GCSE ENGLISH LITERATURE

Transcription

1 GCSE ENGLISH LITERATURE 9715/4F Approaching Shakespeare and the Literary Heritage Report on the Examination 9715 June 2015 Version: 1.0

2 Further copies of this Report are available from aqa.org.uk Copyright 2015 AQA and its licensors. All rights reserved. AQA retains the copyright on all its publications. However, registered schools/colleges for AQA are permitted to copy material from this booklet for their own internal use, with the following important exception: AQA cannot give permission to schools/colleges to photocopy any material that is acknowledged to a third party even for internal use within the centre.

3 Introduction Generally examiners were impressed with the approach to this paper shown by the candidates, and the teaching they had received. Good knowledge of their chosen texts was regularly displayed, and an awareness of how to write about them coherently, though of course some were more successful than others. There was much evidence of real engagement with the texts, and a willingness to think about them through the lens of the questions. Section A: Shakespeare Nearly all of the candidates answered questions on either Macbeth or Romeo and Juliet. Although a few responses were seen on different Shakespeare texts, there were not enough to able to draw any secure general lessons from them. Macbeth Question 1 This question was, perhaps surprisingly, a less popular choice than Question 2. In Part (a) many candidates wrote effectively about the commanding language from Macbeth in the passage, and what it showed about Macbeth s state of mind at this point; the phrase state of mind certainly seemed to be understood by all the candidates who attempted the question, which produced successful explanations about the text and the task. Most candidates, though, had little to say about Macbeth s speech which begins I conjure you apart from the first and last lines, which seemed a shame, though of course candidates do not have to write about all of the lines in the extract by any means. Part (b) was generally well done, some candidates choosing the opening scene to write about, and others choosing scenes where the witches were absent, but Macbeth could be seen as acting under their influence, or at least being affected by what they had said. Question 2 As above, this was the more popular of the two questions. Candidates generally used the details of the passage more effectively than with Question 1, commenting on Macbeth s state of mind here, identifying his courage and determination, and often relating it successfully to Shakespeare s choices of language. The better candidates also saw Macbeth s own doubts surfacing through his injunction to the doctor to minister to a mind diseased. Part (b) was also enabling for candidates, many choosing Macbeth s fearful state after Duncan s murder, and comparing it successfully with the Part (a) passage. Comparison is not required here, of course, but it is often a successful route for candidates to explain their ideas about characters or meanings in the text. Using a detail from the Part (a) passage to begin the response to Part (b) is often a strong way of beginning a focused response to this part of the question. Romeo and Juliet Question 5 This was by far the more popular of the two questions, perhaps understandably, as both Romeo and Juliet are in the scene and it occurs early in the play. Some candidates worked well on the pilgrims metaphor, and others explained Romeo and Juliet s feelings for each other quite well, though far too many simply restated constantly that this line shows that they really love each other 3 of 5

4 without any further explication, which rather limited their rewards: there are no marks for repeating the same thought. Better responses tended to place the passage within the context of this as their first meeting, and what the audience know about them before this moment. Part (b) was quite well handled, as there are many fruitful parts of the play to consider. However, those candidates who had said that everything in the Part (a) passage showed that they really loved each other often took the opportunity to say it again. Question 6 This was far less popular with candidates than Question 5, but was answered more successfully, on the whole. Mixed feelings in the first bullet seemed to provide a useful prompt for candidates to write about Juliet s contrasting feelings about Romeo at this point, explaining why she should feel like this and writing about the ways Shakespeare shows her feelings through contrasting adjectives and nouns and the metaphors in the first four lines of the passage, many explaining their effects. Part (b) was often well done also, candidates sometimes choosing the moment in the play shown in Question 5, which worked well and was perfectly allowable. Section B: Prose from the English Literary Heritage The vast majority of the responses seen were to Animal Farm. Although at least two more texts were seen, there was insufficient evidence about performance to draw any general lessons from them. There is a general point to be made about responses to this text, though. Response to contexts (AO4) is tested in Section B, and apart from the bottom two levels of the mark scheme relating to contexts, detail has to be used to support comments. The detail has to come from the text, and therefore be integral to response to it. Of course, details about historical and social contexts can be used to further explanations and arguments, but need relating to the text itself. The Russian revolution is often used as a context here, which is absolutely fine, but not as a separate paragraph unrelated to the events or characters in the text. At the same time, candidates often do better when they use a specific event or period in history as background, rather than some general comments about the way people behave in society. Animal Farm Question 19 Candidates generally responded well to this task, having no problems identifying the end of the novel explaining how things have changed since the beginning, with this as the natural conclusion. The better ones looked carefully at the descriptions of the men and the pigs, and through that at Orwell s methods, though the writer strand (AO2) was often weak on this question, and indeed on the text as a whole, rather surprisingly given its nature. Sometimes weaker candidates listed all of the commandments as they appear at the beginning, which takes some time and doesn t gain much. AO4 was generally handled better on Question of 5

5 Question 20 The focus of this question was central to the text, and certainly candidates had no problem relating details form the text. However, for a few candidates this proved to be their downfall, as they took it as an invitation to retell the story of the novel up to the expulsion of Snowball, and sometimes beyond, with few comments about the relationship, let alone how Orwell presents it. On the other hand, many made some good comments about AO4 as they went along, particularly if they were comparing the characters to their Russian revolution equivalents. While candidates were invited specifically to deal with AO4 in response to Part (b), questions are marked holistically rather than a separate mark scheme for each Part, so AO4 comments in Part (a) are credited. Mark Ranges and Award of Grades Grade boundaries and cumulative percentage grades are available on the Results Statistics page of the AQA Website. Converting Marks into UMS marks Convert raw marks into Uniform Mark Scale (UMS) marks by using the link below. UMS conversion calculator 5 of 5