For those of you with exams coming up, here is some advice. For those who don’t have exams, read anyway – it may well be of use later.
It’s not all about knowing the texts and demonstrating your command of the English language. What about you as a person? It’s natural to feel nervous before an exam. Use that energy. Channel it into your revision and exam practice, but don’t let nerves get the better of you. In the exam, breathe in slowly through your nose, hold for a moment, then breath out slowly through your mouth – you will find yourself becoming calmer.
Ensure that you get a good night’s sleep the night before the exam.
Use the toilet before the exam, but don’t feel embarrassed about asking to use the loo during the exam – it’s better to concentrate on your answers than on your bladder.
Make your table your world. Ignore everyone and everything else in the room – nothing else matters. Put your watch on the table and ignore the clock on the wall.
Ensure that you have two pens (at least) in the exam hall. There are always some students who have pens that run out of ink (and some even forget to bring pens with them!).
Start with whatever section gives you the possibility of the most marks (You can always rearrange the order of your papers at the end). Give yourself at least five minutes at the end to proof-read what you’ve written – you wrote fast under pressure, so there will inevitably be mistakes.
Don’t think that you can fob the examiner off with waffle. Here’s a genuine Year 11 essay:
This poem written by … is a poem that gives the reader a thought of the poem. As the reader reads the poem, he/she would get an image of the poem. The reader would be able to imagine a picture of what is going on in the poem. The choice of words that the poet uses makes it easier for the reader to get an image of the poem.
This bland, fault-ridden opening tells us nothing. One could apply it to any poem or prose excerpt that one has never bothered to read. No examiner will ever be fooled by this nonsense. It is waffle that the student hopes will disguise the fact that he/she does not understand the piece. Do not waste time writing this rubbish – instead, make meaningful and specific comments about the piece.
Now compare it to this response from the same class about the same poem:
…is a romantic piece about two estranged lovers who live in different places.
Don’t rely on the teacher or think to blame everything on him/her. Even before the Internet, students were expected to demonstrate initiative and do their research in the library. Today, you have a wealth of information at the touch of a button. Use it – and don’t be tempted to make excuses. If something is unclear, don’t wait until the lesson. If you have a problem with your written expression – fix it (You will find many useful links on this very site).
Remember that you are students of Language primarily – in a sense, there is no such thing as a student of Literature – because it’s all about the words and their construction! With this in mind, don’t shy away from the poetry in the unseen exam – because you should be writing about pace, fluency, pitch and other such devices even when writing about prose.
Take the time to explore the texts and the language exercises to discover what you think. Don’t just blindly repeat what your teacher has said. CIE say:
“Examiners can easily differentiate between students who have genuinely responded to literature for themselves and those who have merely parroted dictated or packaged notes.”
Smell is a great aid to memory (apparently). Try wearing the same perfume/aftershave on the day of the exam that you use when revising.
Timing! Plan your time properly. Start by answering the questions that have the potential to give you the greatest numerical score. Allocate your time appropriately. Read the questions three times to ensure that you understand – but don’t ever waste time on first drafts! Try to finish at least five minutes before the end of the exam – spend the last few minutes proof-reading – you can pick up valuable extra points this way.
Practise! Practise! Practise!
Here are the funniest (and most alarming) mistakes from previous exams. Enjoy.
“strucked…striked…hitted…builted…digged out”
“…about how they survived this disaster and geologists.”
“The earthquake was informed.”
“The speaker reveals everything that happens, using words.”
“Seamus uses some words to depict the mood and foreshadowing and metaphors.”
[n.b If you do not understand the words illustrate, depict and foreground, it is probably best not to use them]
Next, we have those who waste time with the blindingly obvious or the completely vague:
“The Mid-term Break is either ironic and not ironic.”
“Heaney expresses his feelings through various techniques.”
“The poet uses the word ‘angry’ to show that the mother is angry.”
And finally, we have the Just Plain Weird category:
“Geogolists”
“The message will be sent forth” (Presumably with Moses from Mt Sinai)
“lossness”
“The destruction was handmade”
“…a warning to warn.”
“The poet instigate alliteration and assonance to emphasize the stopping of blood and life.”
“This past member is dead with bloods.”
“An illustration of a picture or the creation of imagery was extrapolate in the concluding stanza of the poem.”
