Exams have arrived – it’s now or never

How on earth do you prepare for an A Level Eng. Lit exam?

Welcome to the third in a short series about how to revise English successfully.

What does it mean to revise: An author’s methods of presentation?

It is very likely that at least one of the questions you will face in the exam will focus on how an author presents his/her intentions within or across texts. How can you prepare for that?

The key aim of questions like these is to get you to focus not on ‘what happens’ but how the author has crafted the text in order to elicit a particular response in the reader.

There are basic areas to cover, regardless of the text. For each of the following:

• Try and make condensed notes / a mind map / list headwords
• Learn a quotation or specific example to illustrate.

Plot

1. With whom is a reader to identify – a 1st or 3rd person narrator, a particular character?
   
   a) How has the author achieved that sense of identification?
   b) How does it shape the reader’s perspective on the plot?
   
   
2. If there is a sub-plot
   
   a) What is its relevance to the main one?
   b) How are the main and sub-plots interwoven?
   
   
3. What is the impact of presenting events chronologically / non-chronologically?
   
   a) What is the impact of any time frame on the presentation of the plot?

Narrative perspective

1. Who is telling the story and how close is the reader to him/her?
   
   
2. At what pace do events unfold – how has the author created that effect?
   
   
3. Is there direct authorial comment and/or does tone / irony / mood guide a reader’s response?

Patterning

1. What themes brought to the fore? (See previous blog in series)
   
   
2. How are imagery and / or symbolism used?
   
   
3. Are there repetitions / echoes of:
   
   a) Events
   b) Locations
   c) Family structures?

Description

1. How would you characterise the author’s descriptive techniques?
   
   
2. What kind of language is employed when – to what effect?
   
   
3. How do these techniques create:
   
   a) Character (see previous blog in series)
   b) Location and atmosphere
   c) Drama, tension / suspense?

As you cover these ideas you always need to keep in mind the intentions of the author – and remember to tell the examiner what they are!

GOOD LUCK

Help - Exams are getting closer!

How on earth do you prepare for an A Level Eng. Lit exam?

Welcome to the second in a short series about how to revise English successfully.

2. What does it mean to revise: Themes?

It is very likely that at least one of the questions you will face in the exam will focus on how an author presents one or more themes within or across texts. How can you prepare for that?

There are basic areas to cover, regardless of the text. For each of the following:

• Try and make condensed notes / a mind map / list headwords
• Learn a quotation or specific example to illustrate.

Selected theme:

Within a text

1. Identify the theme’s emergence – instances of its recurrence
2. What imagery is associated with the theme? Does this create a particular mood?
3. How is the theme worked out through the plot / narrative arc?
4. In prose, do any relationships between characters illustrate this theme?

Across texts

1. How is the theme dealt with differently in comparative texts?
2. Look at 1 – 3 above

Author:

1. How does the author ‘use’ this theme – what ‘meaning’ does it represent?
   a) How is the theme outworked to support this (include imagery and mood)?
   b) Are there direct authorial comments that guide the reader’s interpretation of the theme?

Reader:

1. Do you have a personal response to this theme – has it made you reflect on aspects of contemporary life?
2. Are you satisfied with how the author has ‘used’ the theme?

Always keep in mind that themes are highlighted by an author to serve the purposes of the text – what are these purposes?

Looming exams - Arrggghhhh!

If you are a more recent subscriber to this blog, you probably won’t be familiar with some material we presented a couple of years ago about how to prepare for sitting A Level English exams. Unlike the obvious marshalling of facts that provides a framework for Chemistry or History for example, how to go about revising English texts is less obvious. So, for our current students:

Welcome to the first in a short series about how to revise English successfully.

1. What does it mean to revise: Characterisation?

It is very likely that at least one of the questions you will face in the exam will focus on characterisation (how an author presents a character). How can you prepare for that?

There are basic areas to cover, regardless of the text. For each of the following:

• Try and make condensed notes / a mind map / list headwords
• Learn a quotation or specific example to illustrate

Selected character:

1) The character’s narrative arc:

• How s/he is introduced
• His/her story/development through the novel
• The character’s own new perspectives by the end (what s/he has learnt)

2) His/her physical appearance and the language s/he uses (register, syntax)

3) His/her relationships with others in the text

4) The imagery associated with him/her.

Author:

1) The author’s attitude to the character – discerned through

• 2 and 4 above
• Differences in perspective
• Tone used describing that character and direct/indirect judgements on him/her (authorial intrusion?)

2) Changes in attitude / sympathy – ultimate assessment of character.

Reader:

1) Be aware of your personal response to the character – have you found the hero / heroine attractive – annoying - funny?

2) Are you satisfied with how the author created the character

• Are they believable (2D or fully rounded) – or more significant for the role they play in the text’s ‘meaning’?
• Do you have other criticisms about the characterisation?

Always keep in mind that every character is simply a literary construct, created by an author for the purposes of the text.

Time to get serious

Ready for action

The summer term has started, and hopefully all the long AS /A2 Lit. assignments are safely handed in and out of the way. The weather has cheered up and everyone should be refreshed by the Easter break and ready for the intensity of the coming weeks.

For A Level English Lit. students now is the season of going back over texts studied earlier in the year. It is the time when you start to look at your notes and get a sight of how all the pieces fit together into a bigger picture…

Let down by your notes?

