For all of us who must endure GCSEs.

[Nebelstern]

I just love open-ended Literature papers!! I just waffle for 4-5 sides AND get marks for it! Brilliant! heart heart xd blaugh  

[Boolean Julian]

Nebelstern

I just love open-ended Literature papers!! I just waffle for 4-5 sides AND get marks for it! Brilliant! heart heart xd blaugh

Damn you. On our literature mock (poetry), I spent far to long on one of the poems, and the result was I didn't actually manage to cover all the points. You either write very big or very fast...  

[Nebelstern]

whapcapn

Nebelstern

I just love open-ended Literature papers!! I just waffle for 4-5 sides AND get marks for it! Brilliant! heart heart xd blaugh

Damn you. On our literature mock (poetry), I spent far to long on one of the poems, and the result was I didn't actually manage to cover all the points. You either write very big or very fast...

I could go into exactly HOW I go about tackling those questions if you want... rolleyes  

[Shadow of an Illusion]

I dont have to write essays for biology. Yet. Im dropping geography. But that was more because of the sheer boredom than the 7 pages I had to write in the credit exam. I hope my hand writing is readable and didnt get too small. It does that when I have to write fast.
We never get percentages for essays. The get a number instead.  

[Days of Empire]

I love rambling style essays, as long as its something I can ramble authoritatively on.

Which is why the General Studies French paper turned out not to be as bad as I expected. I did quite well overall... I was guessing for most of the half that was in French, but the second half was a choice of essay questions. One of which was explaining how computer technology has affected an artform of your choice.

That was a gift from god. I had to call for extra paper twice.

Digital recording technology, digital effects processing, sequencer/sampler/synth technology, digital media formats and compression, mp3s and p2p networking, MIDI control systems... I could go on for HOURS on that.  

[Boolean Julian]

ice_illusion

I dont have to write essays for biology. Yet. Im dropping geography. But that was more because of the sheer boredom than the 7 pages I had to write in the credit exam. I hope my hand writing is readable and didnt get too small. It does that when I have to write fast.
We never get percentages for essays. The get a number instead.

Ah. Here is my other major fault. Particularly in exam conditions, my handwriting is virtually totally illegible. My teacher said she'd analyse it ffor me, and that I had to do the same and practice it, becaue if my writing was that bad in the final and the examineer was lazy I could well have got a zero.  

[Shadow of an Illusion]

We did all our french essays in the classroom (under exam conditions) so we had a folio. We wrote an essay in french, about a week before the exam, handed it into the teacher who marked it. Then we learned it off by heart (which Im not good at) and did the exam that way. The same for speaking. In the speaking I always had such trouble remembering what I was going to say I forgot about pronounciation.  

[Nebelstern]

Alright, possibly because I am mad, or perhaps because I'm a nice kinda guy, all of you taking English and not understanding how to tackle all of those open-essay questions are welcome to steal my technique. Though I warn you, even I fail to understand how I pull essays out of the bag sometimes. Well, here I go: -

Understanding the point of what they want you to do...

What this basically means is that the exam throws up a question you could possibly predict beforehand. For example, you are ALWAYS on the poetry papers asked to compare about 3-4 poems. These must equally be analysed and quoted from in order to gain ANY marks. Forgetting this is NOT an option. Also, just throwing this in, it's a damn good idea to remember to use the following points to analyse poems on. 'Style', 'form', 'structure', 'language' and 'themes'. 'Techniques' is a good idea as well.

You are usually given a subject poem. This provides the basis for you to work out from...

The 'web' technique...

Now you have all the information you need to begin constructing a mental 'web', using a small paper plan to help assimilate all this. You have to realise that the poems you choose all CONNECT to each other. They may only have one or two links, or a plethora of links; however, you need to assign these links quotes, reasoning and a category such as 'style' or 'technique'. This is VERY VERY useful because now you can begin to start essay-ifying...

Using the 'web' of poems and structuring a 'theme' based answer...

Now you can assign each paragraph you begin to write a theme, firstly focussing on the main poem to shut the examiner up, then using the title of the essay to bring in all of the different elements - 'themes', 'style', 'form' etc, and different poems using your 'web' of connections. Once you have rather exhausted all the connections and ideas you wish to talk about (by now you should be about 3 pages in), it is necessary to move on. Make sure you DO move on in good time, or else you scupper yourself.

Personal Opinion and Conclusion

Alright, this is the cop-out part. Just dash a few notes on which poem you feel accomplishes the essay title the best. Remember to include evidence via quotes with relation to techniques etc.
The conclusion really ties into this. Just scribble a final though or something similar...
*begins to get finger fatigue*

So, this is how it goes...

arrow 1) Get the point of the essay
arrow 2) Choose poems, work out a 'web'
arrow 3) Essay-ify your 'web' and plan paragraphs (1-2mins)
arrow 4) Write main paragraphs - (35 ish mins)
arrow 5) Personal opinion, conclusion - (2-3mins - till the end of exam, or until 45 minutes is up)

Total = about 4 sides (ish.)

I hope this is of use. It is what I do usually...


sweatdrop  

[Boolean Julian]

Thanks, Nebelstern.  

[A Lost Iguana]

[ Message temporarily off-line ]  

[Shadow of an Illusion]

So in England you dont get points after whatever you call 4th year. Hehe. In Scotland we get points for credit grades or Int 2. Which means that I get points. 15 year olds will too.  

[Foetus In Fetu]

The last couple of essays I wrote were on explosives and stem cell research. Of course, there was also the plan for an experiment that would involve heating a brick up to 800 degrees celsius and running an electrical current through it that I wrote for physics; nothing nearly as cool as lasers but I give the examiners sixteen out of sixteen for idiocy and pointlessness.

My friend said they were probably running out of ideas.  

[Nebelstern]

whapcapn

Thanks, Nebelstern.

No problem, Julian. I got bored, so I decided to give a little helping hand. It doesn't matter if it won't help, as it is all good revision for me anyway... wink  

[dizzyjess]

ice_illusion

We did all our french essays in the classroom (under exam conditions) so we had a folio. We wrote an essay in french, about a week before the exam, handed it into the teacher who marked it. Then we learned it off by heart (which Im not good at) and did the exam that way. The same for speaking. In the speaking I always had such trouble remembering what I was going to say I forgot about pronounciation.

I did something similarly sneaky for my GCSE German oral. For a start the teacher wrote the whole thing because I was too lazy. Secondly, for the oral you can write 5 words or phrases on paper and draw as many pictures as you like to take in with you. Thus I drew out my entire presentation in phonetic picture format and used my 5 words for the things I just couldn't illustrate.

GCSEs are nothing to worry about if you possess a moderate amount of common sense.

This time round I have 4 AS level exams (1 re-take: politics, 3 general studies) and 5 A level exams (3 English language, 2 politics). Less easy to blag. Oh dear. Either way there is nothing hanging on my A level results as I am doing an art foundation course next year which requires me to get 1 A level, any grade.

I am also a big fan of the general essays where you can bat about personal madcap theories. Unfortunately they don't come about very often and whether they earn you a good mark depends largely on the teacher and how closely they follow the book.

That's the problem with the education system. It isn't about free thinking and creativity, its about cramming like hell, jumping through hoops and ticking boxes sad  

[Lord Jagged]

Right now I am doing a peice of maths coursework.
An investigation on hidden faces in rows of cubes and cuboids.