the power shift as biff (who had always been the weaker brother in the present) overturned his father and linda stepped out of her shadow, etc. In general, i thought this question went quite well.

The poetry, i was doing the Touched with Fire anthology and did the first question about the African poems and past and present. I think didn't focus enough on the past and present bit as that was mentioned in the question and too much on the African identity,

For the prose i ws doing Hemingway's Old man and the sea. i did the third question where we could pick any two passages and discuss how they are made exciting and dramatic. i was getting quite tired and fed up by this stage so i don't think i wrote the best answer here. the extract question for omats was only two paragraphs long which was quite a suprise.

it is really quite hard to tell how you did in an exam like this i think. i think i wrote too much for the poetry question (5 pages). Do you think the examiner will mark me down for this?

thanks for your help. so how did you find it?

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Reply 1

Mr Nonsense

anyone else do ocr? it seems that aqa english lit is by far the most popular....

Reply 2

Horizontal 8

I did OCR and Failed :p:

Reply 3

Horizontal 8

By the way, do you actually think there's any chance the examiner will mark you down for writing too much? He/she might mark you down for writing too much irrelevant stuff...

I probably wrote 5 pages altogether (all 3 questions) lol :p:

Reply 4

buta

finished it hour ago
didn't write much for Much Ado though...can't think of any
and did Northanger Abbet for prose which was ok but well, i really don't know how bad i did until results came...

Reply 5

Horizontal 8

I'll be sooooo happy with a B ... Oh God please help me! :p:

I did Opening Worlds, Opening Lines and Journey's End

Reply 6

mikoe

I think I did quite well on the death of salesman question (I did the one about 'sympathy for Willy'..
I don't think I did so well on the poetry ('how it looks for here' poems) or the Things Fall Apart :frown:

Horizontal B, what do you mean wrote 5 pages for three questions? For D of S there was a 4 page sheet (I filled this - no extra sheets) and an 8 page answer booklet for poems and things fall apart (I did 7.5) so 11.5 overall :|

Reply 7

DreamGirlx

I do OCR, and yeah it seems like EVERYONE here does AQA! And yes OP I did the extract quessie too :smile:

but that was because I didn't revise death of a salesman too much, but tbh it was fine because I agree there was lots to write about it! I wrote about linda changing too, and biffs kind of emotional tumoil and the audiences satisfaction in Happy getting his come'uppence (if you get me lol) like linda telling him off! That sound okay you think?

I did the extract question for all of them, i'm just glad they are over! I was so bored after the first exam, I had like no motivation at all, yawnnn!

Reply 8

Top Lad

English lit is so boring !

I did opening lines, journeyys end and 1984. The first two were fine but my last question was embarrasing to read! when i proof read it.

Reply 9

Horizontal 8

mikoe

Well I got 45 min for each question, I wrote about a page and a half for each :s-smilie:

So maybe even less than 5 pages. I screwed it up really badly :p:

Reply 10

tomster

I did opening worlds + the WWI poems, hoping for that B.

Reply 11

danhirons

I did the exam today.

Did 1984 and the poems opening lines. I thought it wasn't a bad paper - the poems were fairly easy and the questions on 1984 weren't bad either!

Reply 12

cookiemonster101

Romeo and Juliet, pre-1914 war poetry, Far From the Madding Crowd - did the extract questions for all of them, anyone with me??

Reply 13

willowtree

sat "touched with fire" post 1914 poetry, and OCR short stories.

Tall woman and her short husband + The train from Rhodesia = Win.

"mid-term break" + nursery rhyme of innocence and experience = fail. completely. what was I thinking.

Reply 14

Mr Nonsense

i am just so glad it is over and hope, hope that i have done enough to get my A*......

I did the Journey's End question on the relationship between Osborne and Raleigh and wrote the same thing (that they had a father/son bond due to age/experiance etc) about 3000000 times, and managed to fill up 3 1/2 pages. not good.

Opening Lines war poetry wasn't so bad - i did father/son thing again (running theme!) on The Parable of the Old Man and the Young, and the Seed-Merchant's son. 4 pages, but at least one page was purely about the historical content (i basically elaborated of the "the truth was, in 1914, Germany doesn't want war..." quote from the History Boys - whoever said movies aren't educational!), which I don't think i'll get many marks for.

Opening Worlds, I did question...15, i think, about 'unkindness' in Two Kinds and The Tall Woman and Her Short Husband.

I *think* I got a B, max, but I got a high A* on coursework, which might just push it up...hopefully...lol

Reply 17

tomster

All the extract question basically askedwas to talk about poverty and the contrasts that come with it; and that is all my english class has been concentrated on!

Reply 18

cookiemonster101

willowtree

We didn't study the tall woman and her short husband - and for that I am grateful, because I read it after I'd finished my papers in the mock (exam boredom) and I burst into hysterical tears. That story really did something to me - oh no, I've been profoundly affected by something from "Opening Worlds"...

Reply 19

don'twakemeup

ccfc1987

I did question 6 where you could choose to compare two poems (Opening Lines) about how they use striking language to convey loss (The Target and Lamentations), and then from the OCR 'Opeinging Worlds' I did question 13 where you had to say how the authors of the two stories (Pieces of Silver and the Young Couple) memorable describe their homes and the characters.

I also did the pieces of silver and young couple one I found that one flowed well but the poems not so good. I did in flanders fields and spring offensive because i thought i could write loads about natural death imagery. Only worked for a small bit eugh.

DID ANYONE DO WHOSE LIFE IS IT ANYWAY? if so which question did you pick?