You could just have a crack: see how you go. Print off the relevant materials (you'll need the answer booklet on the left and the insert with the two passages on the right: click on the image to download), stick on a timer for 2 hours (or 2 hours 30 mins if you get 25% extra time) and get it done. Then take a look at the markscheme, on the document link below the images.
![](http://www.weebly.com/weebly/images/file_icons/pdf.png)
beast_of_bodmin_moor_ms.pdf |
If you'd rather prefer getting a sound grounding in what the exam is and how you might go around answering the questions effectively, then these slides might help.
Introduction to the Language exam
QUESTION 1: DIRECTED WRITING (15 reading marks + 5 writing marks)
This is the most complicated question of the three, so deal with it first and get it done. A reasonable score would be 50% (10/20), and that should be the least you are expecting of yourself. Half-marks in this question still allows you to access the higher grades (provided you perform extremely well on questions 2 and 3). The key to understanding how to do this question well is, as with all things, thoroughly understanding how it is marked, and planning very effectively and thoroughly.
Arm yourself with 3 different coloured highlighters, and then start planning. The most effective way of remembering your planning is to think of the Badsworth-Hessle: how you love cross-country running. Planning comes in four defined groups:
RUN RUN
WWWW
LEGS HURT
PAIN OW
Group 1
Run R Read the passage
Run R Read the question (feel free to keep "running" and re-read both again)
Pretty clear so far. Don't scrimp here. This is a reading test and so in order to answer any of these questions decently, you have to be really confident in what you have just read. Don't make the mistake of fretting under timed pressure of the exam and answering the question before you're ready.
Group 2
The 4 Ws - as explained below:
Arm yourself with 3 different coloured highlighters, and then start planning. The most effective way of remembering your planning is to think of the Badsworth-Hessle: how you love cross-country running. Planning comes in four defined groups:
RUN RUN
WWWW
LEGS HURT
PAIN OW
Group 1
Run R Read the passage
Run R Read the question (feel free to keep "running" and re-read both again)
Pretty clear so far. Don't scrimp here. This is a reading test and so in order to answer any of these questions decently, you have to be really confident in what you have just read. Don't make the mistake of fretting under timed pressure of the exam and answering the question before you're ready.
Group 2
The 4 Ws - as explained below:
You should be able to highlight the 4Ws in the question on the exam paper itself - do so; feel free to also jot these down at the top of your page to make your planning clear to yourself.
"Who as" determines your perspective on the text - you will probably have to interpret the material you have read from a different angle. "Who for" determines your tone and your writing mark (out of 5). "What about" links in to the material that you have to cover. "What form" is all about the shape of your writing - but of these four questions, don't worry too much about this last one (I'll explain in due course).
Further initial planning to supplement your 4Ws. I also instruct students to draw an emoticon face of their character, just to get a visual sense of who they are and what they feel. It's not an art lesson - spent no more than 5 seconds on it - but it helps you get your tone and character right, which will improve your writing marks. Adding 3 adjectives, describing the character, around the emoticon face, also helps; I also recommend drawing a little speech bubble from the face and just write down any line you want, made up from your head, but in the style of the character. Again, this is to help you with the character and voice - these will all influence your choice of relevant vocabulary, etc.
Group 3.
Legs L Label and
Hurt H Highlight
What do I label and highlight? Answer: find the evidence for the 3 bulletpoints in the question (What about?), highlighting in your question paper as many relevant pieces of evidence as you can. These three bulletpoints are (in order of first, second, third) called A1, A2 and A3. Each of these gets their own highlighter colour, and so your exam paper should have several phrases and sentences highlighted in different colours across the passage. It is worth at this point explaining to you what these terms actually mean, and understand a little more about how an examiner assesses your work. Have a look at the next couple of slides (don't worry too much about Dev for the moment):
"Who as" determines your perspective on the text - you will probably have to interpret the material you have read from a different angle. "Who for" determines your tone and your writing mark (out of 5). "What about" links in to the material that you have to cover. "What form" is all about the shape of your writing - but of these four questions, don't worry too much about this last one (I'll explain in due course).
Further initial planning to supplement your 4Ws. I also instruct students to draw an emoticon face of their character, just to get a visual sense of who they are and what they feel. It's not an art lesson - spent no more than 5 seconds on it - but it helps you get your tone and character right, which will improve your writing marks. Adding 3 adjectives, describing the character, around the emoticon face, also helps; I also recommend drawing a little speech bubble from the face and just write down any line you want, made up from your head, but in the style of the character. Again, this is to help you with the character and voice - these will all influence your choice of relevant vocabulary, etc.
