English Lit GCSE paper today - Macbeth question

[Katrinawaves]

Any teachers who have seen today’s English Lit Ed Excel GCSE paper please or anyone who’s kids sat it?

My son came home to beat because he felt he’d answered the question on Macbeth well but as he was discussing it we thought he’d maybe misunderstood the question 😵‍💫

He thinks the question was about how Macbeth displayed guilt but we wondered whether the question was actually about the theme of guilt in Macbeth generally and so if he only wrote about Macbeth himself (as he did) he probably hasn’t done very well! It’s only paper 1 so I know he has a chance to do well enough in the other paper to achieve a pass but if anyone actually knows what the question was that would be helpful!

Look, if it’s OK for BeardySchnauzer and others to be anxious, it’s also ok for my husband to be massively anxious. That doesn’t mean he (or I) is being a tit to my son. It’s a long road between now and results day, and being able to have sensible and reasonably calibrated conversations with my husband (not my son) about what his grades are likely to be is going to be in everyone’s best interests.

I appreciate that exams are stressful but I’d be grateful if the attack dogs could lie themselves back down please. I haven’t said anything to my son about the exam, haven’t been anything other than completely supportive to him and my husband and was literally just asking a simple question to clarify whether my suspicion that my son has misread a question was correct

My DC was all ready for supernatural but got guilt and Christmas 🙈

I totally agree.

The mark scheme is applied holistically. If he’s answered it well, about the theme of guilt, he’ll score well. If he’s got a nit-picky examiner, maybe he’ll drop a couple of AO1 marks, but honestly, there’s too much to say about any question in only 50 mins so you really can’t get penalised for what you didn’t include. It’s impossible to include it all. Also, examiners are taught to mark positively - ‘marking down’ isn’t a thing.

Titles should be italicised; character names are not.

Also good lord lol at the posters trying to ‘catch’ people out for seeing a paper by after the exam. A) this doesn’t mean they’ve Inspector Gadgeted their way into an exam hall or interrogated a student B) what are you hoping to achieve apart from applause for knowing the official guidelines

To be fair that sounds alot like most of my family 'celebrations' when I was growing up.

Best of luck to everyone's DCs.

Same here! Really struggled with the Christmas theme and has knocked his confidence for next week's paper sadly.

From what I understand this Eng Lit was a bastard of a paper. Spoken to various friends with kids around the country (to illustrate NOT class mates) and they’ve all come away feeling a bit despondent. For many of them this wasn’t their first paper/exam having started last week, so can’t be attributed to first exam nerves.

On the plus side, this might make a difference to grade boundaries? Who knows… don’t let this one out your DS off for the remainder of the week. X

I tutored my niece for her eng lit GCSE (my undergrad degree was eng lit). We’d hoped the theme of guilt would come up for Macbeth.

I think as long as the broad themes re hallucinations and psychological torture are covered, the mark schemes reward analysis of the theme. Writing about just Macbeth is valid - his guilt is explored most consistently throughout.

The broader presentation of guilt elsewhere in the play would undoubtedly score higher, but the overall theme that ambition can motivate evil actions and the corruption of guilt would still be a very good response.

PS - for me, extreme flapping over what came up in lit exams was completely normal. I concealed my stress from my kids, but nonetheless, I was anxious.

Those of you wondering how someone could possibly know what was on the paper …I read and scribe in exams for students with special access arrangements…I literally read the questions out loud…hope that helps!

The extract was from when Scrooge enters a room (in his own house) and meets the Ghost of Christmas Present. The question was to discuss how Dickens presents Christmas in this passage and in A Christmas Carol as a whole .

Your poor son 💔

You and his dad should be ashamed.

They Sat the paper today? Of course the teachers have seen it!

This was the AQA question but OP said her son did Edexcel

Are you going to continue to interrogate your DC on each exam? Man, let him have some breathing space to move on to next one

It doesn't matter, he's done it. Did you question how he pronounced in his MfL speaking exam?

Please stop overthinking, it's not a desirable trait for your DC.

Hmm possibly

The main rule of exam club is to not discuss a paper you can do nothing about. Move onto the next exam!

Jeeze

Teachers should not have seen the papers they are meant to be locked away for 24 hours after new JCQ rules this year.

Yes, agreed. Why on earth wouldn't they see it today? My daughter's tutor had seen the paper this morning. We discussed it half an hour after the exam.

There have been tricky questions in exams since the year dot! I thought it was only the kids who held a post mortem afterwards..... it's up to the parents (you know, the responsible adults) to simply reassure them by saying "what will be, will be", encouraging them to forget and to just move on to the next paper.
And yet apparently some parents don't do that any more..... I despair!

Then they are breaking the rules . Jcq rules this year are to have the sat papers locked in the strong room for 24 hours after.

Also even the exam officer isn't allowed to look at the paper let alone the teachers.

The regulations state that the papers are not released to teachers or anyone else until 24 hours after the exam so if teachers have seen it the school is not complying with exam regulations