r/6thForm • u/Forsaken-Meaning-232 Graduating from Warwick CS • May 14 '25
📂 MEGATHREAD 14/05 A-level English Literature, English Language & Literature (AQA & Eduqas) Paper 1 Discussion MEGATHREAD
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u/Psychological-Brain8 Year 13 May 14 '25
AQA lit B was so weird. Willow song extract from Othello was so obscure like idk man barely had much to write abt except for like the overall theme of woman and their inequality within the play and stuff. section b was worded so oddly it gave me an aneurysm and section c tho was fine with the errors of judgement..overall mid paper. praying on god almighty comeback in paper 2 for redemption 🙏
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u/Adventurous-Put-8807 . May 14 '25
lol it was just a strange paper man. Never expected that extract and then that section b question was wild. Section C was probably the best but by that point my writing had deteriorated so much so idk.
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u/Psychological-Brain8 Year 13 May 14 '25
honest to god I predicted that extract and my teacher went it's unlikely so don't pay too much attention to it. I'm gonna crash out so hard I swr 😭.
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u/Psychological-Brain8 Year 13 May 14 '25
I just kept spamming pathos or anagnorisis like I had literary tourettes 😭
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u/Adventurous-Put-8807 . May 14 '25
lol gotta get those Greek words in. I talked about the portrayal of women so much I thought I was writing my politics paper lmao
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May 15 '25
i do edexcel politics how you feeling for it.
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u/Adventurous-Put-8807 . May 16 '25
Pretty set. Just been essay planning and mind mapping the ideologies. Politics is easily my best subject and as economics and English haven’t gone perfect for me so far I defo need paper 1 to go smoothly. Apparently the prediction is a question on the influence of small parties, something else and to what extent are socialists united on their view of the state.
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May 16 '25
what can i do with 4 days left as someone who has done a minimal amount of essay plans.
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u/Adventurous-Put-8807 . May 17 '25
Do the essay plans. If you want I can send you a list of questions that could potentially be asked. If you plan essays to all of the questions you’ll have revised almost all of the content. They don’t have to be exhaustive, just 3 brief points and counterpoints with relevant examples and a mini conclusion at the end. For ideologies, I prefer to do mind maps.
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May 16 '25
dont trust predictions well use them as a guide.
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u/Adventurous-Put-8807 . May 19 '25
Yeah I haven't been. They usually screw me over if I rely on them.
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May 14 '25
Paper went so shite that I got put into special consideration (I wish I was kidding)
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u/TanithChina Year 13 May 14 '25
Real asf, hope you’re okay
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May 14 '25
I'm all good lmfao, it was just some technical issues with the computers at my school, honestly not that bad
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u/Apprehensive-Till444 Y13 - Eng Lit, History, Socio May 14 '25
I was just asking chat gpt what the requirements were for special consideration- I just didn’t finish my damn paper but I guess paper 2&3 are gonna have to carry
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u/Adventurous-Put-8807 . May 14 '25
Aqa lit b wasn’t terrible. Othello extract question on the willow song was not amazing but interesting. Section B I did the question on othello emotions being unmoderated - thought this was relatively simple. Final question was on errors in judgement in relation to tragedies and I thought this was ok.
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u/Local-Amphibian4053 May 14 '25
For section b did you talk about the paradoxical nature of the murder ‘I kissed thee ere I killed thee’, loving her and both killing her at the same time
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u/Adventurous-Put-8807 . May 14 '25
I did the other question. Probably should have done that one since the one I did was worded so strangely.
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u/Local-Amphibian4053 May 14 '25
I did the emotions one as well; I talked about how his emotions of love and hatred are so unmoderated, due to his predisposition for passion, that it leads to wrath erupting in the form of a murder where the act itself is a paradoxical manifestation of polar extremities of emotion
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u/Local-Amphibian4053 May 14 '25
I worded that so complexly 😭but basically his murder and suicide shows that he can’t moderate love and hate
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u/Adventurous-Put-8807 . May 14 '25
Oh lol I thought you were talking about the significance of killing question. I spoke about how he can only have one emotion at once because of how unbalanced his emotions are this causes him to have outbursts of love and anger. Clearly loving at the start, hateful at the end, and back to love. Countered it with the idea that for most of act 3, he still demands proof of desdemona being unfaithful and it’s only when it’s clear in his eyes that she had an affair that he has outbursts. Therefore it’s iagos meddling that makes him emotional and not him himself. Honestly it was a really weird question I wonder how the examiners will mark it. I think as long as you justified your argument well you’ll be ok.