Group 3.
Legs L Label and
Hurt H Highlight
What do I label and highlight? Answer: find the evidence for the 3 bulletpoints in the question (What about?), highlighting in your question paper as many relevant pieces of evidence as you can. These three bulletpoints are (in order of first, second, third) called A1, A2 and A3. Each of these gets their own highlighter colour, and so your exam paper should have several phrases and sentences highlighted in different colours across the passage. It is worth at this point explaining to you what these terms actually mean, and understand a little more about how an examiner assesses your work. Have a look at the next couple of slides (don't worry too much about Dev for the moment):
Hopefully, this is all reasonably straightforward.
- The bullets get harder as they go on.
- Obviously, any Repetition or Lifted Material (ie copying whole sentences and phrases from the text) will not gain marks. Why this is so is evident, I hope - considering you have to transform the text in some way by changing voice or perspective, wholesale copying doesn't make any sense.
- However, the tick (detail, known as DET) is really important - I am looking to cover your page with ticks (10-15 ticks a page as a rough estimate) and this rewards you selecting key information and words from the text and embedding it in your response. The key difference between DET and LIFT is one of size: DET is choosing and using one or two key words in your answer; LIFT or REP is when you copy whole sentences, whole phrases.
- There are several words that reflect how closely you respond to the question. You obviously want to be TETHERED, should be looking to avoid moments when you are UNTETHERED and definitely want to avoid at all costs any moments of DRIFT.
- The bullets get harder as they go on.
- Obviously, any Repetition or Lifted Material (ie copying whole sentences and phrases from the text) will not gain marks. Why this is so is evident, I hope - considering you have to transform the text in some way by changing voice or perspective, wholesale copying doesn't make any sense.
- However, the tick (detail, known as DET) is really important - I am looking to cover your page with ticks (10-15 ticks a page as a rough estimate) and this rewards you selecting key information and words from the text and embedding it in your response. The key difference between DET and LIFT is one of size: DET is choosing and using one or two key words in your answer; LIFT or REP is when you copy whole sentences, whole phrases.
- There are several words that reflect how closely you respond to the question. You obviously want to be TETHERED, should be looking to avoid moments when you are UNTETHERED and definitely want to avoid at all costs any moments of DRIFT.
Worth clarifying a little the first point here. How many A1s, A2s, A3s, should I give? Obviously one or two for each bullet just isn't efficient, and the recommendation for 3 for each is not even quite accurate enough. Remember, I can't give you a defined number - the examiner won't be thinking in those terms. I am looking for BALANCE across the bullets, and it is clear that A1 and A2 will be easier to find material for than A3. Therefore, I would be looking for you to definitely have a thorough response to A1, a decent response to A2 and a secure and solid response to A3 to do well.
So... 3 x A1s, 3 x A2s, 3 x A3s? No problem.
If you say that A1 and A2 is easier to get, what happens if I go 6 x A1, 6 x A2 and 3 x A3? No problems here either. I'd say this is balanced, because it's in the right proportion of difficulty.
If A2 is harder than A1, and A3 harder still, what happens if I go 6 x A1, 4 x A2, 2 x A3? No problems here. It follows the proportionate balance (though I'd be nervous about A3, as one weaker point means it starts feeling not fully represented).
How about this to more of an extreme: 8 x A1, 3 x A2, 1 x A3? I'd say that this is now imbalanced, though at least it's still proportional. I can't imagine this response getting higher than 9/10. If it was imbalanced in one of the easier areas (6 A1s, 1 x A2, 3 x A3s) then this would be more serious and would be looking at a 7/15. Missing one bullet entirely (no A2s, for example) will result in a band drop, as it says above.
SO. If you give me this -
A1 DET A1 DET A1 DET A1 DET // A2 DET A2 DET A2 DET // A3 DET A3 DET
I would say that this is a reasonably proportional balance of responses for the three bullets, together with some good DET(picking words from the text - not lifting them). So in relatively straightforward writing, I would expect you to attain between 7-9 out of 15 for reading and 3/5 for writing - so 10-12/20. This is absolutely fine if this is all you get. The A grade is still very much on.
TO GO HIGHER THAN 9/15 - YOU NEED DEV. Re-read what I say about dev on the handout slide above.
DEV is really hard to pin down. It is a subjective response to the text, from both you and the examiner. Sometimes there is some guidance as to what constitutes a DEV response in the mark-scheme, though not always. Sometimes you might have a good effort at securing DEV - it's not perfect, but the examiner will note your effort, probably by mentally putting the DEV in brackets - (DEV). For all these reasons, DEV is what discriminates the top band, 10+ candidates from the rest.
