Thinking About the Ways in Which Language is Used
People use language to convey meaning, but they also use it to hide meanings. This is why we use critical thinking when we consider language – so we don’t get fooled. So who tries to fool us? Politicians? Advertisers? Liars? Bosses? Employees? Pretentious friends? Does it matter? Yes, it does, and in what follows we'll look at some examples where thinking critically about language...Continues>>
Writing A Level History Essays...
Essays at A Level are designed to act as springboards for your writing and critical skills. We've taken a sample question, worked up an essay plan and come up with two very different answers. We've also looked at what the examiners were looking for from candidates and the wider skills they demand of all history candidates. Continues>>
Keep It Simple And Think For Yourself
A highly experienced English A level examiner is going through a batch of scripts from one school deemed outstanding by the powers that be. Each essay is written in the preposterous language of the pseudo-intellectual and all carry identical the same hallmarks of teacher-inspired you-must-mention "insights". Now it is possible that a weak examiner lacking in confidence might let this pompously-written garbage...Continues>>
Wuthering Heights - An Exploration of Reading
There is never a correct answer in English. Lots of different critics have different viewpoints, different ideological perspectives and different cultural backgrounds: all readers also come to books with different personal histories, prejudices, tastes and emotional backgrounds. Furthermore, writers do not usually aim at a narrow audience of...Continues>>Improve Your Note Taking and Remember More!
One of the biggest challenges facing students beginning higher level studies (AS/A2 LEVELS IN THE UK) is learning how to take proper notes. Many will begin by trying to write down everything from a book but cutting out the occasional word. Rewriting is not an option for more advanced studies - such as A Levels or degrees, where the sheer amount of reading you'll have to do makes it impossible.Continues>>
12 Great Memory Strategies for Better Grades...
The phrases "I can't remember that", "I sit down for a test and my mind goes blank" and "I'm no good at exams" are commonplace. They are a sign that what was read or revised has not been remembered. It doesn't have to be that way. In this article, we'll look at 12 ways of boosting our recal, improve our studying and, ultimately, get better marks. Continues>>
The Ten Principles of Successful Study
The sheer number of study methods out there can be bewildering. Some recommend moving around while learning to align physical awareness with learning. Others recommend a stream of endless note-taking in a strict regime. My advice, if your at the beginning of a course, is to try a number of methods and see what works for you. Outlined below is my study method and it has worked very well for me. Continues>>In-depth Critical Notes for the Poetry of Robert Frost
We've already got in-depth guides to William Blake, Denise Levertov and others. Now it's time to turn our attention to the American poet Robert Frost. Read our critical notes for a range of poems including The Pasture, Ghost House, Waiting afield at Dusk and The Death of a Hired Man. Although these notes are aimed at A Level students, they should also be useful to GCSE students and lay readers with an interest in poetry. Continues>>
English Skills: How to Compare Poems
Being asked to compare two poems can be daunting. It needn’t be. The mental processes a critical reader will need to employ are essentially the same, whether you’re being asked to compare two poems by the same poet or two (or more) poems by different poets from different centuries. Continues>>
Motivation: What we can learn from a free-thinking salmon...
If you look up the word motivation in a dictionary, other words inevitably swarm around it like bees around honey: reward, incentive, goal… and so it goes on. They’ll tell you to reward yourself, to set goals, to bribe yourself with incentives. Treating yourself like a plant that bends toward light does not, I believe, create the type of motivation that forges exceptional candidates. Continues>>
Sample Exam Paper: an approach
The Exam Shack looks at an A Level Philosophy question and outlines what the examiner was looking for and how the question might be approached. Because it is merely being used as an example of a mixed format exam paper - the type you'll get in Geography, History, English etc - our in-depth look at forming a response should be of use to all students. Continues>>
Reading William Blake's Songs of Experience...
"The Tyger: The most important point is that the poem is made entirely of questions, some of which also serve as exclamations. Notice the incomplete syntax of line 12, produced by Blake cancelling the line "Could fetch it from the furnace deep". (He tried also – in one copy – "What dread hand formed thy dread feet?" and also, in another, "What dread hand forged thy dread feet?")..." Continues>>
How To Read a Literary Text...
Think of a book as a thinking tool. Just as a cycle is a tool for allowing you to move across terrain, and just as an examiner can work out whether you know how to ride one by watching you perform a certain few manoeuvres, putting your feet in the pedals, your hands on the handlebars, rotating the pedals with your feet, turning the cycle in a tight circle, changing gears appropriately etcetera, the examiner is aiming to see what you can do with text ... Continues>>
