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AQA English language paper 1 - HELP I MESSED UP

Ok so I screwed it up and I’m so frustrated with myself. Whilst English definitely isn’t my best subject, I’m still fairly decent at it and I can write top band answers. However, it’s the timings that are the real problem. I’ve always really struggled with time management (I already get 25% extra time) and it’s most apparent in my English papers - I honestly don’t think I’ve ever fully finished all of the questions in timed conditions. However, normally I at least manage to write a substantial partial answer (Q5) that can get SOME marks, even if it’s short and rushed and generally just mediocre.

But no, not this time… I spent way too long on question 2, which I was literally aware of at the time, yet I still JUST COULDN’T move on, no matter how much I tried. By the time I’d got to question 4, I only had 40 minutes left to do both remaining questions. I rushed through question 4, and what I did write was quite good but I couldn’t fully finish my point because I only had 10 minutes and I hadn’t started question 5 so I had to move on. I decided to do the description because I knew there was no time for the story. I was panicking so much because Q5 is worth 40 MARKS and I had NOTHING. In the end I only managed to write a very short paragraph. Like, only 3 sentences. I squeezed in some language features (imagery, similes, alliteration, tricolon), and it was relevant to the question, but I honestly don’t know how many marks that could scrape considering that I only wrote 5 lines. It’s just so annoying, because I know what I would have written and I would have done ok on the question.

I’m hoping to get a 7 in English language but now I’m really worried because I know that I’ve almost definitely lost A LOT of marks (I’m not sure how many: Q1,2&3 were very strong, Q4 was quite good but rushed, and I have no clue what my Q5 will get) and I don’t know if I can make up for it. I know I’m better at paper 2, which is relieving, but I don’t know how much better I need to do in that to fix this. Is it still possible to redeem myself? If so, HOW? HELP ME PLEASE!
Original post by A bit of a mess
Ok so I screwed it up and I’m so frustrated with myself. Whilst English definitely isn’t my best subject, I’m still fairly decent at it and I can write top band answers. However, it’s the timings that are the real problem. I’ve always really struggled with time management (I already get 25% extra time) and it’s most apparent in my English papers - I honestly don’t think I’ve ever fully finished all of the questions in timed conditions. However, normally I at least manage to write a substantial partial answer (Q5) that can get SOME marks, even if it’s short and rushed and generally just mediocre.

But no, not this time… I spent way too long on question 2, which I was literally aware of at the time, yet I still JUST COULDN’T move on, no matter how much I tried. By the time I’d got to question 4, I only had 40 minutes left to do both remaining questions. I rushed through question 4, and what I did write was quite good but I couldn’t fully finish my point because I only had 10 minutes and I hadn’t started question 5 so I had to move on. I decided to do the description because I knew there was no time for the story. I was panicking so much because Q5 is worth 40 MARKS and I had NOTHING. In the end I only managed to write a very short paragraph. Like, only 3 sentences. I squeezed in some language features (imagery, similes, alliteration, tricolon), and it was relevant to the question, but I honestly don’t know how many marks that could scrape considering that I only wrote 5 lines. It’s just so annoying, because I know what I would have written and I would have done ok on the question.

I’m hoping to get a 7 in English language but now I’m really worried because I know that I’ve almost definitely lost A LOT of marks (I’m not sure how many: Q1,2&3 were very strong, Q4 was quite good but rushed, and I have no clue what my Q5 will get) and I don’t know if I can make up for it. I know I’m better at paper 2, which is relieving, but I don’t know how much better I need to do in that to fix this. Is it still possible to redeem myself? If so, HOW? HELP ME PLEASE!


there's nothing you can do now to fix this paper, take a moment and deep breath in then move on. focus on paper 2 and your other exams. chances are youve done better than you think and other people are most certainly in the same boat time management for english is quite tricky. practice some papers in timed conditions but give yourself less time than youd get in an exam so if you dont finish in that time then you know in the real thing you'll have a bit more leeway

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