English Advanced Question Thread

[aoife98]

Two of my module texts are new so there aren't many past papers. Does anyone have a bank of practice questions for Mod B T.S Eliot poems and Mod C People & Politics for The Crucible?

[Stefan K]

Guys, is it a good idea to memorise by writing essays? or just quotes, technique and explanation for each text?

[lozil]

Hi, for mod A (metropolis/1984) (or really any module/text to which it applies), what's the likelihood they could ask about gender? Because I'd have to completely change my current essay to answer something like that... (which i obviously can't do if i havent prepared for it)

[Emerald99]

Guys, is it a good idea to memorise by writing essays? or just quotes, technique and explanation for each text?

I think you should memorise the quotes+techniques+explanation definitely but i don't think you should do whole essays because you might not end up properly adapting your essay to the question given on the day and it will sound like a prepared response. Practise writing thesis statements to questions and maybe memorise those and yes writing these out is definitely a great way to memorise:)

[elysepopplewell]

Guys, is it a good idea to memorise by writing essays? or just quotes, technique and explanation for each text?

Hey! I wrote this article on how and why I memorised essays here! And Jamon wrote about why he doesn't memorise all of his essays here! So there's some perspective for you It's about the type of student you are, and also how much time you have before an exam!

[elysepopplewell]

Hi, for mod A (metropolis/1984) (or really any module/text to which it applies), what's the likelihood they could ask about gender? Because I'd have to completely change my current essay to answer something like that... (which i obviously can't do if i havent prepared for it)

Because the questions in module A are text specific, it means that they can ask about something as specific as gender if they find it is a theme explored in the texts. Do you find it is a dominant theme? If you have read some other study notes, past essays, or text guides that talk about gender, I'd say it's a large enough theme that there's a likelihood it could be asked. In saying that, I haven't gone through past Mod A 1984/Metropolis papers to look at the patterns for that kind of thing!

Prepare for the worst, I say!

[isaacdelatorre]

Hi guys,
I was just wondering if BOSTES could ask for a specific text type for any of the essays or creatives? e.g. interview, diary entry, speech.

If this were a posed question, what would be the best way to approach it?

Thank you 

[ml125]

Hi guys,
I was just wondering if BOSTES could ask for a specific text type for any of the essays or creatives? e.g. interview, diary entry, speech.

If this were a posed question, what would be the best way to approach it?

Thank you 

For creative pieces, definitely - it has happened fairly frequently in the past. It might be something like include 'text type' as a central part of your piece, or "show how ... in the form of 'text type'" - the most common being diaries, letters, speeches. With essays, it's not as common however it could potentially be asked; a speech being more likely than something like an interview.

What I would suggest is to try to adjust your pieces to different text types under exam conditions or even just plan out how you would adapt what you have prepared. In terms of creatives, I'd suggest to have a fairly fluid structure so that it can easily be moulded to suit the question - in the case that such a question is asked it would usually only require rearranging or rewording some part of your response. For essays, prepare for it as you usually would - whether it be memorising quotes and analysis or whole essays. When you write it out in response to a question like this, all you would need to do is manipulate tense and tone - basically just changing how you would 'address' the responder rather than changing the actual content. Changing minor details in your sentence structure goes a long way.

[jessica.ngan1]

Hi all.
Just wondering if we are able to get practise questions for each module for practise please?
Thanks, Jessica

[elysepopplewell]

Hi guys,
I was just wondering if BOSTES could ask for a specific text type for any of the essays or creatives? e.g. interview, diary entry, speech.

If this were a posed question, what would be the best way to approach it?

Thank you 

I have to disagree with ml125 a little bit here. In the last 8 years, they have only asked for "imaginative" or "creative" pieces - which means you can choose whichever text type you like. It is true that they could specify that you need a letter in your poem, if that was the stimulus. However, it hasn't been a common theme in the past discovery papers. It is very common in Extension 1 exams to be specified something really peculiar to throw you off a prepared piece, but it is far, far less common in discovery! I definitely do agree with ml125's advice to practice applying your creative to different text types - if not because they ask you to do so in an exam, because it gives you more flexibility in an exam if you find that a different text type would incorporate the stimulus better

Hi all.
Just wondering if we are able to get practise questions for each module for practise please?
Thanks, Jessica

Hi Jess! Have you been through all of the past papers available online for your modules? Some texts have been used for 10+ years so there's lots there

[imtrying]

In module A, how specific are the questions likely to be? Are they likely to nominate a particular section of the text?

[melprocrastinator]

Can someone please link me to the Module essay marking... i have lost the forum haha

[imtrying]

Can someone please link me to the Module essay marking... i have lost the forum haha

English Advanced Essay Marking (Modules Only)

[elysepopplewell]

In module A, how specific are the questions likely to be? Are they likely to nominate a particular section of the text?

They definitely can. Because Module A questions are text specific, it means they can zoom in on something particular to your texts and ask about that. They may ask about the opening sequence, or the conclusion, for example. I haven't seen them ever specifically ask about characters individually, but they may question you on the use of characterisation. So they can question you on a section of the texts, but it is far more common that they will test you on a theme of some sort - that's the trend in past papers.

[Deng]

Hey guys for AOS creative should i create more than one creative so i dont get screwed over by the stimulus' provided ?

Thanks