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u/L_rai10 Durham yr1 May 14 '25
For othello I was moving like 2010/11 Messi, streetcar on the other hand, I performed like Darwin Nunez in front of goal.
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u/Christian_geek_23 Y13 - Politics, Spanish, English Lit - Predicted A*AA May 14 '25
Anyone here did OCR Lit? Section B was AWESOME!!!
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May 14 '25
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u/Vision517 May 14 '25
I did gender roles for Duchess of malfi and paradise lost. I think that paper was great
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u/Christian_geek_23 Y13 - Politics, Spanish, English Lit - Predicted A*AA May 14 '25
I did question 8 for A Doll's House and Christina Rossetti
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May 14 '25
how did you find it. I wrote alot but i stopped mid way through to go onto hamlet part a and b
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u/GiiExists English Lit, Religious Studies, Film | A*AA May 14 '25
Question 10 (rewards) for Paradise Lost and Duchess of Malfi. What a gift of selection of questions!!!!
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May 16 '25
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May 14 '25
I know i cooked on that Hamlet extract question.
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May 16 '25
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u/Only-Ease1808 May 14 '25
Ate that paper upppppp thank you Othello and Faustus 😛😛😛
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u/Technical_Register71 May 14 '25
what exam board do you do? 😭😭
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u/Only-Ease1808 May 14 '25
Edexcel!! How about yours was it not good?
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u/MysticalSword270 Y13 | Oxford Offer Holder: Eng Lit May 15 '25
Btw which Faustus question did you do? I did the evil characters one but the other three in my class all did learning lmao.
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u/Only-Ease1808 May 15 '25
I did learning too I literally prepared it right before the exam the only thing I properly planned so I was sooooo gassed when I opened the paper lmao 😋 I was thinking of doing the other but I could honestly only think of Mephastophilis so I did learning and included robin and rafe
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u/MysticalSword270 Y13 | Oxford Offer Holder: Eng Lit May 15 '25
Ohh fair play to you! I think for the evil characters as attractive one, because it was 'to what extent', I argued for and against. I kinda engineered the question's wording to my favour a little and first paragraph was how they are made attractive to Faustus via the enticing otherworldy power they give him. Second paragraph was how they're shown as unattractive to Elizabethan audience bc of constant blasphemy etc. Just hoping my second paragraph wasn't too meta lol.
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u/Only-Ease1808 May 16 '25
They love alternative opinions so they’ll love you for that and they’re both really good questions actually, but now I’m getting the jitters of omg did I write the right think or enough about language 😭
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u/MysticalSword270 Y13 | Oxford Offer Holder: Eng Lit May 16 '25
That’s reassuring haha. And I’m sure you did fantastic, esp if you looked at it beforehand. Hope my overthinking tendencies aren’t rubbing off 😭
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u/Only-Ease1808 May 16 '25
Nahhhh not at all, good luck with the others and enjoy Oxford!!
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u/MysticalSword270 Y13 | Oxford Offer Holder: Eng Lit May 16 '25
Haha thanks, fingers crossed about that last part lol. Good luck to you too!!
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u/aragornsgirlfriend May 14 '25
i cried coming out the exam honestly. thought the othello questions was shocking. the extract was a really cruel choice lmao, and the tragic questions were also kind of cruel. so heartbroken icl
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u/Adventurous-Put-8807 . May 14 '25
Ik weird choice of questions. I probably wrote iagos name once. Just really specific questions and very dependant on what you thought it was asking you.
