Tips for studying for the English A Literature Paper 2? (Novel)

[slavetotheIB]

I'm due to appear for the May 2014 board examinations, and as all of you probably know by now, the English A Literature HL paper is in less than a week! For Paper 2 of the course, my school has chosen to study 4 fiction novels, 3 of which I have already read. Well, now is the time to study the books and honestly, I don't know how to go about it! Besides reading the notes written in class and going over past papers, there's a plethora of information on the internet so it's really difficult to filter out what might be important and actually remembering it.
Sorry that became a bit of a rant, but could anyone please give me some tips on how to study for this paper, and how to write good answers to score as much as possible? I'm really freaking out right now so I would really appreciate it!

[Chris Schmitz]

Hi,

we've just had a revision session on that paper today where we got some great hints, and although we do the drama option, some of this might help you:

To prepare:

-Re-read the novels, and do practice papers.

-Learn to time yourself so you know how much time to give yourself eg. for planning in a real exam.

-Memorize themes and techniques that the authors use that abide by the literary conventions of your genre (criterion B or C, can't remember), and memorize quotes that you can use to support your discussion of these themes.

-DO PRACTICE PAPERS.

When you're writing:

-Address the question directly, and perhaps open with a strong, contentious idea that captures the reader's attention.

-Develop. Points. Clearly. Use evidence and references to all those quotes you memorized.

-Assume a knowledgeable reader and don't waste time explaining plot

-Make sure your essay deals with every part of the question.

-Emphasize your conclusion, in which you sum up judgments.

-Give yourself a few minutes to read over your essay and correct minor slip-ups, those have a bigger impact on your language mark than you might think.

-Judgment, analysis and perception are a million times more important than recounting minor details of the play accurately.

-Perhaps most importantly, plan thoroughly and only dive in when you're ready. In Paper 1, examiners expect a sort of development of your understanding of what you're analyzing as you go along, but Paper 2 needs to be strong from intro to conclusion.

I hope that helps!

[Blackcurrant]

Make sure you really do ANSWER THE QUESTION. That is vital. It seems obvious but it seems a lot of people end up answering another question-- they re-interpret and reformulate the question (not always consciously) and lose a lot of points that way.

[David14]

Make sure you really do ANSWER THE QUESTION. That is vital. It seems obvious but it seems a lot of people end up answering another question-- they re-interpret and reformulate the question (not always consciously) and lose a lot of points that way.

Blackcurrent, from what I understand the criteria is set up so that you can still get marks in the other (besides lets say b or c), not that I'm advocating the idea of not answering the question at all, but would it still be possible to get the higher end marks, assuming you do will in other aspects?

[Blackcurrant]

You will always get marks for what you write, even if you don't answer the set question. But the best performances always make a point of keeping sharp focus on answering the question and constructing an argument. Stylistic effects and context will be integrated into the argument.

Assuming you do well in categories C (how well can you do in this category when you are awarded in terms of "with relevance to the question"???), D,E you could score satisfactory, and perhaps, at a stretch, "good" but not more. That is if you fail to answer the question but write about something else. You *could* get 13 points out of 25 (let's say A=2 B=0 C=2 D=4 E=5) which is a Grade 4 (P2 Lit HL)

Edited May 5, 2014 by Blackcurrant