Saturday, August 1, 2020

GCSE English Paper 2 Question 1

You may already know what this question looks like. You may not take it too seriously – and you certainly shouldn’t take more than about five or six minutes to complete it.  We have loads of practice texts on the VLE, of course.

However, in their almighty rush to get on to the questions with more marks, many candidates can get a question or two wrong on Paper 2 Question 1.

Now, you may not think that losing a mark or two makes much of a difference.  After all, there are 160 on the two papers.

However, at the risk of sounding Dickensian, that way lies the potential for great tragedy.  Every year since the new curriculum started I have had students (invariably boys, sorry lads…) who have missed out on a higher grade by one mark.

When we look at the grade breakdown we always seem to find that they got three out of four on this question.  I guess that there is no need for a nervous breakdown if you missed out on a grade 7 and had to settle for a six.

However, each and every time this has happened, it has been the difference between a 4 and a 3.  We all know what happens when candidates get a 3 – they have to do the exam all over again the following year.  Well, that is tragic and not in any Dickensian way either, melodrama it is not. 

Their friends sometimes find it hilarious.  The swine.

Like any other GCSE question, there are strategies here.

All the advice we can think of is on our VLE


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