GCSE English Literature

UNIT 4: Approaching Shakespeare and the English Literary Heritage Report on the Examination 47104H June 2013 Version: V1.0

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REPORT ON THE EXAMINATION – GCSE – ENGLISH LITERATURE UNIT 4 – 47104H – JUNE 2013

INTRODUCTION This summer’s examination again produced a large number of extremely impressive responses from the candidates, who in most cases seemed to have a very good understanding of both their texts and the requirements of the paper. As noted last summer, there is now very little simple storytelling in responses and senior examiners again noted further improvements in writing about language, structure and form. However, progress and excellence in this area are not universal, particularly in the prose questions, in which students sometimes seem under-prepared for this aspect of the tasks. There is still also considerable, and essentially unhelpful, comment on the punctuation of Shakespeare’s plays and its purported dramatic impact. As has been stated previously, markers struggle to reward writing on this aspect of the plays and it should generally be avoided. There was also much genuinely excellent writing, however, about the whole range of texts, focusing on the complex and varied effects of writers’ techniques and a range of dramatic and contextual issues. Section A Macbeth was again a very popular choice of text, with Question 2 by far the more popular. A good understanding of Lady Macbeth’s character and motivations was generally displayed here and an interesting range of other scenes was chosen to illustrate her different behaviour elsewhere in the play. There was some productive writing about the given scene’s imagery and its several structural devices. One issue noted in a few cases by senior examiners was the apparent regurgitation of pre-prepared notes which took little account of the question as set; responses of this type will undoubtedly not be as effective as those which engage fully with the extract. There was a pleasing increase in the number of centres attempting Much Ado About Nothing and responses here were equally split between the two questions. There was some really interesting writing about Leonato and his attitudes towards his daughter throughout the play, and the most popular second extract was the ‘marriage’ scene. The best responses about Beatrice in Question 4 tended not simply to see her as a man-hater, but to reflect the far more subtle, ambivalent attitudes she possesses towards men in general and Benedick in particular. Another popular choice of text for centres was Romeo and Juliet and again both questions elicited many responses. Understanding and interpretation were basically sound in both and a pleasingly varied selection of other scenes was chosen, with much useful writing about the imagery in the featured extract. Candidates who opted for the second question generally showed a sound understanding of Juliet’s attitudes to love and friendship. Though there were relatively few responses to Twelfth Night and Julius Caesar, these two plays both seemed to inspire much very thoughtful and engaged writing, and some genuine originality of approach. The subtlety of Shakespeare’s dramatic technique in presenting Olivia was interestingly discussed by several candidates, and the character of Malvolio in its various guises throughout the play inspired some really thoughtful answers to Question 8. On Julius Caesar the question on Cassius proved popular and some incisive and well-supported writing about his character throughout the play – some damning, some laudatory – was a joy to read. Section B Pride and Prejudice was again a popular text in this section, and students wrote about both questions with real engagement and often excellent textual knowledge. Question 11 was notable for the range of characters candidates felt were the most affected by society: Mrs Bennet was the 3 of 5

REPORT ON THE EXAMINATION – GCSE – ENGLISH LITERATURE UNIT 4 – 47104H – JUNE 2013

most popular, but several of the sisters, Darcy, Lady Catherine and Wickham were all chosen, and interestingly discussed. The question on Mr Collins was also answered by many candidates, and very entertainingly so in many cases, his manifold weaknesses attracting no small measure of candidates’ often elegantly expressed vituperation. There were many more responses to Wuthering Heights than in previous sessions and both questions drew out some excellent responses, often, but not always, focusing in detail on Heathcliff’s childhood. The question on Wuthering Heights, the house, elicited some very interesting responses, some discussing its symbolic as well as its literal importance in the story and comparing it profitably to other settings. Again, textual referencing was generally impressive given the novel’s length and complexity. Teachers are to be congratulated for their teaching of context on this text; the novel’s uniqueness can make this aspect of the task difficult but examiners saw some imaginative and thoughtful approaches which enabled candidates to achieve considerable success. Great Expectations regularly attracts a large range of responses, not just in terms of quality but also in terms of interpretation. Again the best examples of writing about the novel’s context are specific to the text and question and avoid vague generalisation. As has been noted before, some candidates seem to engage and even identify strongly with Pip, and this kind of response, here for example, with Question 15, is often wonderful to read. In response to Question 16, an interesting range of characters was chosen, including Joe Gargery, Estella and Magwitch; all of them provided scope for a successful response. There were again very few responses to the Hardy short stories, and most candidates here answered on Tony Kytes. Interestingly, this was the one text were candidates did tend to tell the story at the expense of analysis of form, structure and language. The Son’s Veto was the most popular choice for the other story, perhaps because it features such a clear and well-defined relationship. The most widely studied text in Section B was again Animal Farm and both questions proved popular. Senior examiners were generally impressed by the extent and depth of candidates’ contextual knowledge about Russia and its application to the questions though it was also clear that, in some cases at least, this came at the expense of writing about Orwell’s novella. In the best answers to Question 19, a detailed analysis of Major’s speech was linked to its impact on the novel as a whole, while there were also superb answers on Question 20 which focused precisely on the descriptive details of the final disappearance of Boxer and its aftermath, as well as his earlier career on the farm. A few general observations to end: •

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Some candidates write pointlessly long and detailed introductions to their essays, particularly in Section A, which often garner no or few marks because of their irrelevance. Begin the task directly and get into the text, would be a good piece of advice. In the Shakespeare questions, context is not specifically rewarded in the mark scheme and so candidates who write lengthy disquisitions on, say, the social position of young women in Shakespeare’s England in response to ‘Romeo and Juliet’ run, for several reasons, the risk of wasting at least some of their valuable time. Senior examiners noted an increasing number of candidates who got the timing of the exam wrong and so produced two rather unbalanced responses which did not allow them to fulfil their potential. 4 of 5

REPORT ON THE EXAMINATION – GCSE – ENGLISH LITERATURE UNIT 4 – 47104H – JUNE 2013

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In Section B some candidates appeared to have little useful, detailed knowledge of the Regency or Victorian periods to support their response to the contextual element of their particular novel. Many examiners commented on the increasing incidence of poor, even indecipherable handwriting. Students do themselves no favours if, in addition to the difficult job of assessing the worth of scripts, examiners are forced to laboriously trawl for meaning because of the near-illegibility of a candidate’s work.

Senior examiners were very impressed by the general standard of work seen in Summer 2013: students seemed well prepared, knowledgeable about their texts and often enthusiastic about them despite the rigours of preparing for the examination! This sense of students thoroughly engaged by their texts is both the most satisfying aspect of the literature examiner’s job, and the most telling tribute to the teachers who have helped them perform so admirably.

Mark Ranges and Award of Grades Grade boundaries and cumulative percentage grades are available on the Results Statistics page of the AQA Website.

Converting Marks into UMS marks Convert raw marks into Uniform Mark Scale (UMS) marks by using the link below. UMS conversion calculator

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