An A in English

Ally7

Just looking for a bit of advice here. I'm usually a low/mid B student in English, but would love to bring this up to an A.
Was just wondering if any A students here could give me a bit of advice? I dunno if I'm wasting my time as some people just have a knack for English, something which can't be learnt off.

Thanks in advance!

DylanS09

Ally7 wrote: »

Just looking for a bit of advice here. I'm usually a low/mid B student in English, but would love to bring this up to an A.
Was just wondering if any A students here could give me a bit of advice? I dunno if I'm wasting my time as some people just have a knack for English, something which can't be learnt off.

Thanks in advance!

Don't look at me!:D
I've a god awful teacher for this subject!I'm doing honours everything and getting honours in everything!But not English! I'm doing honours but my usuall grade is a C! Failed the pre..:(

peanuthead

Ally7 wrote: »

Just looking for a bit of advice here. I'm usually a low/mid B student in English, but would love to bring this up to an A.
Was just wondering if any A students here could give me a bit of advice? I dunno if I'm wasting my time as some people just have a knack for English, something which can't be learnt off.

Thanks in advance!

Hi Ally

I'm an English teacher myself and I'm used to people coming to me as late as now for help to get them up to an A.

At this stage what I say to them is to get writing sample compositions that they can learn off.

Learn off some fab intros to your poetry, drama and fiction essays, make sure you have really good things to say about them and know bits about your poets.

You can PM me if you want any more help

p

kevin12345

Ally7 wrote: »

Just looking for a bit of advice here. I'm usually a low/mid B student in English, but would love to bring this up to an A.
Was just wondering if any A students here could give me a bit of advice? I dunno if I'm wasting my time as some people just have a knack for English, something which can't be learnt off.

Thanks in advance!

Hi Ally, yeah I got an A in English for my mocks in Feb Obviously if you want an A, you need to do a lot of prep...write a few essays(stories) out (at least 4-5 A4 pages in length) and have them fully prepared before the exam that way you wont be twiddling your thumbs for 15 minutes trying to think of a plot during the exam.

With the studied fiction and drama it's simple. Prepare a question on a theme, scene and character, it's most common i.e favorite character, relationships between characters. Oh and with the theme, they may not use the word theme but rather "discuss the concept" or "discuss an issue which arises" this is a theme question in disguise

With poetry choose a good poem with a lot of themes. First death in Nova Scotia being my fave, it deals with death, youth, saddness and growing up.

With the unseen...it's all about practice... take out your exam papers and let rip into them

Hope that helped and pm me if you want to talk more

Scuid Mhór

Hey, Ally.

The most important thing to know if you want an A in English is how to write fast. You're expected to write 3/4 of a page for fifteen marks questions and double that for thirty, and on paper two you only have twenty-five minutes per question. What brought my grades down throughout second year was the simple, hurtful truth that I just wasn't writing fast enough, so I set myself exercises through the Summer to learn how to write faster. Started writing 'the quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog' and slowly progressed to writing out pages of novels in less than six minutes.

For the poetry, my personal favourites to learn would be Mid-Term Break by Seamus Heaney and Danny Boy by Frederick Weatherby. They both have so many elements of different themes that they can be used in nearly every question, so long as you have a good understanding of them. Mid-Term Break especially, but Danny Boy is pretty cool because a lot of kids our age probably know it (or at least the first verse) off by heart so it's easier to quote.

I was going to write something else about the studied texts questions on paper two but I can't phrase it properly on my iPod.

I'll just conclude that I got an A in the mocks with four major skills: the ability to read fast (helps to not waste time reading the questions and and answering several on the questions on paper 2); a good imagination (the creative writing section on paper 1 is arguably the most important question in the exam; if you can't write something made up, integrate something from reality and bend and twist it to fit what you're asked to write); a good understanding of the texts I studied (learning answers off is all good and well, but I prefer to instantly improvise with my answers, and I can do that because I know what I've studied inside out; the characters; the storyline; etc.); last but definitely not least; fast writing speed.

Hope this helps, and good luck.

peanuthead

Giant Squid wrote: »

Mid-Term Break .

Absolutely.

Love this as I love Seamus Heaney actually!!