“Seamus wants the conveys.”
“Seamus ironicly twisted both the tone and mood of his poem.”
“This poem consists of irony, sad mood and tone, and symbolism.”
“He was alone with his brother and many literary terms.”
“The person is Death.”
“emotional feelings”
“Heaney adds assonance and alliteration.”
Firstly (and most importantly) answer the question. You have been told repeatedly to do this – and yet the majority are still in the habit of ignoring it! It is not rocket science. In fact, it is the same the question every time! It will always ask you “how” a writer achieves his/her effects. It will not ask you to explain what the words mean. You must talk about techniques.
Take one technique for each topic paragraph. Extrapolate upon it. State clearly what/how/why.
There are no extra points available for writing about things that are irrelevant. Only answer the question.
Stop using the word “vivid” (even if it appears in the question). It does not mean the same as ‘descriptive’ nor ‘evocative.’
Look at the title. First think of the literal meaning before thinking of any possible figurative application and possible implications. Here, the title “Follower” literally means someone who walks about following someone else. It also suggests one who wishes to emulate and/or venerates another. It may even suggest a disciple.
As you read the poem it should become quickly apparent that the words demonstrate just this sense encapsulated in the title – that the son ‘followed’ his father. He expresses how, as a clumsy small child, he idolised his father (both literally around the farm and figuratively as his most ardent fan). The father is described as “an expert” who worked with skill (“mapping the furrow exactly”) and verve (“…with a single pluck”). He was a powerful giant of a man whose strength was seemingly that of Atlas (“His shoulders globed…”), whereas the child felt inept (“I stumbled…a nuisance…yapping…”). Heaney contrasts the two to communicate the shame and inferiority that he felt at the time. However, now, with the passing of years, an ironic reversal has occurred – now, as a famous poet, Heaney finds that it is his father who ‘follows’ him. The last two lines seem very harsh as Heaney says that his father is the one who ‘stumbles’ (presumably making mistakes and possibly being the embarrassment now) and “will not go away.” The venerated and the follower have switched places – but Heaney (the ‘voice’ of the poem not necessarily being exactly the same as the poet himself) appears to accept the situation with far less grace than his father before him.
Eddie, the tragic hero
Tragedies traditionally took as their heroes men and women of high office (kings, queens, princesses etc) but Miller believed the “ordinary” man to be an appropriate protagonist for his plays. In fact, he shows us characters who are not “ordinary,” an implicit statement that there is no such thing as “ordinary.” The USA is a meritocracy (at least in theory) where the power lies with the so-called “ordinary” person (again, at least in theory). Eddie is in fact from a solidly working class environment – but his passions are just as “Greek” (as Miller terms them) as any high-born emperor. Like them, his fatal flaw drives him to his own self-destruction. “Eddie Carbone had never expected to have a destiny.” A “destiny”? What does Miller mean by this?
Eddie’s self-denial
Eddie cannot face up to the reality that he finds Catherine (his neice and god-daughter) attractive, and so he decides that “something aint right” about Rodolpho, the man she admires. His apparently effeminate attributes (and even his stature) seem evidence enough to Eddie that he is actually a homosexual and thus only interested in Catherine as a means to gaining American citizenship – the fact that he is buying luxury items seems to confirm this – “he’s here to stay,” Eddie says.
Alfieri
Like Rod serling in The Twilight Zone, Alfieri acts as the narrator. His function is, in a sense, the “bridge” of the title – he acts as a link between our world (comfortable ‘tame’ middle class) and that of the working class American Italians in their enclave. The “bridge” is not just the literal Brooklyn one (from which we may look down as we pass over) but a functional one within the play itself.
Something’s lost, but something’s gained
Perhaps “civilised” means ‘tamed’? Yes, it means that there is less bloodshed (no more Al Capone), but is something lost too? Miller has Alfieri call Capone “the greatest Carthaginian of them all” – a man born in New York, not North Africa! Why? Probably because Carthage fought against the rule of Rome, which Miller may be using here as a metaphor for a civilising power. Southern Italians, in particular, have long held a deep suspicion of the law – but Alfieri notes that he now feels safer. Nevertheless, this “ordinary” man sometimes yearns for an idealised past on the Mediterranean. He feels a sense of loss. Something is missing now, something raw and vital. Something Authentic. Something that Alfieri admires in Eddie. Could it be that like Carthage, Eddie too wages an unwinnable war against a younger power? He is ultimately doomed (his “destiny”) but his refusal to back down, his insistence on regaining his “name” (his honour), is an admirable quality.
