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AQA GCSE Poetry Notes

4

Hey, I've been looking through the notes of the AQA Poetry that xxbeckykinsxx posted up in this thread http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?t=555744

I've gone through notes on Bitesize, Universal Teacher & Revision World. Those notes produced in the thread (posted above) were extremely useful, has anyone got any notes on these poems they could help me with? I'm studying 18 poems, got my mocks in a couple of months and need as much information as possible (my aim is to get an A-A*)

CAROL ANN DUFFY:
Stealing
Salome
Education For Leisure
Havisham
Anne Hathaway
Before You Were Mine

ARMITAGE
My Father
November
Hitcher
Homecoming

PRE 1914
The Man He Killed
The Song Of The Old Mother
On My First Sonne
The Laboratory
Sonnet 130
My Last Duchess

Also, any advice or tips on helping to get A/A* is very much appreciated
I appreciate any help, thanks

Reply 1

Wat:Shark:Where

2

make theme comparisons, like realize what theme every poem is coming from then in an exam that's one important way to draw comparisons/differences. Try themes of Power (the eagle, education for leisure) and loss parent child/relationahips (The song of the old mother, on my first sonne) etc

Reply 2

Whatever210

OP

4

Thanks, I havent done any comparisons yet, I wanna analyse the poems in depth as much as I can and then make relations, I mainly need help with notes on the poems individually. Thanks for helping

Reply 3

lilangel890

15

One main tip - when you compare the poems entwine them together for instance bo dont do this:

The person in 'Education for leisure' is an example of a narcissist. They obviously get pleasure in killing....blah....blah....*Makes 2 more points about different thing such as first person tone speaks direct to audience...*

Where as 'Homecoming' presents a nicer, warm person ...

etc. You need to write a few sentences on one point in the poem and then write a few on the same/polar opposite point in the other poems.

Oh and one tip, look at past exam papers and feel the love of our hard paper :P

Reply 4

Whatever210

OP

4

^ Thanks. I've seen a couple of questions, it doesnt seem that difficult as long as you study the poems inside out which I'm making notes on now.

Reply 5

skatealexia

14

When I did this paper, I basically like did a practice question or two beforehand, choosing different poems each time, then you can normally make the links, because you tend to remember the notes more, so I'd say, do some practice questions.

Reply 6

Jooeee

2

Personally, we just did a lot of timed essays in class, so we got used to the time in which we would have to write it all. You can't just write all the notes about the poem in the time, unless you're superhuman. Our teacher constantly told us to never just use all notes from sites (as a lot of students will do the same) and instead try and form your own opinions on the poem but also more importantly give your own conceptual overview. Make sure you also structure your essay's well. We were also told to make sure our starting and ending was always good and try and make it a bit different from what other people will do i.e put embedded quotes in from the poem etc.

I think practice makes perfect with english lit. I was good at the poems because we did so many essays on them, and consistently got A* and my teacher (who also marked exams) said most of my answers were close to full marks. But then i could never be arsed with learning quotes from the text, and my coursework was a B (again because i couldn't be bothered at home lol). I got an A overall, but a lot of people in my class got A*'s so the stuff are teaching was telling us must of worked. *If only i'd done more revision...*

/random babbling

Reply 7

Whatever210

OP

4

Jooeee

Personally, we just did a lot of timed essays in class, so we got used to the time in which we would have to write it all. You can't just write all the notes about the poem in the time, unless you're superhuman. Our teacher constantly told us to never just use all notes from sites (as a lot of students will do the same) and instead try and form your own opinions on the poem but also more importantly give your own conceptual overview. Make sure you also structure your essay's well. We were also told to make sure our starting and ending was always good and try and make it a bit different from what other people will do i.e put embedded quotes in from the poem etc.

I think practice makes perfect with english lit. I was good at the poems because we did so many essays on them, and consistently got A* and my teacher (who also marked exams) said most of my answers were close to full marks. But then i could never be arsed with learning quotes from the text, and my coursework was a B (again because i couldn't be bothered at home lol). I got an A overall, but a lot of people in my class got A*'s so the stuff are teaching was telling us must of worked. *If only i'd done more revision...*

/random babbling

Thanks a lot for the advice. I was thinking about making my own points on the poem and all, but also do need a little help. I plan to analyse the poems fully first, make connections and then write essays till my mocks come. I'm going to try to do an essay each day as you said to get what grade I want. Do you remember the structure? I was planning it a few days ago, but didnt wanna jump ahead because I hadnt finished analysing.