But yeah, in terms of themes to cover, MTB covers:

memories
love
death
sadness
the past
family
relationships
emotions
community
true event
and pushing it - school

The only three topics/themes it won't cover are:

happiness
war
animals/nature


but its a great all-rounder poem

Ally7

Thanks everyone for the advice, will take it all into account!

peanuthead, was just wondering if you could give me an example of an intro? If i got one for one poem, I'd probably be able to come up with others for other poems!

peanuthead

Ally7 wrote: »

Thanks everyone for the advice, will take it all into account!

peanuthead, was just wondering if you could give me an example of an intro? If i got one for one poem, I'd probably be able to come up with others for other poems!

Yeah sure I'll PM you one over.

Will get on the case tomorrow as I am wrecked right now, but I will get you something for tomorrow, ok?

Ally7

peanuthead wrote: »

Yeah sure I'll PM you one over.

Will get on the case tomorrow as I am wrecked right now, but I will get you something for tomorrow, ok?

No problem at all, thanks so much for the help I really appreciate it

kevin12345

Please don't use Mid-Term Break - examiners hate it. Be sure 20000 students will use that poem, can you imagine how bored examiners are going to be?
My english teacher is one of the 11 consultants in the country for English - he takes calls from examiners who have problems and it's him (along with the other 10) re-check exams in September, he is
HEAVILY against anyone using MTB. There are plenty of poems you can substitute for it! Look up Eden Rock, First Death in Nova Scotia, Night Drive etc.
I guess I'm just lucky my teacher has gave the class a load of poetry (to avoid us using MTB )

RML

Mid -Term Break is the only poem we have learned in full detail.
My real english teacher just make us read through poems and tell us to answer questions and move on to another poem :mad:... we learned MTB when she was sick and we got another substitute teacher.

spurious

RML wrote: »

Mid -Term Break is the only poem we have learned in full detail.
My real english teacher just make us read through poems and tell us to answer questions and move on to another poem :mad:... we learned MTB when she was sick and we got another substitute teacher.

That is a real English teacher. You need to experience the huge range of poetry on offer and think about your own responses to it, not just learn off someone else's answer. Think for yourself. Say why YOU like it.

RML

spurious wrote: »

That is a real English teacher. You need to experience the huge range of poetry on offer and think about your own responses to it, not just learn off someone else's answer. Think for yourself. Say why YOU like it.

The new teacher did make us write about why we liked it and all about Mid-Term Break. For the J.C i am making notes about english poems and the features by myself..:)

I'll make sure that it goes onto the Notes Thread

kevin12345

RML wrote: »

The new teacher did make us write about why we liked it and all about Mid-Term Break. For the J.C i am making notes about english poems and the features by myself..:)

I'll make sure that it goes onto the Notes Thread

See this is what my English teacher said, "some schools JUST do MTB and hope for the best", but you can't really hope for the best with English :rolleyes: I myself wouldn't be able to write 3 A4 pages of an answer on MTB, but I do suggest, like what was said before me, that you try and open your, sort've "horizon" to more poems, Sylvia Plath maybe, hers are great for imagery etc. If you want to use a different poem for childhood or nostalgia look up Piano, a poem by D.H.Lawrence. I'm sure there's plenty of notes online for it too

peanuthead

spurious wrote: »

That is a real English teacher. You need to experience the huge range of poetry on offer and think about your own responses to it, not just learn off someone else's answer. Think for yourself. Say why YOU like it.

I second the notion of doing a wide selection of poetry, but I dont feel that reading a whole heap of poems and answering questions on them is fostering a love of it either.

The 'Say why YOU like it" - if more teachers taught this way people would be a bit more independent instead of waiting for everything to be done for them

and +1 about MTB kevin12345 - it is way over-studied and I can only imagine how bored examiners are.

I love Heaney but prefer to cover Digging or Sunlight.

HOWEVER....There are people here who have studied MTB and they can't really do anything about that now. That is the way they were taught and wrong or right that is all they can do now.

kevin12345

peanuthead wrote: »

I second the notion of doing a wide selection of poetry, but I dont feel that reading a whole heap of poems and answering questions on them is fostering a love of it either.