Unless, of course, you find yourself faced with pages of skimpy headings, half caught sentences or missing conclusions (but amazing doodles!) and you can’t actually make head nor tail of what they are referring to. We all have days when brain function isn’t sharp (obviously nothing to do with an active social life..) but now is not the time to panic.

Solutions

Ask nicely

Generally teachers really go the extra mile at this time of the year to help students. If you ask very nicely they are often willing to run additional revision sessions based on tricky texts or areas of concern. They know what the syllabus is asking for and are your first port of call.

Check out the web

Revision resources on the web are another useful tool, but do check that they actually cover the kind of areas that will be expected in your exam answers. Many sites (e.g. Sparknotes) are written for the American market, which covers a broader range of literature but in much less depth. Chapter synopses and one paragraph per character can only get you so far..

In greater depth are e-notes and York notes Advanced online – but you have to pay to access most of the material. The S-cool revision site asks some really helpful questions, and is free, but doesn’t provide detail on the texts.

Free, detailed, with helpful questions

Examiners know what students need to address as they get ready for external assessment, so there is logic in looking at a free access site they have had a hand in developing. Many of you already know that Crossref-it.info material is peppered with ‘Investigate’ boxes. If you are now needing to go back and plug the gaps in you’re A Level notes, why not use the questions posed as ‘prompts’ about what you need to cover?

Aiming to do English at university?

You made it!

Congratulations to those of you whose results enabled you to make it on to your chosen degree course! Now you have had time to recover from Freshers’ Week, we hope you are enjoying your studies.

If you find yourself plunging into the mysteries of Piers Plowman or the medieval pageant plays, with the benefit of hindsight, you can now appreciate how helpful it was if you were lucky enough to encounter Middle English at A Level.

You want to make it!

However, if you are taking A’s right now, and struggling through Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales for the first time, it might not seem that way! Middle English takes a bit of getting used to. Plurals and possessives are different and the spelling of words can be pretty fluid.

Actually, one of the best things to do when faced with a page of Middle English text is simply to read it aloud – it often makes the meaning clearer and you can start to get a sense of the humour and energy in much of Chaucer’s writing.

Help is on hand so you can succeed

The keen eyed among you will have spotted that www.crossref-it.info has got a new Chaucer text online – The Pardoner’s Prologue and Tale. It is full of notes and background info to help you get to grips with a text which was as scabrous in its time as The Thick of It is today. Chaucer paints a wicked portrait of his narrator, whose corruption puts modern political scandals in the shade. Yet at the same time we are able to appreciate his audacity and persuasive sales ‘patter’.

It may be in Middle English, but this medieval tale has a contemporary punch!

What does it mean to revise: An author’s methods of presentation?

How on earth do you prepare for an A Level Eng. Lit exam?
Welcome to the third in a short series about how to revise English successfully.

It is very likely that at least one of the questions you will face in the exam will focus on how an author presents his/her intentions within or across texts. How can you prepare for that?

The key aim of questions like these is to get you to focus not on ‘what happens’ but how the author has crafted the text in order to elicit a particular response in the reader.

There are basic areas to cover, regardless of the text. For each of the following:

• Try and make condensed notes / a mind map / list headwords
• Learn a quotation or specific example to illustrate.

Plot

1) With whom is a reader to identify – a 1st or 3rd person narrator, a particular character?

• How has the author achieved that sense of identification?
• How does it shape the reader’s perspective on the plot?
  

2) If there is a sub-plot

• What is its relevance to the main one?
• How are the main and sub-plots interwoven?
  

3) What is the impact of presenting events chronologically / non-chronologically?

• What is the impact of any time frame on the presentation of the plot?

Narrative perspective

1) Who is telling the story and how close is the reader to him/her?
2) At what pace do events unfold – how has the author created that effect?
3) Is there direct authorial comment and/or does tone / irony / mood guide a reader’s response?

Patterning

1) What themes brought to the fore? (See previous blog in series)
2) How are imagery and / or symbolism used?
3) Are there repetitions / echoes of:

• Events
• Locations
• Family structures?
  

Description

1) How would you characterise the author’s descriptive techniques?
2) What kind of language is employed when – to what effect?
3) How do these techniques create:

• Character (see previous blog in series)
• Location and atmosphere
• Drama, tension / suspense?
  

As you cover these ideas you always need to keep in mind the intentions of the author.

Are A-Levels getting easier?

You are unlikely to agree if you are in the middle of taking them! However, the problem for employers and universities is that, as more students come out with a raft of A grades, they don’t know how to select who is the best when places are restricted.

Two recent solutions are:

• Reducing the coursework component - partly a bid to return exams to clearer tests of an individual’s ability under pressure, as well as trying to cut the impact of ever pervasive plagiarism (aka cheating).
• Introducing A* grades and ‘high powered’ courses like the CIE Pre U

Faced with this, what can help you make it to the top of the pile?

• Prioritising study, rather than squeezing it around your social life, will mean you have a greater sense of how each subject fits together
• Making time to read around the central texts / information will give you a wider perspective and impress the examiner
• Using web resources designed to help at A Level can give you the breadth of info your teacher may be too pressured to cover. That’s certainly the idea behind Crossref-it.info which aims to give Eng. Lit students the edge over their peers.

Unfortunately, as jobs become more scarce, so more students will opt for higher education places, and the need to differentiate students becomes even more pressing…

How are you going to get yourself noticed?