Poetry analysis. A question about the exam.

[Beccaboo822]

I know they have to be familiar with all 15 poems, dc doing conflict.

In the exam, do they choose the poems that relate to the unseen poem or is there a question where it could be on any of the 15 poems and you have to answer questions specifically to the one they suggest?

DC really struggling to grasp them all so wondering of we could pick 5 say that all have different themes.

I was wondering if anyone could help, it would be much appreciated:-)

Is this AQA?

If so, they are given one poem from the list (they have the text) and have to compare it with another poem on theme x.

More than one theme, and ofc the given poem may be one they have picked to focus on, so they need to have good knowledge of some poems (agree 5-6 is a good number) covering different themes.

eg dd was given bayonet charge and asked to talk about war - she chose exposure. Those actually were two she had worked on.

The unseen poetry is different - an actual unseen poem to discuss, then compare with another unseen poem. No way of revising here beyond knowledge of techniques and how to answer.

Yes AQA

Thanks, so realistically, we don't have to know everyone inside out?

My dc knows Kamikaze and Oxymandias the best.

This is helpful, thank you

OK so does my somewhat telescopically written post make sense?

There are three poetry questions:

• One where they are given the text of a poem from the list and they are asked to pick another poem from the list to compare it to, on the theme of [war, power, difficult experiences have come up so far]
• One where they are given an unseen poem and discuss one aspect of it - old age, relationships, youth, etc
• One where they are given another unseen poem and compare it to the first in terms of the same theme

OK so Ozymandias came up in 2018 so is unlikely to come up again – or is it? After all Bayonet Charge apparently came up again in 2022 (after being 2017’s choice). But that was a gift really as it’s a nice one.

Everyone is terrified of Tissue hahaha.

There is basically no way of knowing what will be the chosen poem, but since you have it there, I don’t think it’s worth getting too anxious about that. Just, if the chosen one is one you know well, you need to have others you also know well for comparison. So at least 5 I would say. Make sure you include weather (Exposure would work here as well as a war poem) as it might be Storm on the Island.

We had this issue last year. My son was doing the love poetry selection (not selection he loved!) and he wanted to learn none of them. We agreed upfront a number that he would look at in depth - I think 6 - and we used the CGP revision guide. I am sure you can look at one in Waterstones if you don’t want to buy as they are expensive. It had a handy table at the back which showed themes and then which poem would be suitable for each theme. We picked 6 poems that, per the table, meant each theme was covered. We dismissed a couple he really hated plus the theme that had come up the previous year. We did then try and look at some of the others but really focused on those 6. It made it bearable for him and he ended up with a good grade. He’ll never read a poem again apparently.

I think we are going to have to pick 4 or 5 and hope for the best. Can any recommend ones they think are a good shout?
He knows Kamikaze, London and Oxymandias a bit.

https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/power-and-conflict-poetry-theme-comparison-grid-12666183

@Beccaboo822 Mine chose the ones that have the most themes to compare them to others, so from memory, London, Poppies, Ozy, War Photographer, Kamikaze and Remains. These were picked using the revision guide, I think Poppies hits 6 themes which is the most out of all the poems and the others all hit at least 3 themes I think. There was a chart in the CGP guide which we handed back into school that had tick boxes for each theme. We just calculated the ones that hit the most and did those.

It is suspected that Tissue will never come up as it is just too difficult and the paper has to be doable by all levels as there is no foundation/higher tier.

Have a look at the mark scheme and understand and convey to your child (which should have been conveyed in class for the last two years) that they need to hit all Assessment Objectives or AO categories to get more marks. Mark scheme below, lays out what they are looking for. AO2 and language, analyse a word or sentence, why did the author choose that?

Best advice I can give you is for you and him to watch Mr Salles 5 key quotations videos on Youtube (on higher speed maybe 1.75) and have an actual plan of what to write before he goes into the exam. For Ds last year he had very simple flash cards that had everything broken down and answered the questions below for each poem, something like

Form - who is speaking? first/third person? First person plural/singular? Reported speech/direct speech?
Dramatic monologues,
rhyme schemes abab etc,
line lengths, enjambment, caesura,

Then structure - stanzas - is there something about the way they are written? ie in Remains the first 4 stanzas are just recounting a horrible story, then a volta, a shift of focus in stanza 5, "end of story" except it isn't. It moves onto how he feels about what happened.

Then Salles' 5 quotes. That way they have a list of everything they need to get in to the answer. It isn't a 50/50 split, if the poem that comes up is something they know well then definitely focus on that one, if not then absolutely focus on the one they do know well for that theme. Mine had the CGP revision guide which made it easy to list out the form/structure etc for each poem.

My advice is for your child to read all 15 poems out loud every day.

https://filestore.aqa.org.uk/sample-papers-and-mark-schemes/2018/june/AQA-87022-W-MS-JUN18.PDF

Thank you so so much. I can't tell you how much it means!!

@Beccaboo822 I am gutted that I purged everything GCSE from the house, all Ds1's notes from 2019 and Ds2 for 2022 because it keeps cropping up on here and I want to help as best I can. All the Mr Salles videos are brilliant, at this late stage you just want the key quotes. I have no idea where your son is grades wise, I feel aim high so Salles not Bruff. Hit all the AO categories.

Ds2 wasn't great at English lit but basically went in just knowing a few things to write to a high level, followed the FOSSE method of Salles so start with form, ie for London each stanza is a quatrain using iambic tetrameter in abab rhyme scheme and could be likened to the sound of marching feet. Hence those flashcards having all this down. Always have the opening, always have the ending.

Salles shows you don't need the whole poem just 5 good quotes and he will remember loads from class he just doesn't think he does right now. This is completely normal for them to feel nothing else will fit in their head and yet apparently their heads are empty.

Just found the revision guide on Amazon, now I know it is late in the game, but he might have this already from school, if not click on the "look inside" part, it has Ozy and London broken down, plus that tick box for themes, so Poppies has 6 as does War Photographer, Remains has 5. That is how mine broke down what to revise. https://www.amazon.co.uk/GCSE-English-Literature-Poetry-Guide/dp/1782943617/

Get him to use his time well, eating, he watches/listens to Salles, on the toilet, getting dressed, serious valuable time getting stuff into his head.