The 'Say why YOU like it" - if more teachers taught this way people would be a bit more independent instead of waiting for everything to be done for them

and +1 about MTB kevin12345 - it is way over-studied and I can only imagine how bored examiners are.

I love Heaney but prefer to cover Digging or Sunlight.

HOWEVER....There are people here who have studied MTB and they can't really do anything about that now. That is the way they were taught and wrong or right that is all they can do now.

So true...it's teachers taking the "lazy way out" MTB is forced into people now , and they are basically told LEARN THAT OFF...and that's it. Just wait until LC when poems will be coming out of our ears :rolleyes:

peanuthead

kevin12345 wrote: »

So true...it's teachers taking the "lazy way out" MTB is forced into people now , and they are basically told LEARN THAT OFF...and that's it. Just wait until LC when poems will be coming out of our ears :rolleyes:

And instead of being given poems to learn off by heart you will be given essays!! :rolleyes:

Ally7

I have Midterm Break done, bt by the sounds of it it's too commonly done. Would ye reccomend finding a different poem which also covers a lot of themes?

peanuthead

Ally7 wrote: »

I have Midterm Break done, bt by the sounds of it it's too commonly done. Would ye reccomend finding a different poem which also covers a lot of themes?

Hi Ally.

That's really up to you.

Students still get A's in English having done MTB. It's not going to impede your chances of an A by doing it. However, you will be doing what the majority do and therefore will be sort of compared to them in a way.

Only take on this kind of extra work if you are able for it. ie: have the time.

I also sent you a PM with the sample intro in it.

kevin12345

Ally7 wrote: »

I have Midterm Break done, bt by the sounds of it it's too commonly done. Would ye reccomend finding a different poem which also covers a lot of themes?

Have you ever heard of Eden Rock by Charles Causley? It's a poem about death but deals with the "happy" or "beautiful" side of death. As I have said before...First Death In Nova Scotia by Elizabeth Bishop is also a great poem...it's kind've like MTB, such that, it deals with death, childhood, growing up, saddness, except the examiner would be more happy to see that poem than seeing MTB...i used first death in nova scotia and got 30/30 in my mock :eek: where as another person in my class used MTB (to annoy my teacher ) and only got around 15/30??

there are plenty of poems by great poets Heany, Bishop, Plath have a search around for one you might like

Parawhore.xD

One poem I'm being told to know exceptionally well was "Dulce Et Decorum Est" by Owen Wilson.
It contains so much imagery and techniques you actualy have to pull yourself up short when your writing about it!
It covers severals themes too:
War
Death
A poem with a message
A poem with imagery
A poem that had an effect on you.

It can also be compared to other poems on war like Base Details and But You Didn't (Which I loooove!)

Hope this helps

storm2811

We were taught three poems by Heaney - Mid term break,Digging and The early purges,so we'd have a bit of variety like and it's good too if you're asked about a poet you admire/enjoy their work because you have a few poems for reference by him.

For my essay aswell i picked out one that i got high marks on a lot and try to relate it to one of the titles,worked in the mocks anyway!But if not you change the story a bit but keep the main plot so you know what you're doing:p

Our teacher thought us some rhymes aswell for remembering the lay out of reports,letters,reviews etc. pm if you want them and ill try dig them out from where ever they are,piles of books and papers all over the place atm:pac:

Hope this helps a bit

toadpenguin

I definitely agree with Parawhore on Dulce. It's like Wilson ate a big bowl of poetic quality soup and vomited all over a page - perfect for writing about in exams!

Base details is a good poem to know, especially if a question like "Pick a poem which creates a vivid image of a person" comes up.

But You Didn't isn't really great. It's kinda short and really hard to write about unless you get a question on the theme of war (which came up last year >.<).

Also, with anything on paper 2, you need to MANAGE YOUR TIME really really carefully (25 mins per section) and remember to make a point, support it, explain it and move on.

