Having just marked 60 or so mock literature papers it is clear that many of the skills required for the exam are secure but a real gain can be made in the fluency of the essays and the language used to express the ideas.
It is a bit like having this as an idea but only producing it like this . Both are fine in their merits but we always want to produce something that is a bit more sophisticated as we progress through the years.
One thing......
The Dreaded Question 4 - Top band answers
As one of my students put it in their exam comic, they got to question 4 in the January paper and were like :o the stared at it for a minute and were like :/ and after 20 minutes of trying to answer the question were ready to :'( .
There is no simple answer to hitting the very top band within this question. If you've read my deconstruction of the examiner's report, you'll find this statement:
Q4 - 'Those who attained marks in Band 3 or Band 4 of the mark
scheme, were able to make appropriate selections of words and phrases
from the chosen source texts, analyse how these were effective and......
6 Steps to top level thinking or 'What the author meant / what your English Teacher thought they meant.'
We talk in every lesson of the skills needed to successfully tackle an English Literature question. These skills don't change whether you are looking at a poem, a novel, a short story or a play and should be the mental ticklist as you construct any main body of an essay or response.
You are taught early on in Years 7 and 8 to PQE as your framework but you now need to look to strengthen and develop those skills.
A simple paragraph such as:
Shakespeare......
Poetry Unit 2 - The basics of the exam
So you have a poetry exam and you're ready to . You look at the poem and all you see is and you're feeling the exam is going like
The opening of this blog may seem strange and a bit unfamiliar to you but you have the tools to decipher the main idea. This is the same with the poetry exam. You have a short period of time to write in so every second counts. You can be prepared on every poem but still be stumped if your skills aren't honed and......
Revision Videos Unit 1 Literature - Sunlight on the Grass
There are some great resources kicking around the internet to help you with your revision. This posting is aiming to collate some of these to allow you to have all your resources in the one place.
Remember -'Visible Revision' is key here. The more you write about and gain feedback about these stories the better you will become in performing under exam pressures.
I will post a range of questions at the end. Post your answers in the comments sections and I can feedback to you.
First of all - here are a collection of excellent revision videos on each of the stories put together by some people......
Visible Revision Part 1 - Examiner's Report and Advice
After each exam the examiner produces a report that outlines the strengths and weaknesses of the candidates for each question.
By now you should have had, or can ask for, the mark you got for each question. This should highlight your strengths and weaknesses. I've colour coded everyone's marks so that if you got more than 60% of the marks of the question you are green, 60% amber and less than 60% red.
You should now be planning your marginal gains.
E.g.
Q1 - 4 marks
Q2 - 8 marks
Q3 - 6 Marks
Q4 8 marks
Q5 Creativity 8
Accuracy 4
Q6 Creativity 10
......
Frustration of Exam Results - Visible Revision Works
It has been as frustrating for your teachers as it has from you not knowing the grades of your results but we all can soldier on and show exam boards, regulators and government just what you are capable of.
Looking at the mark scores of each student and comparing it with the information I had from the revision survey, one thing is clear: those who revised on average did better than those who didn't and those who did 'visible revision' (copyright Milne2013) did better than those who did 'invisible revision'.
Let me explain what I mean by visible and invisible revision. Visible revision is something......
