General Thoughts: English Advanced Paper 2

[isenseven]

Quick question though. If you referred to the closing scene, but didn't focus on the extract would you be penalised. It never said to focus on the extract in your response... Just saying

This is exactly what i did, i just spoke about my generic ideas and linked them back to the final scene in the end linking sentence of each idea. Hope that will get me 12 atleast

 

[michaeljennings]

Exactly, you could use quotes throughout the play to indicate how the closing scenes fulfill the themes developed throughout.

For example I discuss how the final scene climactically signals Hamlet's evolution into a figurative "soldier" from his starting point at the beginning of the play as a "scholar". The closing scenes validate this bildungsroman development.

Similarly, the closing scenes also poignantly establish the futility of revenge etc.

there is plenty of opportunity to reference a lot of the play as long as it was central to your thesis of why the closing scenes lend textual integrity to the play.

Yeah this.

I interpreted the idea of the question as drawing the key ideas/themes from the closing scene provided and use it as a springboard for your judgement/perception of the rest of the novel. A thorough analysis of the 'closing scenes' wasn't really necessary.

 

[Arcelia]

I took 'closing scenes' to mean 'last act' and then talked about how the last act resolves underlying threads of thematic thought that permeate the play - my two main points were crisis of mortality/OHNOESIWANTTOKILLMYSELF and corruption. Our teacher didn't actually go through the end of the play with us so I was forced to use some fairly nonexistent techniques and try and make them sound real...

The other questions were okay though.

 

[bigbirdbanana]

It specified the "closing scenes" not jsut the last speech by Fortinbras.

I think they were doing the series of speeches as their prescribed text, not Hamlet. For that one they usually just talk about them generally or pick one themselves, but this year the boar picked one of the speeches and said they had to make detailed reference to that. I feel so bad for the people who had speeches, poems etc!

 

[vemanjj]

module A = It was easier than the question from last year, which was strange!?
module B = Interesting and fair. If you hadn't studied Act 5 of Hamlet you were screwed.
module C = This was predictable, but annoying as it usually focuses on either CP or rep., not both, but this question forced you to look at both of them. Also only allowing one text was interesting.

Overall I liked the paper. There were no nasty surprises.

Not really for module B, even if you just knew your own response to the end you could argue that it only contributes to a small extent to the judgement of the play as a whole. That's what I did, Hamlet is portrayed as a hero at the end yet throughout the play we see that he is corrupt always wanting to make his 'thoughts be bloody'. My response was to all the people dying and how I thought whether they deserved that or not. And went through the whole time saying a small extent. I also talked about genre and how making a judgement of a revenge tragedy based on your response to the completion is like making a judgement of a book based on your response to the end - you have to see the exposition, anticipation, confrontation and delay. To me, your response to the other parts leads to a large extent a judgement of what you think should happen in the end and what does happen.

 

[acemusic415]

Not really for module B, even if you just knew your own response to the end you could argue that it only contributes to a small extent to the judgement of the play as a whole. That's what I did, Hamlet is portrayed as a hero at the end yet throughout the play we see that he is corrupt always wanting to make his 'thoughts be bloody'. My response was to all the people dying and how I thought whether they deserved that or not. And went through the whole time saying a small extent. I also talked about genre and how making a judgement of a revenge tragedy based on your response to the completion is like making a judgement of a book based on your response to the end - you have to see the exposition, anticipation, confrontation and delay. To me, your response to the other parts leads to a large extent a judgement of what you think should happen in the end and what does happen.

+1

I also said that the closing scenes were a partial response and indication of the text as a whole because the question allowed for some lee-way with the inclusion of "to what extent".

 

[yours]

Not really for module B, even if you just knew your own response to the end you could argue that it only contributes to a small extent to the judgement of the play as a whole. That's what I did, Hamlet is portrayed as a hero at the end yet throughout the play we see that he is corrupt always wanting to make his 'thoughts be bloody'. My response was to all the people dying and how I thought whether they deserved that or not. And went through the whole time saying a small extent. I also talked about genre and how making a judgement of a revenge tragedy based on your response to the completion is like making a judgement of a book based on your response to the end - you have to see the exposition, anticipation, confrontation and delay. To me, your response to the other parts leads to a large extent a judgement of what you think should happen in the end and what does happen.