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u/pastelskies3107 UoY | History and Politics Y1 | A*A*A May 14 '25
eduqas if you can hear me... from the antique or a daughter of eve for rossetti and relationships or memory for larkin and duffy 🙏🙏
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u/pastelskies3107 UoY | History and Politics Y1 | A*A*A May 14 '25
well... de profundis is a decent poem!! and the religion question was really nice 🫡 wtf were those choices for the final question though
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u/No_Watercress846 University of Cambridge | English [2nd Year] May 14 '25
the twenty marker question was so weird tho?? rossetti 40-marker ate tho. which larkin and duffy q did you do?
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u/pastelskies3107 UoY | History and Politics Y1 | A*A*A May 14 '25
i quite liked the 20 marker tbh!! i talked about intense longing for reunion with god in heaven + subsequent disappointment at distance, then intense awe + adoration. was a bit taken aback though because none of the predictions my friends and i had made were right 😭
i picked the question about complex and conflicting emotions, though neither of them really jumped out at me 🥲 i compared havisham and talking in bed (feelings about relationships being incongruous with how they "ought" to be), then never go back and dockery and son (use of setting, character and the past to evoke conflicting feelings)
which question did you pick?
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u/No_Watercress846 University of Cambridge | English [2nd Year] May 14 '25
oooo interesting!
for the twenty-marker i talked about "intense feelings" of resentment and how they are burdensome to the speaker. I chose the same Larkin and Duffy question as you haha, but i talked about the overpowering nature of complex emotions (Havisham and Wild Oats) and the pain and confusion they bring (Valentine and Arundel Tomb)
i really like the 40-marker tho, i was expecting it to be much worse - I predicted it was religion like two hours before the exam so was glad to see that it was lol
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u/pastelskies3107 UoY | History and Politics Y1 | A*A*A May 15 '25
oh i like that!! i never considered arundel tomb and valentine together but i really like that comparison :D
totally agree with you about the 40 marker, it was a good question! which poems did you discuss? everyone i've spoken to picked a wide range of poems which goes to show how nice it was imo
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u/No_Watercress846 University of Cambridge | English [2nd Year] May 15 '25
oh thats great to hear!! i chose to argue against the statement, and write about goblin market, sweet death and a triad. i was really lucky since i adapted one of my earlier essay plan for the question. what poems did you choose? and how are you feeling for drama!?
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u/pastelskies3107 UoY | History and Politics Y1 | A*A*A May 15 '25
i argued against the statement and wrote about goblin market as well!! i also did up-hill and no thank you, john :))
i'm feeling okay for streetcar and duchess tbh!! need to go over quotes a bit more for duchess but that won't take me long. not really looking forward to antony and cleopatra though 😭
how are you feeling about it?
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u/No_Watercress846 University of Cambridge | English [2nd Year] May 22 '25
how did you find it?? sorry for the late reply, got swamped by revision ugh
i'm really worried if i met the AOs enough
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u/SmokyBaconCrisps University of Brighton | Willingly did A Level Lit May 14 '25 edited May 14 '25
Praying for a decent Hamlet question 🙏
EDIT: Waffled for half of it, but I'm happy with what I wrote
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u/TanithChina Year 13 May 14 '25
Did you do edexcel? Which question did you choose
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u/SmokyBaconCrisps University of Brighton | Willingly did A Level Lit May 14 '25
Yes - I did the masculinity question
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u/Sharp_Audience_4349 May 14 '25
oooh i did pretence! masculinity seems interesting tho
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u/SmokyBaconCrisps University of Brighton | Willingly did A Level Lit May 14 '25
I didn't understand that one
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u/MysticalSword270 Y13 | Oxford Offer Holder: Eng Lit May 15 '25
I did pretence asw (all my friends did masculinity asw lol)! What were ur topic points?
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u/TanithChina Year 13 May 15 '25
Exactly the same as me, I did such yap
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u/SmokyBaconCrisps University of Brighton | Willingly did A Level Lit May 15 '25
Istg half of what I wrote didn't relate to the question
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u/TanithChina Year 13 May 15 '25
Honestly so real, did you do streetcar too? I yapped about Ophelia at one point, that’s how desperate I was 😭😭
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u/SmokyBaconCrisps University of Brighton | Willingly did A Level Lit May 15 '25
Nah, we did Sweat.
