Remember, for the English exam, you will have a close reading paper, and a writing paper.
In the close reading paper, the key thing to remember is to answer the question exactly. Look for the number of marks available and work out what you need to do to get all of the marks. Use the support sheet that I gave you to remind you of the different types of questions. If you want a past paper, click here and choose the General paper. To stretch yourselves, you can do the Credit paper. You should check your answers after you have done it here.
In the writing paper, choose either a creative or a personal piece. Before you start writing, make a decision on the following:
- Plot (where you will begin telling the story, how you present the main event, and where you will end it)
- Characters
- Narrator (1st or third person, and when they are telling the story in relation to the event)
- Conflict (What is the story really about? What does the reader want to know throughout the story?)
Once you are completely clear on all of this, think about how you will build atmosphere and tension, then you can begin writing. Some other key pieces of advice:
- Think very carefully about your opening sentences. You need to raise questions in the reader's mind.
- Try to make your imagery interesting and unusual. Visualise, or imagine very carefully, the thing you are comparing, before comparing it to something else. Try to build your imagery into the action (for example through verb choice), rather than just sticking on a simile.
- Add in descriptive touches throughout the piece.
- Set out speech correctly.
- Vary the lengths of sentences to slow down or speed up action, and to make your writing more readable.
Exam Preparation
Just because you don't have specific things to learn for the English exam, don't think that you cannot do things to help you perform better. As a minimum, do the following:
- Mark your own answers in the close reading paper.
- Write a few openings for different stories.
- Practise a short descriptive passage. Describe the table where you are now.
As you walk around each day, try to come up with similes and metaphors for things that you see. Personify objects by imagining that they are doing things. Is the empty Coco-Pops packet echoing your hunger? Is the spider plant reaching down to tickle the cat? Is your little sister clowning? Is your mother policing the house? Is your Granny levering herself out of the chair, or plucking information out of you? This is all imagery, and is the sort of thing that will gain you credit in your writing.
Any questions about anything, please come and ask me, or email me (gb@hsog.co.uk).
