The Student Room Group

AQA GCSE English lang + lit structures

Does anyone know any good structures to achieve 8+ in English I study Romeo and Juliet a Christmas carol and an inspector calls. I am currently achieving a grade7 in both lang and lit but I felt like I wrote so much for the literature exam but I guess it’s more about quality over quantity. Anyway I wanted to know what the best structures you recommend to use to make my points and overall essay as clear as possible. And for E.lang how would you structure each question on paper 1 and 2 I study aqa exam board by the way and find that English language is so much harder! Thanks for any help :smile:
Reply 1
Original post by checkered-almond
Does anyone know any good structures to achieve 8+ in English I study Romeo and Juliet a Christmas carol and an inspector calls. I am currently achieving a grade7 in both lang and lit but I felt like I wrote so much for the literature exam but I guess it’s more about quality over quantity. Anyway I wanted to know what the best structures you recommend to use to make my points and overall essay as clear as possible. And for E.lang how would you structure each question on paper 1 and 2 I study aqa exam board by the way and find that English language is so much harder! Thanks for any help :smile:

Firstly, for a grade 8+ in lit u dont want to just be CLEAR, u need to be thoughtful and perceptive too. I got an 8 in my lit exam (4 marks off a 9). I started off using PEARCL (point, evidence, analysis, reader's response, context, link), but later i learned that the structure was kinda holding me back cos it was too restrictive. if u wanna write well, u need ur essay to flow and its easier to do that if u write freely. e.g. say i just gave some rlly good analysis and it links soo well to some context, dont force urself to fit in some reader's response first, u can skip it, and add it in later where it fits. of course, make sure u dont forget anything from the structure - the last thing u want is to forget to write ur context in the exam.
Thats just my personal opinion. Hope this helpss!!
Original post by checkered-almond
Does anyone know any good structures to achieve 8+ in English I study Romeo and Juliet a Christmas carol and an inspector calls. I am currently achieving a grade7 in both lang and lit but I felt like I wrote so much for the literature exam but I guess it’s more about quality over quantity. Anyway I wanted to know what the best structures you recommend to use to make my points and overall essay as clear as possible. And for E.lang how would you structure each question on paper 1 and 2 I study aqa exam board by the way and find that English language is so much harder! Thanks for any help :smile:

Hi, I'm in Y9 (1 week before I begin Y9- in the summer holidays) and super worried about my GCSEs. But it would be great if you could clarify what exactly is the difference between english language and literature? What comes up in these papers? Also, how many questions are there in each and what are they (like an example from each paper) of these papers.
Which paper is generally the harder one (language or literature).
Original post by LIFEchoicesHelp
Hi, I'm in Y9 (1 week before I begin Y9- in the summer holidays) and super worried about my GCSEs. But it would be great if you could clarify what exactly is the difference between english language and literature? What comes up in these papers? Also, how many questions are there in each and what are they (like an example from each paper) of these papers.
Which paper is generally the harder one (language or literature).

For me I personally find lit harder than lang often teachers say that boys typically find lang easier and girls find lit easier (I don’t fully agree) but for lang one can’t exactly revise it but for lit you can revise it as you get taught 3 books and 15 poems and can memorise quotes easier. As for lang you are expected to use your own brain to solve the questions as they are marked on how perceptive you answer is according to the text and you have no idea what the text will be hence why it is more of a subject that is difficult to revise for.as for the questions it depends on the exam board mine being aqa means two papers for lang and lit if you look on exam board past papers you can see what they actually look at. But since your in y9 you have nothing to worry about we were never taught anything about lang or lit this early on once you get to y10 you will understand more one tip I would give though is too read more I regret not reading because I really don’t enjoy it but it will really help for language writing and reading papers! Hope this helps ( sorry it’s a lot)
Original post by checkered-almond
For me I personally find lit harder than lang often teachers say that boys typically find lang easier and girls find lit easier (I don’t fully agree) but for lang one can’t exactly revise it but for lit you can revise it as you get taught 3 books and 15 poems and can memorise quotes easier. As for lang you are expected to use your own brain to solve the questions as they are marked on how perceptive you answer is according to the text and you have no idea what the text will be hence why it is more of a subject that is difficult to revise for.as for the questions it depends on the exam board mine being aqa means two papers for lang and lit if you look on exam board past papers you can see what they actually look at. But since your in y9 you have nothing to worry about we were never taught anything about lang or lit this early on once you get to y10 you will understand more one tip I would give though is too read more I regret not reading because I really don’t enjoy it but it will really help for language writing and reading papers! Hope this helps ( sorry it’s a lot)

Thank you so much :smile:
Reply 5
Original post by checkered-almond
Does anyone know any good structures to achieve 8+ in English I study Romeo and Juliet a Christmas carol and an inspector calls. I am currently achieving a grade7 in both lang and lit but I felt like I wrote so much for the literature exam but I guess it’s more about quality over quantity. Anyway I wanted to know what the best structures you recommend to use to make my points and overall essay as clear as possible. And for E.lang how would you structure each question on paper 1 and 2 I study aqa exam board by the way and find that English language is so much harder! Thanks for any help :smile:

Hi, I do GCSE AQA English literature and have a christmas carol exam. This is the question, and the extract is from the very opening of Stave 1 when we first meet Scrooge. It's "Oh! But he was a tight-fisted hand at the grindstone, Scrooge! a squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous, old sinner! Hard and sharp as flint, from which no steel had ever struck out generous fire; secret, and self-contained, and solitary as an oyster. The cold within him froze his old features, nipped his pointed nose, shrivelled his cheek, stiffened his gait; made his eyes red, his thin lips blue; and spoke out shrewdly in his grating voice. A frosty rime was on his head, and on his eyebrows, and his wiry chin. He carried his own low temperature always about with him; he iced his office in the dog- days; and didn’t thaw it one degree at Christmas. External heat and cold had little influence on Scrooge. No warmth could warm, no wintry weather chill him. No wind that blew was bitterer than he, no falling snow was more intent upon its purpose, no pelting rain less open to entreaty. Foul weather didn’t know where to have him. The heaviest rain, and snow, and hail, and sleet, could boast of the advantage over him in only one respect. They often “came down” handsomely, and Scrooge never did. Nobody ever stopped him in the street to say, with gladsome looks, “My dear Scrooge, how are you? When will you come to see me?” No beggars implored him to bestow a trifle, no children asked him what it was o’clock, no man or woman ever once in all his life inquired the way to such and such a place, of Scrooge. Even the blind men’s dogs appeared to know him; and when they saw him coming on, would tug their owners into doorways and up courts; and then would wag their tails as though they said, “No eye at all is better than an evil eye, dark master!” Starting with this extract, to what extent does Dickens present Scrooge as a mean character. (30 marks). Pls tell me which quotations are good to use from this extract and from the novella to show Scrooge is mean, and any grade 9 ideas as well please. This is my first gcse assessment, so i have never done this. Also my class has only read stave 1 and stave 2 till now, so the elsewhere bit can't come outside those 2 staves.

Quick Reply