Poetic Justice
Eddie dies from the very weapon with which he threatens Marco.
This scenario is often a cliche in action movies because it clears the hero of any blame – the villain is a victim of his own evil machinations (Typically, he forgets a trap that he set earlier or…he dies from his own hand in a duel). If the universe itself is somehow responsible for the villain’s doom, it is called Natural Justice. When the punishment fits the crime, we call it Poetic Justice. Is Eddie a villain? Is the universe punishing him? Does he (and remember that ‘he’ is a fictional construct representing people like ‘him’ in the real world) deserve his fate?
“…something perversely pure calls to me from his memory…he allowed himself to be wholly known…I think I will love him more than all my sensible clients.”
Poetry often seems to scare people. Here’s a straightforward video presentation that demystifies and helps you to understand and appreciate poetry:
n.b. The definition of alliteration in the video above is wrong – alliteration is the repetition of the initial (first) sound in a string of words. If those repeated sounds happen to be consonants, then it is also consonance – but if they’re vowels, it is also assonance.
Don’t forget that poetry is a different country (They do things differently there). Where you may think about a prose or drama excerpt, the poem is more for feeling. One good way of approaching a poem is to ask yourself how it makes you feel. This may or may not be the poet’s intention, but that’s beside the point – try to work out why it makes you feel this way. Then just ensure that you remove personal pronouns and focus it instead on the poet and his/her writing techniques (Always WHAT, HOW and above all WHY). Thus, “I feel uneasy when I read this poem” becomes “This poem generates a sense of unease through…” Finally, don’t forget that it is no good just to identify the ‘WHAT’ – you have to explain the HOW and the WHY.
The write-up for the first album cited here is a very good example of how to connect form and content in poetry. This is specific and focused, a far cry from empty claims or vague references that sometimes occur in poetry essays for IGCSE and IB. Take note.
P.S. Don’t forget that these are also the kinds of comments that you should be writing about prose too – it’s not just poetry that has rhythm, repetition and so on.
In Reservist, Boey Kim Cheng regards the military service as laughable. He mocks it as being delusional (This is most evident in his reference to Don Quixote – “…tilt at windmills”). These are old men he says (“With creaking bones…grunts”) play-acting at being “knights” in some medieval farce – but the most that they can muster these days is being “battle-weary” ones before they even begin. They all look ridiculous (“…rusty armour…pot bellies”). Their “cavalier days” (when they looked dashing and vital in uniform) are long gone. Now they are a parody of a fighting force. It is pure “fantasy land” to expect these old and out of condition men to prepare for war. Moreover, Cheng appears to say that it is all for the vanity of those in power (“…kings’ command”) that they enact this pointless ritual (“We…Sisyphus”).
‘Billenium‘ J. G. Ballard, 1961 – (Alternate title: ‘Billennium’) Overpopulation has sensitized everyone to space, including Ward, who measures his ceiling to make sure the upstairs neighbour isn’t pulling a fast one. When he discovers a hidden room and shares it with others, will his generosity mean anything?
The Oxford Book of Science Fiction.
J.G. Ballard was a prominent writer, both of Sci-Fi and ‘mainstream’ literature. This particular short story from the Stories of Ourselves anthology is yet another bleak perspective on human nature. However, the best Sci-Fi is prophetic – this means that it doesn’t so much seek to predict the future as prevent it It is a warning of what might happen if we don’t mend our ways.
The genre is Science-Fiction (sometimes called Speculative Fiction), and the sub-genre is Dystopian Fiction. This type of story is really about the present – it focuses on a social issue/trend and extrapolates its future implications (in this case, over-population). In this sense, it is a literary form of a caricature.
In a similar vein, but much more hard-hitting, is Harry Harrison’s Make Room! Make Room!, which was made into the feature film Soylent Green:
When I was 7 years old, an author came to my school to give a talk. I remember that he said that a good story “must have a beginning, a middle and an end.” At the time, I thought that this was so blindly obvious that it didn’t really need to be said. However, I came to realise that what he meant was that a writer should consciously structure his/her work. This is true of non-fiction as well as fiction.
