Polish A Level

Guys i need help im doing polish a level AQA and i haven't started revising im doing Tango by slawomir mrozek and Katyn as the film and my research project is on communism can nayone help me find revision reasources and give tips on anything will be helpful. PS im trying to self teach because i did it for GCSE and i found it easier with the text book i found on ebay :frown:

Reply 1

TSR Jessica

Sorry you've not had any responses about this. :frown:

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Here's a link to our subject forum which should help get you more responses if you post there. :redface:

Reply 2

julla

Original post

by july1788

Hey, I did A-Level Polish last summer in Year 12 and I managed to get an A*, doing the same IRP and the same film and book as you. For the IRP I really recommend Życie w PRL by Iwona Kienzler. What I did was read some of the key parts of the book — the chapters on the impact of PRL on daily life, for example the restrictions on alcohol and tobacco trade, and how those restrictions didn’t actually help fight alcoholism but instead made the situation worse. I also focused on education, access to resources like cars, food, and basic products (reglamentacja). It’s all described really well in the book, so if you read it you’ll easily notice the most important information I’m listing. I also talked about how the Church opposed communism, mainly mentioning Jan Paweł II and Father Jerzy Popiełuszko — his activism, his role in supporting Solidarność, the protests, and the impact of his death.

I also learned some key facts about Solidarność and the main figures — for example Anna Walentynowicz, the important dates of the protests, the date of establishing Solidarność, what they did to protest against the restrictions of PRL, and how the regime tried to eliminate the movement. I also included activists like Jerzy Borowczak, Bogdan Felski and Ludwik Prądzyński. I learned the basic information about the leaders at the time (Bierut, Gomułka, Gierek) — not too much, just enough to know what I was talking about.

I made three mind maps from the key information I extracted from the book (like I said, not every chapter is relevant to the bullet points in the A-Level, so choose carefully). I made one mind map per bullet point and I just read them until I could recall most of it easily (for example: increasing alcohol prices and restricting its sale meant people started using denaturat, which was more dangerous; or that only a certain amount of meat was allowed per person per month — but like I said, it’s all in the book).

On top of that, I kept writing essays, which become really easy once you remember some key facts, dates and names like the ones I mentioned above.

Also remember that even if the question is about only one of the bullet points, you still have to incorporate all three. You will get a text to summarise, and that text will most likely be about the bullet point in the question (e.g. Solidarność), but you still have to mention oddziaływanie Kościoła and życie codzienne w PRL in your essay. I recommend doing three paragraphs: one with the summarised source given in the exam (plus anything else relevant), and two others based entirely on your own knowledge covering the remaining bullet points. You can almost use the same introduction every time if you craft it well, but you’ll need to adapt the last sentence so that it answers the specific question — otherwise you’ll be marked down.

For the film and the book, I recommend the study guides from Czytam i Mówię po Polsku, because they are really good for analysing both the film and the novel, and each one costs only about £15. Make sure you read Tango once or twice and focus on the descriptions of the disordered room, the katafalk, the wózek dziecięcy, the character descriptions, and a few key quotes that highlight the theme of anarchy. For Katyń, watch it a few times and keep in mind the key scenes and topics. Remember that it focuses more on the women’s stories than on the crime of Katyń itself, but like I said, the guides explain everything quite well.

I hope I wrote this in a fairly understandable way and I hope its not confusing, and not too long to finish :smile:

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