Here is some generalised feedback about your mock exams which you did before the summer. We will go through the exams as a class and you each have individual feedback written on your exam papers which you can collect at any time. However I feel that it is always useful to have an idea of the general areas of weakness.

Firstly though I would like to congratulate a couple of students who excelled in this mock paper; Joseph and Ciaran! Well done! Hopefully you will be willing to share your tips for success with the rest of the class.

Now for the feedback:

1. Timings – a large number of you dropped several marks because you did not leave time to answer a question or  to complete an answer. This meant that sometimes people were saying goodbye to 16 or more marks at a time. The good news is that managing your time in an exam is an easy skill to acquire – all you have to do is practise.

2. Writing ‘Non-Fiction’ – the writing tasks at the end of the paper kept me entertained,  particularly as a number of you decided to create fictional characters to answer. There were even whole fictional families and people writing as embittered OAPs. A fantastic display of your creative writing talents but not right for a Non-Fiction exam; it’s ok to write an embellished truth but you are supposed to be writing with your own voice – a teenage schoolboy with your genuine name!

3. Presentational Devices – in the question which asks you to look at presentational devices, such as headlines, sub headings and pictures, you need to look in detail at the fonts, colours and layout. From these you should consider what the effect of these is upon the reader – for example blue could be used within an article to connect to a theme of water or to create a calming sensation if the writer wants the reader to empathise with the article. You should aim to find as many details as possible and explore all their possible effects.

4. Language – in the question which asks you to examine language, it is really important that you focus specifically on the language used. This means the types of words – are they deliberately emotional? What does this make you feel (what is their effect)? Does the writer use vivid vocabulary to build pictures in your mind? What does this make you think/feel/imagine (effect)? Do they use similes, metaphors, repetition, rhetorical questions, alliteration or other literary devices? What pictures do these create? What is the author trying to make the reader think/feel (effect)? You could also look at the types of sentences used and whether the author uses factual or descriptive language. Again you should use specific examples – the more the merrier – and explain their possible effects.

 

There is a lot of information here and I do not expect you to take this all in at once, but do come back to this post and read through it when you are working on your non-fiction responses. The better you understand what is required of you, the better you will do.