New GCSE English

[FlowersForAlgernon]

My DS is in Y9, so is being prepared for the new GCSE.

He has a mock / end of term assessment and he's really stressing.

The assessment is on Lord of the Flies, which he's read and knows well.

He says they haven't been told what the assessment will be, what theme or character or whatever (which seems normal to me :) ) - BUT that he'll have to use direct quotes from the text. (It's a closed book exam)

He's really panicking because he doesn't know how he can use quotes if he doesn't know what the exam's about.

Can any English Teachers advise?

Should he just remember 2 or 3 quotes?
Or is he not expected to quote from the text?
Or has he got the wrong end of the stick some other way?

Do you know which board he is following? If its WJEC I can help

If it's any help, what I did for all my English Lit exams (all closed book - didn't at the time know there was any other sort!)

I drew up a list for each set text with headings like themes, characters etc and then picked three or four pithy quotes for each one. I write them all out and memorised them and then managed to shoe-horn them into the exam essay (no matter what the question!). It's a slog but it worked.

He should talk to his teacher as well if he's stressing - his school will want him to do as well as possible so will probably be running revision sessions closer to the exam

Sorry - just realised its a Y9 exam so scrub the revision sessions bit!

Rosie - I don't know what exam board it is. In fact I don't think they've started their GCSEs yet, as they're only in Y9, I think they're just running the assessment same as they will in Y10 and 11.

But if the exam board was WJEC, what would you advise?

Basildon - I think he should do what you've said and learn a couple of quotes and use them no matter what, but he can't imagine that working. The idea of that is stressing him out as much as the idea of not doing that.

I think he needs to see how the assessment goes and then talk to the teacher if he doesn't do well. Seeing as he still has 3 years to learn how do these exams.

He wants an A* (in his GCSE) and is perfectly capable of it. But he puts himself under so much pressure he is constantly stressed :(

I did eng lit o level a very long time ago, but we had to choose multi function quotes (ideally - but some of them only had one function) to, for example, demonstrate key character traits, the key themes, or to accompany major events. So, for pride and prejudice, I selected and learned quotes demonstrating times when Elizabeth was prejudiced against Darcy (and ones that showed her realising this and softening towards him), ones that showed how proud (and rude) he was, ones that illustrated how silly mrs Bennett and the younger girls were, ones that showed how well elizabet and Darcy were suited, ones that showed how ridiculous mr Collins was, etc. We knew this was what we'd have to do so as we read th book, we identified and noted down the sort of quotes we thought we'd remember and would be able to use. I know this is the sort of thing DD1 also did for her english exams a year or so ago, she had several pages of 'useful quotes' she could trot out. She got full UMS on two of the 4 papers over both english exams and for her CAs so it obviously worked. It is a daunting task when you have a blank sheet of paper but once you start banging the quotes in, it gets easier and you don't need huge numbers unless you are very belt and braces. Once you have them, learning them makes you think about the text, and it's an easy way to revise (sitting down saying to yourself now I'm going to think about 'name of book' can be off putting, having a concrete task (learning quotes) is easier and you find yourself thinking about their application and relevance as a side effect - so you feel better and you're doing constructive stuff). If your DS gets used to this now, he'll find it easier at squeaky bum time (the actual exams).

Go on to TES website and sign up. Then search 'resources' for Lord of the Flies - there is a brilliant revision mat (pdf) that you can just save or print which has key quotations and themes, and how they overlap. It's brilliant!

Learning key quotations which can be adapted is a great GCSE skill.

Good luck!

If it's WJ, there is a closed book exam as part of lit. There will be an extract to do a comprehension style answer on which is usually based on something around character. The next question is an essay and there will be two options.
The exam usually focuses on themes and characters.
If your son is def studying this book into gcse, you could buy him the CGP publishing study guide and the York notes - both available on Amazon. I frequently photocopy bits of these and give them out to mine to supplement their individual revision (sshhhh).

You could get him to learn 5 key quotes for each character, do a venn diagram to understand relationships between characters, make a flow hart of how themes link to character etc.

The WJEC website us quite accessible to non teachers but takes a bit of navigating. You could also join teachit for free which could give you revision ideas to help him.

My daughter is in Year 9 and says she has assessments. I was under the impression they were so the teachers had their present levels for parents evenings (I know they always test them at this time), or do they count towards GCSE results.

I hope someone can help you were your queries. It will be interesting to see what is said. It could well be the pressure in Year 9 is coming out through him worrying about this particular subject. Can he email the English teacher and is he/she likely to reply? Some are very good at my DD's school, others aren't.

Unfortunately my DD genuinely hasn't had time to revise for anything as homework has really been stepped up. She's been constantly working (unless we've been out) and was even doing homework while the XFactor was on. She spent 5.5 hours doing it on Wednesday. She had an after school club (which she has to attend) last night, so told her I was limiting her homework to one hour each subject - luckily Maths only took 30 mins in the end as they were allowed to do homework in class if they'd finished their work and there was less this week, and she kept art really simple and did it in an hour (she's been spending about four hours a week on it). I'm going to see how the homework goes after half term and query it if there's so much. I suspect it's because she's putting herself under too much pressure to get it perfect.

Brilliant, thank you everyone.

I've found the revision mat on TES. Looks great.

I don't think he's doing Lord of the Flies for GCSE. I think he's just doing it now.

He's only Y9 starting the GCSE course. Although he would be expected to quote from memory at the end of Y11, I don't think that pupils would be expected to manage this straight away.
Local schools in my area spread the GCSE courses over 2 years so don't start until Y10. I have invigilated mock (Y10 and 11) and actual GCSE exams for several years at a local secondary school. What the school does is they set similar questions for Y10 and Y11 but in Y10 they have fresh copies of the set books provided during the exam which they can use to find the quotes. In Y11 the books are taken away and they are expected to do this from memory.
Closed book can mean no books are allowed at all. It can also mean that they are not allowed to take in their own copies of set books (which may have notes written on them) but they can have new unused copies to use during the test.
HTH

I was on a course on this a couple of days ago (secondary English, co-ordinating out new Lit programme of study) - you might want to look at the sample paper here - you need paper 2.

www.aqa.org.uk/subjects/english/gcse/english-literature-8702/supporting-resources

It'll be a closed book exam, so yes, you do need to mug up a few quotes!

Oh, & totally different set up from current controlled assessment, so no planning in class, no notes to work from.

But yes, schools may well initially allow 'open book' for practice assessments & then expect them to know the text fully by year 11.

It is also worth remembering that quotes don't always have to be long. For example Ralph is described as "fair", Roger as "dark" and "furtive", these are easy for all to remember and can be explored effectively in an exam.

Thanks all.

His friend sat the test yesterday, so now he knows the question. :)

(It's about civilisation vs savagery)

So, not sure that he's learnt how to do an answer in exam conditions, but he's put a good answer together with appropriate quotes (from the TES revision map) - and he's no longer stressed.

He's got 3 years to learn how to do this properly.... which I'm sure is long enough.

Coolas - This assessment doesn't count for anything, it's just an end of term assessment. But he still wants to do well.

Aggghast - I didn't realise quotes could be one word. That certainly helps.

Yes - if anything, it's much much better to have precise, embedded quotations than big waffly ones in formulaic PEA or PEACE paragraphs.

Another vote for shmoop. Really helpful site for traditional revision.

Also, the internet is positively hooching with old style coursework essays; you need to be selective as many of these sites don't quality control contributions, but worth a look.

www.google.co.uk/#safe=vss&q=lord+of+the+flies+civilisation+vs+savagery+essay.