Does your essay writing resemble a stream of consciousness? If so, then you need to address your structure as a matter of some urgency. Even if you are actually writing in the style of Talking Heads, you will notice that Alan Bennett does, in fact, structure his monologues.
Your structure is the skeleton around which you build the body of your speech, essay, story or whatever. In the case of the short story, the author may pose a question at the start and give his/her verdict at the end. Thus, by referring back to the original premise (without actually repeating) an author can confer upon the story a sense of completeness. This is the purpose of a conclusion – it is not a summary – it simply concludes. Too many oral exams fizzle out at the end, with the student saying, “um…er…that’s about it really.” Nothing screams Lack of Structure at an examiner louder than an oral exam that ends this way. So, before you come to talk or write, decide on the beginning middle and end.
At IGCSE and IB level, the skill of commentary writing (sometimes called Practical Criticism) is something that students need to develop. Whether writing on a whole text, an excerpt from a text or a poem, there are guidelines to help you.
I often have the feeling that even at the best of times literary criticism is fraudulent… One’s real reaction to a book, when one has a reaction at all, is usually “I like this book” or “I don’t like it”, and what follows is a rationalisation.
– George Orwell
Always focus on the HOW? WHAT? and WHY? questions (not necessarily in this order).
WHAT type of text is it? (Biography, travel writing, narrative etc).
WHAT is the topic and WHAT does the author say to us?
WHAT tone emerges?
HOW does the writer shape his/her work – and to what effect?
WHY? Even though you will spend the bulk of your essay explaining HOW a writer says something, the WHY is the most important question. We can never know what an author “intended” – only what the text says. Nor is there a “hidden meaning.” However, fromthe choices that the author makes and the effects of those choices, we may infer.
The ‘Unseen’ exam
In the ‘unseen’ exam, you should only write about the excerpt on the page – not the rest of the text (unless specifically asked to do so) or irrelevant biographical details of the author.
Don’t expect to find themes in short prose excerpts (or poetry). These generally emerge during the course of a longer work. Instead, ask yourself WHY the examiner has chosen this piece. The answer is that it exemplifies a particular technique. Identify the HOW? WHAT? and WHY? of this technique. Nine times out of ten, something ironic is going on in the text. However, merely labelling is insufficient. If you write, “This text is ironic,” the examiner will, no doubt, write “So what?” Instead, say WHAT the author does, HOW he/she does it and the effect (from which you may infer the WHY). For example, by juxtaposing X with Y, the author(No! Name him/her) Silas Scringestone creates a comical contrast between the two characters, thus implicitly mocking the blah blah blah (you get the idea).
Use a formal register to match the formal nature of the work. While you may not wish to sound like a High Court judge, you should nevertheless avoid abbreviations, slang and colloquial expressions (the most common being kids, guys, cash, smart, kind of, pretty much and gonna).
Do not merely paraphrase – you need to analyse (That’s HOW, WHAT and WHY).
Focus on what the author does – nothow “the readers” feel:
When I read this text, I feel really sorry for Mr Bump. X
Roger Hargreaves makes Mr Bump a sympathetic character, deserving of pity. √
Any reference to yourself or “the readers” is a strong indication that you have your focus back to front.
If you know the author’s name – use it! If you keep saying “the author,” you are effectively telling the examiner that you can’t be bothered to mention his/her name.
…which reminds me… The word “mentions” is not the same as “states,” “cites” or even “says.” It refers to something of no particular importance.
Be concise. Don’t include superfluous words:
The excitement and the happiness that Leila is feeling makes the reader think of her as a girl who worked very hard to get to her goal and when she did, she celebrated because she was really happy. X
Leila was very happy to achieve her goal. √
Make specific comments – not vague ones:
This poem written by insert name here is a poem that gives the reader a thought of the poem. As the reader reads the poem, he/she would get an image of the poem. The reader would be able to imagine a picture of what is going on in the poem. The choice of words that the poet uses makes it easier for the reader to get an image of the poem. X
…is a romantic piece about two estranged lovers who live in different places. √
Use the Present Perfect tense for commentaries. This is not history. Every time you open the book at the same page, Winston Smith is still in Room 101. Even though he is long dead, George Orwell still ‘speaks’ to us through the text. However, Julius Caesar invaded Britain once – he does not still invade today.
