English GCSE help

[zazzabeans]

Long story but my ds is 18 and has failed his English exam twice. He is studying music at college and to get onto the level 3, he needs to pass English.
He has 1 question left to do tomorrow - I'm assuming it's from a past paper-as have all the others been..it's worth noting he has learning difficulties and him being able to work from home a lot this year has helped because iv been there to assist him.
He had a quick look at the question today for tomorrow and he said it's something to do with a music / band review.. Does this sound familiar to anyone who has got previous experience with English gcse? Just I'm wanting to prepare him as much as I can for tomorrow to give him the best chance possible.
Thanks 🙂

The best way to prepare him now is probably to ask him the paper number and the question number. Then ask him what he has been taught about what is needed for that question.

e.g. AQA Paper 2 Q3 is a language question where you have to say what language devices have been used and the effect they have (or something). So he would need to know about similies, metaphors, parts of speech etc.

If it is creative writing or opinion he needs to use appropriate literary devices. Given what he is studying and the topic he at least should have opinions/knowedge.

It sounds like transactional writing.

My dd did her GCSES in 2018. She did Edexel English Lang and one paper she had to do a review of something. The rest of the paper had been comparisons of two articles about singers who died (one died of a stroke which caused uproar as her dad had been taken into hospital the day before with a suspected mini stroke but I digress)

She actually did a review of a musical she hadn’t yet seen. It must have been ok as she got a Grade 9.

Tips would be to make sure the review evaluates the strengths and weaknesses of the band/concert/show and to give reasons why you feel what you do about the band.

How has he already seen the question for tomorrow?!

For a solid review, some specific details would be effective: if it's a band/ gig review, mention a song/ number they played. How did they perform it? How did the crowd respond: 'As soon the opening chords of X were played, a loud cheer went up' . An anecdote would also work well if it's a personal review: 'I had spent three hours forty minutes logged onto four separate devices in an online queue for tickets to X. The time had fjnally arrived' .....and then return to the anecdote at the end of the review: ' That was 3 hours 40ins of my life I would never get back and I don't regret a second of it!' ( He can probably do better!) If it's a gig, remember to use all the senses to recreate it. Aim for one good (non-cliched)metaphor that captures the sound!