Examiners Reports Collection of Advice

Panesar 19/02/15
Odd-numbered A02

Amrita

Grapple with rather strange micro stories that are being told with Auden
Students who build in ambiguity of stories with Auden often do better
Helpful to pin down story in opening paragraph- enables to write with purpose and
discuss method in relation to the story
Best answers write confidently about method in relation to the overarching story of the
prescribed section
Story has to be in central position in the answer
In lexical analysis, comments need to be tailored to story rather than potential
meanings
Focus on bigger features voice and structure rather than effects of individual words
Concern of examiners obsessed with unreliable narrators - unable to write about
anything else
Discuss methods in relation to overarching story
Different way of approaching poetry .vs. prose
Focus exclusively on narrative methods, not write about the content, themes and
characters
In short time frame, more productive to write about structure and voices than single
words, similes, etc.
The points chosen to write about must be well developed to reveal understanding,
then supported by close textual reference very little credit for feature spotting
Keep in mind it is how writers create, not what they create
Judge writing about which methods will lead to the most interesting discussion about
the ways the writer has crafted his or her story
Problems with writing about rhyme and rhythm often takes students in direction of
poetry analysis or literary criticism rather than narrative method + often not identified
correctlymost students struggle with linking rhythm/rhyme scheme to the story
(most make things up). Think about sense of what you are claiming! (Unconvincing
claim of ABCB rhyme scheme giving a sense of the mariners heart beat!)
Students who select method points as 1st priority then write about them often get into
a muddle
More likely to write meaningfully about how stories begin and end, where in the
structure key events happen, where the events of the stories are located in time and
place and the voices that tell the stories
Do not have a list of methods pre-selected
Even-numbered A01, A03, A04
Really engage with how far, to what extent, and significance
Challenge premises of question maybe even look for question which is easier to do
this?
Range widely across text
Auden address the word narrative, dont just focus on themes and individual stanzas
too much
Best answers have clear independent answers not just trying to remember what has
been said in class or by some critic
Stay focused on question given, not some preferred question trying to relate to exam
question
Choose poems related to the question
How far do you think that Audens poems are dominated by death? death
often connected to war and societys ills in inventive ways. However, some students

Examiners Reports Collection of Advice

Amrita
Panesar 19/02/15
quickly abandoned death and wrote about any number of themes x. Key word in
question dominated, those who engaged with the word in relation to death did well.

How far do you agree with the view that Fra Lippo Lippi is simply a saucy and
loud-mouthed monk best answers focused on sauciness of the monk and his

volubility, and more tellingly engaged with simply

To what extent do you think The Kite Runner presents a thoroughly depressing
picture of life in Afghanistan? Weaker answers focused only on Amir and Hassan
(often drifted from task), best answers from those who wrote about life in Afghanistan
and drew from different time periods in the novel
How appropriate do you think it is to describe The Great Gatsby as a tragedy?
Overall, disappointing to examiners many did not use knowledge from unit 2 (genre
of tragedy at the time) in the exam, were not transferring skills.
For success in even-numbered:

Enter a debate about critical interpretation of the text

Do not be surprised if previous sections of texts are repeated, but a different focus will
be present
Dont bolt on details of Audens homosexuality only use relevant context (come up
with flash cards and practise applying only relevant background info!)
Best answers tightly structured and focused arguments with well supported
developed points
Always a connection between odd numbered and even numbered this is to help
students! (particularly with poetry in choosing the poems to write about!)
Need to be aware of comedy and tragedy (link to LitB2)
Contextual material is only helpful when it illuminates discussion of the question being
asked
Section B A01, A02, A03

In a narrative, there is usually a hero or heroine, a protagonist, on whose fate

the readers interest in the story principally rests. Write about the significance
of protagonists in the narratives of the three writers you have studied

Best answers made use of the quotation given.

Protagonists are central to stories which the writer constructs around them
Strong answers on protagonists moral & spiritual journeys, their upholding of dreams,
their ideals, their moral values, their taking on of antagonists, their redeeming
themselves despite their flaws, their fighting injustice, and their having aspects of the
tragic around them
Students misread question tried to look for acts of heroism
Good choice on TKR although Amir is protagonist of Hosseinis story, Hassan is the
protagonist of Amirs story
Negative approach frowned upon dont write about texts as if/if they do not have a
protagonist

Write about the significance of the ways the three writers you have studied
create and use suspense in their narratives.

Suspense build up to an event within the narrative (do not confuse with tension,
mystery, foreshadowing curiosity, speculation, narrative gaps)
Students wrote well about altercation in Plaza Hotel between Tom and Gatsby, O What
is that Sound

Examiners Reports Collection of Advice

Panesar 19/02/15

Amrita

Write about the significance of climaxes and\or anticlimaxes in the narratives of

the three writers you have studied.

Identify climactic moments, see how they are built up and then comment on their
significance
Climaxes are prepared for built up
Good answers commented on strangling of Porphyria in Porphyrias Lover
Best answers from students who saw how writers structures their texts in prep for the
climax
For some, significance not commented on

Write about the significance of the ways speech is used in the work of the three
writers you have studied.