At the same time, it reads as though you didn't know the last part of the play if you didn't reference it properly. If you legitimately reject it and provide evidence, then it's convincing, but if you simply ignore it, it shows a lack of knowledge.

The weaker student will say: No, this question is wrong, here is the stuff I remembered.
The stronger student will tackle the ending scenes, or work to disprove their importance.

I suppose the point I'm making is you had to make at least some reference (quotes!) to Act 5, regardless of your thesis.

 

[4025808]

At the same time, it reads as though you didn't know the last part of the play if you didn't reference it properly. If you legitimately reject it and provide evidence, then it's convincing, but if you simply ignore it, it shows a lack of knowledge.

The weaker student will say: No, this question is wrong, here is the stuff I remembered.
The stronger student will tackle the ending scenes, or work to disprove their importance.

I suppose the point I'm making is you had to make at least some reference (quotes!) to Act 5, regardless of your thesis.

ouch the weaker student thingo was exactly what I did... looks like I'm not gonna get any higher than 14 now...
Fuck I should've changed my intro a bit =_=

 

[vemanjj]

At the same time, it reads as though you didn't know the last part of the play if you didn't reference it properly. If you legitimately reject it and provide evidence, then it's convincing, but if you simply ignore it, it shows a lack of knowledge.

The weaker student will say: No, this question is wrong, here is the stuff I remembered.
The stronger student will tackle the ending scenes, or work to disprove their importance.

I suppose the point I'm making is you had to make at least some reference (quotes!) to Act 5, regardless of your thesis.

Well they may look at it this way but it is an opinion module, they cannot really say either way whether your wrong. You just need to argue your point either way

 

[Morgan1234pooki]

i didnt think the module b hamlet question was too bad....i mean it was pretty much centrally concerned with textual integrity. I pretty much tried to disprove the central premise of the extract and how the closing scenes cant be used to make an overarching judgement of the play

 

[addicts]

i knew my text quite well and feel good about how the paper went.. i thought they would've asked for a different text type, so seeing a small section of a poem was a surprise.

 

[kalibali]

Module A: Frankenblade was amazing!!! Anyone could of killed that question
Module B: Hamlet was a bit iffy, however the question was overall general, so the markers should be open to difference of opinion.
Module C: Fiftieth Gate, most General question ever!
THANKYOU BOS!

 

[Chrissiee]

LOVED PAPER 2
Justice game, EBB and Gatsby, Citizen Kane - all great questions!
esp citizen kane wiew so geed.

 

[Omnipotence]

Re: WORSE PAPER EVER MADE .... Thoughts?

Isn't next year's English syllabus different? If so, this was the last time they could with fuck you (specific poem, exert and etc).

 

[4025808]

Re: WORSE PAPER EVER MADE .... Thoughts?

Isn't next year's English syllabus different? If so, this was the last time they could with fuck you (specific poem, exert and etc).

The syllabus is going to remain the same until possibly 2014, when they might implement the national curriculum around the time (or even later).

 

[yours]

Re: WORSE PAPER EVER MADE .... Thoughts?

The syllabus is going to remain the same until possibly 2014, when they might implement the national curriculum around the time (or even later).

so belonging will live on for 2 years?

 

[silence--]

Re: WORSE PAPER EVER MADE .... Thoughts?

i think 2012 is last year for belonging (AOS changes every 3-4 years from memory)

 

[theone111]

Re: WORSE PAPER EVER MADE .... Thoughts?

so belonging will live on for 2 years?

next years the last year

 

[nerdfighter]

dont worry, the markers will know it was a crap question and give you a better mark

 

[miss_forgettful]

Anyone else only do two essays...? Although I did do an intro/first paragraph of body for the last one. The question for it sucked anyway, giving us a poem that a lot of us hadn't studied.