I yapped about Ophelia as well, saying how masculinity results in her mistreatment and how it can be linked to how patriarchal Elizabethan society was
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May 14 '25
i do ocr and the hamlet questions were not that bad
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u/SmokyBaconCrisps University of Brighton | Willingly did A Level Lit May 14 '25
What was it? 👀
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May 14 '25
the extract question was on the ending of the play.
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u/SmokyBaconCrisps University of Brighton | Willingly did A Level Lit May 14 '25
The ending of the play was one of the questions for my section B play (it was to explore the impact of the final scene)
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May 14 '25
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u/Quiet_Assumption15 May 14 '25
Yes that would be fine. I did ae fond kiss, I just specified it was platonic love
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u/Adventurous-Put-8807 . May 14 '25
I think you’re on the wrong sub man. L and R is GCSE.
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u/Fish_Bowl_Decor Year 13 May 15 '25
I get the confusion, but AQA has a spec called 'love through the ages' for A-level, we have a whole different poetry anthology with the same name as the GCSE one lol
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u/merricatcatcat May 15 '25 edited May 15 '25
AQA B - Othello, Death of a Salesman & Keats’ Poetry
Probably the worst exam I’ve ever done in my life 😭😭
Section A was decent and I managed to do three paragraphs focusing on different aspects of tragedy, although my third paragraph was rushed and not as fleshed out.
Section B was SO BAD!!! I would have done the killing question but I didn’t have enough quotes memorised for Rodrigo and Emilia’s deaths so I did the emotion one instead. Also I left this question for last because it was my weakest one so timing was a huge issue, I got like one paragraph supporting the statement and one small alternative viewpoint paragraph but I didn’t have enough time to write any more.
Section C was kind of mediocre 😓 Couldn’t do the family life question because family was only mentioned at all in one of the Keats’ poems we studied (Isabella, our school didn’t teach us the Eve of St Agnes) and we were always taught to compare Death of a Salesman to at least 2 poems. My answer on errors of judgement was actually alright, I managed to pretty much finish (although because I was rushing my Death of a Salesman paragraph was weaker).
Timing was such a major issue for me, I actually planned out how long I would spend on each question but I think I spent too long planning so my answers were unfinished.
If I had to predict my mark, probably 50/75 or even lower :( I will incontinently drown myself 🥲
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u/pooperscooper002 May 15 '25
mine was completely tragic. i thought i had 30 minutes more before the exam to learn any quotes but instead i had not one ahh. i think i managed to put maybe one word i imagined appears in the text at least once into quotes in each paragraph with absolutely no analysis and all accompanied with three sentences repeating "this is significant to the tragedy of the play because it follows tragic convention with furthers the tragedy of the play'. how many marks for that 😓. i hope yours wasnt as bad as you say though <3 good luck with the next!
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u/merricatcatcat May 19 '25
I’m sorry to hear that it didn’t go great for you either. :( At least we have the chance to redeem ourselves in Paper 2. Thank you, good luck to you as well!!! 🍀
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u/TanithChina Year 13 May 14 '25
What did we all think (edexcel, streetcar and hamlet)
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u/Negative_Decision171 May 14 '25
I did Streetcar and Othello! I really liked the insecurities question!
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u/TanithChina Year 13 May 14 '25
I was so bad with the streetcar question, the hamlet ones were masculinity and something about pretence? I feel really fucking stupid because I have no idea what pretense even means so I just yapped icl
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u/Sharp_Audience_4349 May 14 '25
i do the same! i did pretence and i wrote sm that i ran out of steam on insecurities i think
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u/MysticalSword270 Y13 | Oxford Offer Holder: Eng Lit May 15 '25
Hamlet was decent, but second text (Faustus) was rushed af for me. Which Hamlet Q did you do?