Thanks to everybody who helped me

Reply 8

lilangel890

15

One more tip, this site is a legend for lit and lang poetry: http://www.teachit.co.uk/armoore/anthology/aqaanthology.htm

Look at their ideas and build your own around them.

IMO the best thing is to try and make about 4 solid point in the lit exams and expand around them. Eg the 'sad' tone of the poem which the audience feel...etc...Also the use of 'B' aliteration carries out this task.

Link together ideas and quote - lots!

Reply 9

definite_maybe

4

Wow, you are so much more organised than me. I did my English work in a folder instead of exercise books during the years, ended up losing half my sheets, and started making notes from scratch on the poems two days before my exam.

Anyway,when making notes on poetry try to use some original ideas too, and get a full understanding of why the poems was written, get some historical context especially for the pre-1914 poems. Also, when practising try to keep an eye on the time, and give each poem enough analysis. We were always told to plan out our poems in the following way:

1. Introduction
2. Context and content of poems
3. Language analysis
4. Tone
5. Structure
6. Conclusion

Similar themes come up in exam papers, so I would go over them, and rather than perhaps writing a practise essay for each, which could be quite time-consuming, perhaps make a spider diagram creating links between the poems in regards to language, structure and so on. Try to use terms such as sibilance, and so on, and be able to pick them out from a text rather than having to learn where the techniques can be found in each poem.

I always preferred the pre-1914 poems even thoguh they were slightly harder to understand, because I found them easier to analyse and add context to. Anyway, good luck with your notes.

Reply 10

lightupthesky

10

Whatever210

Hey, I've been looking through the notes of the AQA Poetry that xxbeckykinsxx posted up in this thread http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?t=555744

I've gone through notes on Bitesize, Universal Teacher & Revision World. Those notes produced in the thread (posted above) were extremely useful, has anyone got any notes on these poems they could help me with? I'm studying 18 poems, got my mocks in a couple of months and need as much information as possible (my aim is to get an A-A*)

CAROL ANN DUFFY:
Stealing
Salome
Education For Leisure
Havisham
Anne Hathaway
Before You Were Mine

ARMITAGE
My Father
November
Hitcher
Homecoming

PRE 1914
The Man He Killed
The Song Of The Old Mother
On My First Sonne
The Laboratory
Sonnet 130
My Last Duchess

Also, any advice or tips on helping to get A/A* is very much appreciated
I appreciate any help, thanks

i have notes on these poems, just pm me :smile:

Reply 11

BellaBoo

11

I got an A* in English Language and English Lit GCSE and i was doing the same spec as u r i think. I had to do Heany and Clarke though instead of Duffy and Armitage. Advice would just be to do as many practice exam questions as u can as i feel as though that was the most effective form of revision for me. Get your teacher to mark them for u so that u can see if there are any improvements u need 2 make.

Reply 12

madzi1993

i need help toooooo!! my exam is on monday 18th...3 days!! :frown:

heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeellllppp...hardly dun any revision for english..im going to die!!

Reply 13

Lol_Fish

12

Hey (: Thank yu so much <3 I love you loads and loads lmao! XD I hope you got a wicked grade, your notes have really helped my revision a lot! You say your not a A/A* *******S! lmao :biggrin:

if you can explain the points you've come up with properly and detailed you can even get full marks (-: luckily I started revsing today xd 11 weeks before my paper 1 *sulk* kthxbai !

Reply 14

Hdizzle

9

I have a website that's really helpful for your the poems by Duffy and Armitage
Duffy gives her own analysis of her poems which is really interesting to look at especially Stealing because it gave me a whole new perspective of that poem :smile:

http://www.sheerpoetry.co.uk/gcse/carol-ann-duffy/gcse-anthology-poems/stealing

Reply 15

Bachratiger

My english teacher has been an examiner for several years, so she was able to give us lots of inside information. If you are already at a fairly high level and are confident with the style of your essays, then all you really need to push you up to an A/ A* level is to offer alternative interpretations, and also analyse each quote that you say fully- you dont need to say all of them, but you should be able to get 3/4 comments from one quote apparently.
She also said that best way to prepare for the literature exam at least is to do loads of essay plans. I think this is a better alternative to just doing loads and loads of practise essays. In the end, its baisically the same because you have all the points you are going to write about, and i definately cant face practising writing for 1 hour over and over before the exam itself :colondollar:

Hope that helps

AQA GCSE Poetry Notes

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