General:
- Pick your questions well, you don’t want to do an intro for one and then change your mind, so it’s worth spending a good 2 or 3 minutes picking.
- Plan your answer before you do it. You get marked on A01, which is how good your actual essay is – so if your structure is all over the shop, and your essay feels confused, then you’re buggered. It’ll be way easier for you if you have a plan too. Definitely worth spending 5 minutes on a plan for section B, and 2 minutes for each of your section A plans.
- Use clear topic sentences (this is the kind of thing that naturally develops from having a plan), clearly state the technique you're gonna talk about, but most importantly say what is significant about it; how it is important in telling the story.
- Don’t use over-sophisticated, flowery language. If you are writing a sentence to sound cool and show off what words you know, don’t write it. You should have ideas that are so good/insightful that they stand out; regardless of the language you use to express them. If you use a word that you aren’t 100% sure of the meaning of, then you’re only gonna look like a mug
- Don’t pick shit quotes. If your quote is shit, then you’ve already buggered yourself. Totally at a loss for which quotes to pick? Pick what you think is the coolest line of the poem/story – there’s probably some sort of technique that’s unique/prominent in that poem that draws you to it.
- Speaking of quotes – learn some, or rather, just make sure you know some. If you know the poems/stories well enough, there will be quotes that just stick in your head – ‘as tho’ to breath were life’, ‘let what is broken so remain’, ‘I am quite sure she felt no pain’ – these stick in my head because I think they’re quite cool. Also ‘the cock sung out’ – no explanation necessary.
- Don’t repeat yourself. This not only wastes time, but makes you sound like a bit of a mug. I repeat myself a fair bit, and fact of the matter is when you do this it’s either because 1. You aren’t quite sure of what you’re saying, or feel like you’ve drifted a bit off topic and need to pull it back in OR 2. You’ve got two points to say, but they’re pretty similar, and you don’t know which to use so you say both. Way to avoid repetition? COMMIT to what you’re saying. Don’t try to overcompensate for feeling a bit unsure of yourself.
Section A – Odd: [21 marks]
- Pick Tennyson or Browning – if you pick the Kite Runner you’re gonna spend a good 20% of your time trying to find quotes, unless you’re properly into the book and know a load of quotes or something. I personally think it’s a piece of shit, so I would never choose Kite Runner for this one, but y’know, up to you.
- You are marked on A02 ONLY. That’s evaluation of narrative methods. This is sort of annoying, cause you can’t really talk about anything cool or interpretations, but oh well.
- Don’t pick shit narrative methods. This is pretty key. If you’re looking at Mariana and thinking about doing a paragraph on alliteration, then you’re probably gonna be buggered. You have to pick the 3 or 4 MOST IMPORTANT ONES. No-one gives a shit about alliteration, alliteration is bollocks – do bigger, more interesting things like ‘setting’, ‘structure’, ‘time/chronology’, ‘voice’.
- Do an intro, but not something that’s boring. Don’t just talk about the events of the poem, talk in a meaningful, insightful way (with abstract nouns and shit) and think about the deeper themes that the writer was trying to explore.
- Don’t bother with a conclusion, you’ll only be repeating yourself – just start your last paragraph with ‘finally’, and that’ll do.
Section A – Even: [21 marks]
- This is the more interesting of the two, here you’ll be given a debate-style question, so make sure you have a debate, get both sides in, get a good amount of evidence in, and be critical with your analysis.
- HAVE A STRONG PERSONAL RESPONSE. This is definitely the best bit of advice for this question. It’s a debate, so freaking make it lively – don’t reel shit off just because you think the examiners are looking for it. If it asks whether or not you think Porphyria’s lover is a bastard, really have a think about it – get your own personal response. Best way to do this is to think what you’d say if someone you know was asking you the question – that way you stop thinking in a way that’s gonna ‘get you a good grade’ and actually think of your own stance on the matter
- Look at all the words in the question. Don't just write a basic bitch argument - really think about what it's asking you and if you can say something cool. I'm still kicking myself for my shitty mock even-numbered question, cause I didn't stop to think about cooler stuff to say. Oh well, live and learn I guess.
- Write an intro setting up the debate, and a conclusion solidifying your stance on the matter.
- You’re assessed on A01, A03, and A04. So basically: Write/structure your essay well, think about alternative interpretations and be unique/insightful, and put some context in. Context is a bugger, cause it’s boring – but don't force it, use shit that supports what you're saying; stuff like the views of women at the time, taboos about religion, mental illness/disability, but to be honest the question sort of sets it up for you.
Section B: [42 marks]
- Here you’re assessed on A01, A02, and A03. This is awesome, because now you don’t have to talk about shitty context stuff. This basically means, write/structure your essay well, talk about narrative methods well, and think about alternative/interesting interpretations of stuff, and you’re golden.
- Do an introduction. The way I do it is pick the most significant method of using [whatever] in each text, and give these a brief mention - say what's significant about the way [whatever] is used, don't just list it.
- Then you’re gonna do 3 mini-essays. You want to write roughly the same for each text – if you’ve got 3 pages on how awesome Porphyria’s Lover is, and 1 page on the Kite Runner, it’s gonna be really obvious that you think the book is a piece of shit. You’ll be spending around 15 minutes on each writer.
- For Lawrence, pick one story – whichever is best for the question. For the poets, pick 1 or 2 poems. I personally would rather go for one, and talk about it in depth, but depending on the question you could go for 2 (e.g if it’s about titles, you might find it easier to talk about 2 poems rather than just 1)
- You don't necessarily have to do a conclusion, but you could maybe say which technique is most effective or something, I don’t know, just something quick. If you've got nothing else interesting to add, just don't bother.
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