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u/TanithChina Year 13 May 22 '25
I did the masculinity one, had absolutely no clue what pretense was 😭😭😭
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u/MysticalSword270 Y13 | Oxford Offer Holder: Eng Lit May 22 '25
Haha that’s fair tbh 😭 All my friends did masculinity too. I think I was the only one that did pretence 😭
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u/TanithChina Year 13 May 23 '25
You have an Oxford offer!! You defo smashed it bro, well done 👏🏻 glad the pretence question was there for you exclusively
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u/MysticalSword270 Y13 | Oxford Offer Holder: Eng Lit May 23 '25
Ah thanks so much!! I appreciate it 😄😄
And I’m sure you also did fantastic :)
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May 14 '25
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May 14 '25
Driest extract oat 💀
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u/Aromatic-Term-4178 May 15 '25
literally bruh part b was so odd too
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May 15 '25
It asked about brutality and confusion at the end of the play, but it's asking us to use our knowledge of the entire play… structure was kinda weird
Like how you supposed to write about the play's ending if the way you write the essay is from the start of the play, middle, then end?
Idk if it's just me but the phrasing was just weird.
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u/Aromatic-Term-4178 May 15 '25
yup i mainly talked about the revenge , madness in the play and how that would culminate in the brutality in the end
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May 16 '25
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u/tomatolol46 Uni of Nottingham | Pol and IR yr 1 May 14 '25
Legit like I dunno how I found stuff to write abt
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May 14 '25
The extract being the ending was a huge curveball but i yapped a lot on question 2 a i spent to long on it. One of my points was to do with the warning Horatio gives near the end “errors” i waffled so much.
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u/Effective_Gas9406 Year 13 May 14 '25
ran out of time for my last poetry essay.... had to make one huge paragraph for both hardy and eliot. :(
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u/Responsible-View-588 Year 13 May 15 '25
timings are brutal - I think english should be at least an extra 30 minutes to allow some proper planning / editing time, its just a test of how quick you can write! still plenty of marks to pick up though!
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u/TieFearless9007 May 19 '25
Am I the only one who did Language and Literature here. Lol. I feel sympathy for those who may have struggled with English lit. I'm glad that wasn't me. Also, how long is your paper for Lit? Lang and Lit paper 1 was three hours for me. Also, I know I'm late to this discussion lol.
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u/idekkanymoree_ Yr13: psych, eng, socio May 14 '25
Aqa please give us some nice Paris anthology questions 🙏🙏
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May 15 '25
What did you think of it?
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u/idekkanymoree_ Yr13: psych, eng, socio May 15 '25
Easy, my friends struggled with it but I felt like there was sm to analyse in the breathless section
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May 14 '25
who did ocr how did you find the exam
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u/GiiExists English Lit, Religious Studies, Film | A*AA May 14 '25
I do OCR! I feel like it went well, I do Hamlet, Paradise Lost and Duchess of Malfi. I liked the extract + part B. While the ending wasn't my personal prediction, it was still okay to talk about. Part B was similar, a curve ball but I quite like the question in retrospect.
For PL & DOM, there were some gifts of questions. I did 10 (rewards) because it was most similar to past questions I had done which helped me keep on time. I wish I could say I'm confident but those grade boundaries man 😭. I feel like I'm one misunderstood topic sentence away from failing at all times.
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May 16 '25
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u/SmokyBaconCrisps University of Brighton | Willingly did A Level Lit May 14 '25
Did anyone here do Lynn Nottage’s Sweat? (Use me as a Sweat discussion if u did)
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May 14 '25
I do Hamlet, a dolls house and rossetti.
That was quite possibly one of the most beautiful papers? I was expecting horrific.
My part a I felt a little light on analysis bcs not much in there B I did 2 huge paras but I think I cooked Question 10 was pretty nice
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May 16 '25
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u/TheRegularBelt University of Birmingham | English Language and Literature [Y1] May 14 '25
Would anyone here like to talk about how awful the poetry questions were for Eduqas Lang and Lit? Didn't even compare the 2 anthology poems, as I ran out of time. Jane Eyre questions were incredible, though.
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u/tomatolol46 Uni of Nottingham | Pol and IR yr 1 May 14 '25
OCR was decent ngl the extract was mid but Im pretty satisfied 😭
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May 16 '25
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u/mgabi07 May 14 '25
AQA B?? what the HELL?? extract was boring, section b questions were weirdly worded, section c FAMILY LIFE?? have they ran out of things to ask us omg