Why do they make u learn quotes for English exams instead of letting u have the text?

user01906002

Why do they make you learn quotes for English? Why are you not allowed to have the text? Is there a skill they're trying to assess from this? I know they're trying to assess your ability to find key moments in the text but I'm about to sit my GCSEs and really don't see the benefit of spending so much time learning quotes and textual references when u could just look at the text. It's not as if you have time in the exam to go through the whole text before u start writing is it? I'm pretty sure they used to let u have the text as well and I can't see a reason as to why they changed it and what the benefit is? Just a genuine question I can't really find an explicit answer for so if anyone does know and could tell me it would be appreciated

Reply 1

minwom28818

I know A-level English lit (at least sometimes) gets to have the physical text in the exams. I think the reason why they don't allow this at GCSE, is because most of the cohort in the country take englishlit gcse, so it would probably be too expensive for each student to have another book for each study. But this is just a speculation.