GCSE English language mock exam

6 replies

Clue1ess · 08/12/2022 21:22

My DS sat his English GCSE mock exam and he said he didn’t complete a whole section of the paper. This section was worth half of the total points, where he had to write a story based on the picture given.
He is not very imaginative/creative and he said that when he looked at the picture, he just couldn’t think of a story to go with it. So the whole section was left blank.
Looking forward, I’ve suggested that he could think of a few stories that he could adapt to different scenarios. But I’m worried that this might not be enough to cover every single possible scenario that could come up.

Is there any other useful tips I could give him, between now and the final exams?

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Bimbleberries · 08/12/2022 21:24

He should have an option to write a description as well, which is often easier than the story because it doesn't have to have as much structure.

He could practise going through different senses, thinking of some interesting words, describing the picture broadly then zooming in, maybe introduce a character to help describe things etc. And you can easily practise it at home with any random photo.

Bimbleberries · 08/12/2022 21:26

He definitely needs to write something, though. Even if he doesn't have ideas and just ends up describing exactly what he sees in the photo, he'll still get some marks, which is better than nothing. It's a bad idea to just leave it totally blank, and it sounds like he has some sort of anxiety or avoidance thing going on, which needs to be addressed, so that he can at least try something even if it's not perfect.

TeenDivided · 09/12/2022 11:53

Was it AQA Summer 2022?
If so they made life hard by making the picture the story and the one sentence option the description, so that might have thrown him.

Original poster

Clue1ess · 10/12/2022 13:26

TeenDivided · 09/12/2022 11:53

Was it AQA Summer 2022?
If so they made life hard by making the picture the story and the one sentence option the description, so that might have thrown him.

It was AQA but for a different year.

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RamblingEclectic · 10/12/2022 13:59

I found 'As Told By Teachers' short stories helpful with this with my older son who similarly struggled - it has both written and picture prompts and shows multiple examples written by teachers of exam-like answers. Having those examples and practicing on those and practice papers helped.

Original poster

Clue1ess · 10/12/2022 17:28

RamblingEclectic · 10/12/2022 13:59

oh thank you so much for the suggestion, I’ll make sure he tries this.
I assume it’s this one?

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