Different Book AQA English Literature

Hi! I was wondering if I could do a different book in the exam to the one we’ve been doing in lessons or would I gain no marks?
I have been revising Frankenstein when my school does A Christmas Carol and I feel WAY more confident with Frankenstein as it is my favourite novel. I have asked my English teacher if I can do Frankenstein in my exam and he said I technically can as it is in the question booklet.
Does anyone know whether or not the exam board gives out the exams to markers based on the what the school does or are they dished out randomly and all the markers know every book? This is the major thing I am worried about as if they give them based on what the school does, the marker may not know Frankenstein and give me 0 marks.

If your examiner doesn't know anything about Frankenstein, then they'll send your script to someone who does! I love Frankenstein too, shame we don't do it at GCSE . Cool fact: I actually live in the town where Mary Shelley is buried! They have a wetherspoons right next to the church she's buried at called the Mary Shelley! Pretty cool!

thank you, that helps sm! and that is so cool omg!!

No problem!! I thought Frankenstein was a great novel, although I read it in Y8 (In Y11 now) at surface level, so didn't really pick up on any of the deeper ideas that I'm sure you know about, but one of my favourite moments in literature is when Frankenstein's 'monster' spends lots of time in that shed and learns how to read (I think that's what he learns, not sure though I haven't read it in for years) and gives them firewood, and when he goes to talk to them, he is treated so badly it made me cry . Definitely a classic for good reason! Gave me lots of food for thought as to who the real villain in the novel was!

omg same i love that part sm!! i don’t understand how people can find the creature to be the villain tbh. like sure, he killed a few people but it was society’s prejudice and victor’s rejection that turned him to do that. like he was born with innocence and society just showed him hate and anger, so he learnt from that! the fact that he was all alone most of his life (except from the parts full of hatred with victor and other humans) just makes me sad lol.
im also in y11, how did you find the biology paper today (if you do AQA)? i found it pretty hard tbh. 😭

I found it really really easy!! To be fair though, I'm not sure how but I literally soaked up all the information from a 25 minute video that I watched on the whole of paper 1 and only misremembered 2 details (CHD - caused by blockages to arteries - not veins!! and got transpiration and translocation mixed up ) The cake question was awful (seriously going to have PTSD every time I go to a birthday party 😭🙏), but other than that though I think I got about 85%!!

ooo thats good! the cake question was HORRIBLE!! i think i got around 40-50 which would approximately be a grade 4-5 i’d imagine? which i’d be happy with tbh!
congrats on getting so high!!

I think 40-50 would be 5-6, actually. Grade 9 is usually mid 60s, so I think 50 would definitely be enough for a seven, so just below that is 5-6 range. If you're proud of yourself and you know you've done your best then that's all that anyone can ask for! Well done!

oh really? thats good then! i was thinking you had to get like 80-90 percent for a grade 9 😭

No haha the grade boundaries for bio are always quite low. I think at GCSE, 80-90% is enough to get a 9 in pretty much any subject! Last year, a 9 was 66% (across both papers). Definitely possible if you put the work in!

oh thats a relief then! i thought i wasnt gonna pass tbh 😭 however i’ve heard that the grade boundaries are going up this year, it might js be a rumour though idk

Don't believe those rumours because literally no one has a clue what's going to happen with the grade boundaries as everyone is graded on a curve. To have an accurate idea of what's going on with the grade boundaries this year they'd have to know how everyone who sat the exam on Friday did, which is pretty much impossible. We can always estimate, but no one knows for sure. My own estimates have been solely based off of people on here, in my school (which is a grammar school so pretty much everyone said they did well) and reddit. As someone said in the exam chat, there are always going to be people who don't care about their GCSEs and get Us who lower the grade boundaries for us, so don't stress! And, as a last resort, there's always paper 2!