Best students knew what speech actually is and how it releases the story
Several confuses speech with voice, some did not know the function of speech in
stories
Speech needs to be an addressee or audience, even if it is the character themselves
Sometimes, speech was selected randomly (e.g. old sport in TGG)
Students that wrote well located where speech comes in the story and how it operates
in terms of narrative, choice of speech vital in helping to write effectively i.e. need to
select relevant, well-chosen examples
Not a good idea to start answer by approaching question from negative perspective
and then selecting poems or parts of novels where there is no speech
I.e. write about why speech is important, not why it is not important!
Significance invitation to write about meanings
Write about the significance of places in the work of the three writers you have

studied
Places not to be confused with settings
TKR significance of Afghanistan !Be careful! Kabul is not in Pakistan!
Miss Gees small bed-sitting room, Porphyrias lovers cottage

Writers draw upon the conventions of different genres when in constructing

their narratives: for example, ballads, monologues, elegies, fictive biographies,
thrillers, romances. Write about the significance of generic conventions in the
narratives of the three writers you have studied.

Weaker answers will tend to simply identify and describe. Mark scheme says Reward
generously candidates who do more than this
Dont ignore help given in question, but also dont only use the examples given as this
limits answer
Demonstrate significance of genres perceptively and relevantly
Best answers from students who saw how writers adapt and subvert genres or who
produce hybrid texts
Students who did not perform well substituted themes for genre (E.g. writing about
redemption and guilt)
How readers might be teased as to what genre the text is

A key choice writers make is how they name or refer to their characters. Write
about the significance of the choices writers have made in naming or referring
to their characters in the three texts you have studied.

Examiners Reports Collection of Advice

Amrita
Panesar 19/02/15
Names and reference to characters need to be clearly identified in relation to the over
arching story
Examples: use of title for characters, use of formality/informality, symbolic names,
names for cultural constructs, names for self conscious irony/metanarrative,
Christian/surnames, pronouns, unnamed characters, collective nouns (Oxford Groupers
Miss Gee), adjectives to accompany names (The Great Gatsby), male/female
names, etc.
Term referring to used in question because in Browning and Auden, characters are
often not named though they are referred to (e.g. As I Walked Out One Evening,
Porphyrias Lover, The Laboratory, etc.)
Need to integrate other methods in relation to method used e.g. In La Belle Dame,
contrast between naming of fairy and knight (i.e. juxtaposition), brief lexical analysis
of fairy
This is made more likely with his later naming of her as a fairys child where Keats
not only highlights a contrast between her and the knight since fairy invokes the
lexical field of magic and wonder while knight appeals very much to a rugged sense
of masculine reality.

In narratives, the hero or heroine always experiences some conflict, which

affects the resolution of the story. Write about the significance of conflict in
the stories of the three writers you have studied.

Use opening sentence to help formulate answers.

Best answers clearly identified examples of conflict and developed ideas about
significance of conflicts and discussed how the conflict led to the resolution of the hero
or heroines journey
Best students wrote about structure and conflict at the same time (they come hand in
hand in narratives)

The time settings in which writers choose to place their stories are always
significant. For example, writers might choose a particular era, specific years,
seasons, months, times of day, etc. Write about the significance of time
settings as they are used in the narratives of each of the three writers you have
studied.

Know what a time setting is!

Success depended on choices of texts made.
E.g. 1922 setting in The Great Gatsby, various time settings in The Kite Runner,
Renaissance period in Fra Lippo Lippi
Connect time setting to the story, offer various interpretations, keep time settings at
the heart of answer

Symbols and motifs (recurring elements) are used by writers to shape stories
and open up meanings. Write about the significance of symbols and/or motifs
to the narratives of the three writers you have studied.
Confused symbols and motifs with imagery
Select symbols and motifs well, debate their significance in terms of the specific part
of the story in which they appear, then relate them to the wider story (i.e. Zoom in,
zoom out)
TKR symbols of blood and kites; TGG green light symbol; Miss Gee black pedal
brake; Victor - ace of spades; Out out buzz saw

Examiners Reports Collection of Advice

Amrita
Panesar 19/02/15
Stand back from texts and think rather than launch straight in and try to make learned
material fit question
Best answers found detailed structural links and explored significance in depth

The opening sentence of any story is an important choice that writers make.
Write about the significance of the opening sentence to the stories of the three
writers you have studied.

If unpick sentence and comment on implications of individual words, explicitly connect

it to the rest of the narrative
Dont do microanalysis link to the rest of the story (with hindsight of what happens in
rest of story!)
Relate opening sentence to later events, write with full knowledge of what happens
later
Weak responses from students writing about opening sentence of TGG who could not
go beyond Nicks character, his relationship with his father and his unreliability given
that he is a first person narrator
Best answers related opening sentence to the story and then teased out potential
meanings, linking them to the storys structure

Write about the significance of key events

Best answers selected key events carefully and thoughtfully

Write about their significance in terms of plot, revelation of character, themes, writers
methods or the texts ideology
For success in Section B:

Have a secure understanding of the stories of their three texts:

How these stories begin, how the storys events are sequenced & how authors choose
to resolve them
Time needs to be spend helping to have a secure understanding of plot and
destination i.e. story should be informing content of answers throughout ENTIRE paper
When students do not do as well, they take an odd-numbered approach and discuss
any narrative method rather than the one set up in the question