english Lang IGCSE

[1805]

ds just did paper 1 yesterday and came out saying it was a really odd paper about a parrot. Just wondering if anyone else's dc did the same paper and what they thought about it

My dd did it and said it was really weird. All about a man who works in a pet superstore and who talked about Beryl. At first she thought that Beryl was his dead wife but then she realised it was a parrot.

I know people sitting the exam have got very confused who Beryl was- some thought just a pet, some a bird and some a human - not an ideal passage.

Actually, that sounds like a pretty good choice especially if there was a question about who they thought Beryl was (use textual evidence, show areas of ambiguity etc)

There was no question about who Beryl was - it seemed very obtuse and open to interpretation, especially about what happened to her at the end (fly away? Stay with Harrold/Harold?)There are lots of funny Beryl the parrot memes on Twitter and much discussion on sites like Reddit if you want to get an idea of the reaction -our DCs are not alone!

Oh ok. So it sounds like ds got the gist of it then. I wonder what paper two will bring??!

I have been through just about every past paper for the Cambridge IGCSE. The passages can be weird. Think about the hotel reviewer one, the weird wedding one and the tension between tourists and locals one. They obviously get their passages specifically written for their exams, unlike other boards, which use extracts from published works.

Auntie Stella, the question requires you to produce a piece of writing using the information from the passage.