Gaeilge-go-deo

Hey,
Can some one tell me if a question on theme came up for the merchant of venice, could you write about conflict? Im not sure if its a theme or not..?:/

kevin12345

Gaeilge-go-deo wrote: »

Hey,
Can some one tell me if a question on theme came up for the merchant of venice, could you write about conflict? Im not sure if its a theme or not..?:/

The theme question didn't come up last year for the studied drama so it could possibly come up. I'm not doing the merchant of venice for the JC I'm doing Macbeth

In William Shakespeare's play "The Merchant of Venice," the conflict between Antonio and Shylock is the most evident example of the theme of conflict explored by Shakespeare.

whistlin_boy

Parawhore.xD wrote: »

One poem I'm being told to know exceptionally well was "Dulce Et Decorum Est" by Owen Wilson.
It contains so much imagery and techniques you actualy have to pull yourself up short when your writing about it!
It covers severals themes too:
War
Death
A poem with a message
A poem with imagery
A poem that had an effect on you.

It can also be compared to other poems on war like Base Details and But You Didn't (Which I loooove!)

Hope this helps

isn't dulce et decorum est written by wilfred owen?

cork94

whistlin_boy wrote: »

isn't dulce et decorum est written by wilfred owen?

it is

we did 6 poems in our english class:
Shall I Compare Thee- William Shakespeare
Last Week In October- Thomas Hardy
Dulce Et Decorum est- Wilfred Owen
Back In The Playground Blues- Adrian Mitchell
Songs In Space- Adrian Mitchell
Gutter Press- Paul Dehn

and we prepared a sample answer with each :rolleyes:

whistlin_boy

cork94 wrote: »

it is

we did 6 poems in our english class:
Shall I Compare Thee- William Shakespeare
Last Week In October- Thomas Hardy
Dulce Et Decorum est- Wilfred Owen
Back In The Playground Blues- Adrian Mitchell
Songs In Space- Adrian Mitchell
Gutter Press- Paul Dehn

and we prepared a sample answer with each :rolleyes:

would you like to put up the sample answer for shall i compare thee (officially known as sonnet no. 18:P)

Parawhore.xD

Parawhore.xD wrote: »

One poem I'm being told to know exceptionally well was "Dulce Et Decorum Est" by Owen Wilson.
It contains so much imagery and techniques you actualy have to pull yourself up short when your writing about it!
It covers severals themes too:
War
Death
A poem with a message
A poem with imagery
A poem that had an effect on you.

It can also be compared to other poems on war like Base Details and But You Didn't (Which I loooove!)

Hope this helps

:eek:Oh God...Last time I watch TV and go on this at the same time! >.<
I apologise for that! And knowing my luck will do it next week too

Luno

whistlin_boy wrote: »

would you like to put up the sample answer for shall i compare thee (officially known as sonnet no. 18:P)

Try sparknotes! They have notes on that poem!

Kyromancer

How can you get an A in the Personal Writing section? I get a B all time, but most of my class get Cs.

I'm just wondering how you can improve a B to an A, like what would need to be in the essay?

cork94

whistlin_boy wrote: »

would you like to put up the sample answer for shall i compare thee (officially known as sonnet no. 18:P)

ok, here it goes:

A poem that I have studied is "Shall I Compare Thee" by William Shakespeare. This Shakespearean sonnet explores the eternal nature of love. The poet cleverly compares his loved ones beauty to a summers day. He believes that his loved one is "more lovely and more temperate". The poet emphasises the negative qualities of a summer's day "rough winds do shake the darling buds of May". He expresses his disappointment where "sometimes too hot the eye of heaven shines and often is his gold complexion dimmed". The tone of sadness is felt where the beauty of nature is exposed to decay "And every fair from fair sometimes declines""natures changing course".

The 2nd quatrain continues the thought of the first. That is that his love is more beautiful than a summer's day. But a change of tone is evident when the poets thoughts reflect those of the beauty of his loved one which will not fade, "Thy eternal summer shall not fade, nor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st". The poet is delighted that the raveges of time and decay won't effect his loved ones beauty where "nor shall death brag thou wander'st in his shade". The poet finally reveals that his beloved's beauty is to be preserved through the immortalityof poetry where "eternal lines to time thou growst". The couplet again reinforces and emphasises the eternal nature of love to be preserved by poetry "so long as men can breathe or eyes can see, so long lives this, and this gives life to thee".

you will probably have to add some more for the exam and change it a little but it's a good base for your answer.