The way I try to explain DEV is by using the image of a bow and arrow. If you draw the bow back too hard and too much, you lose control of the flight of the arrow - and here, drawing the bow back too much is the equivalent of you trying too hard, untethering or drifting yourself. If you don't draw the bow back enough, the arrow won't reach its target - and this is the equivalent of repeating material or lifting it. The key is to draw the bow back a reasonable amount, to address the bulletpoint nicely in your own words, using detail from the text where possible. Even better, draw it back further, and the optimum point is when you balance out the evidence from the text with the briefest of imaginative insight - imaginative in terms of logical inference, instead of wild and untethered creativity. Reasonable and logical development = good; crazy and wild development = bad.
Is DEV a random addition? NO.
Is DEV a drift? NO.
Is DEV a controlled drift? Yes - that's a little closer.
Is DEV a logical extension? YES.
Because there is so much danger in getting it wrong, I advise you to try to add DEV to each of your bullets and DET (eg, A1 DET DEV) but don't write more than one sentence for your DEV. One sentence for your A1 + Det; one sentence for your DEV. Then move on.
As always, you understand it best through practice and feedback, but here are some examples from the Bodmin Moor paper above to help clarify.
So... 3 x A1s, 3 x A2s, 3 x A3s? No problem.
If you say that A1 and A2 is easier to get, what happens if I go 6 x A1, 6 x A2 and 3 x A3? No problems here either. I'd say this is balanced, because it's in the right proportion of difficulty.
If A2 is harder than A1, and A3 harder still, what happens if I go 6 x A1, 4 x A2, 2 x A3? No problems here. It follows the proportionate balance (though I'd be nervous about A3, as one weaker point means it starts feeling not fully represented).
How about this to more of an extreme: 8 x A1, 3 x A2, 1 x A3? I'd say that this is now imbalanced, though at least it's still proportional. I can't imagine this response getting higher than 9/10. If it was imbalanced in one of the easier areas (6 A1s, 1 x A2, 3 x A3s) then this would be more serious and would be looking at a 7/15. Missing one bullet entirely (no A2s, for example) will result in a band drop, as it says above.
SO. If you give me this -
A1 DET A1 DET A1 DET A1 DET // A2 DET A2 DET A2 DET // A3 DET A3 DET
I would say that this is a reasonably proportional balance of responses for the three bullets, together with some good DET(picking words from the text - not lifting them). So in relatively straightforward writing, I would expect you to attain between 7-9 out of 15 for reading and 3/5 for writing - so 10-12/20. This is absolutely fine if this is all you get. The A grade is still very much on.
TO GO HIGHER THAN 9/15 - YOU NEED DEV. Re-read what I say about dev on the handout slide above.
DEV is really hard to pin down. It is a subjective response to the text, from both you and the examiner. Sometimes there is some guidance as to what constitutes a DEV response in the mark-scheme, though not always. Sometimes you might have a good effort at securing DEV - it's not perfect, but the examiner will note your effort, probably by mentally putting the DEV in brackets - (DEV). For all these reasons, DEV is what discriminates the top band, 10+ candidates from the rest.
The way I try to explain DEV is by using the image of a bow and arrow. If you draw the bow back too hard and too much, you lose control of the flight of the arrow - and here, drawing the bow back too much is the equivalent of you trying too hard, untethering or drifting yourself. If you don't draw the bow back enough, the arrow won't reach its target - and this is the equivalent of repeating material or lifting it. The key is to draw the bow back a reasonable amount, to address the bulletpoint nicely in your own words, using detail from the text where possible. Even better, draw it back further, and the optimum point is when you balance out the evidence from the text with the briefest of imaginative insight - imaginative in terms of logical inference, instead of wild and untethered creativity. Reasonable and logical development = good; crazy and wild development = bad.
Is DEV a random addition? NO.
Is DEV a drift? NO.
Is DEV a controlled drift? Yes - that's a little closer.
Is DEV a logical extension? YES.
Because there is so much danger in getting it wrong, I advise you to try to add DEV to each of your bullets and DET (eg, A1 DET DEV) but don't write more than one sentence for your DEV. One sentence for your A1 + Det; one sentence for your DEV. Then move on.
As always, you understand it best through practice and feedback, but here are some examples from the Bodmin Moor paper above to help clarify.
It may be a good idea for you to post your own attempts at A1 + DET + DEV in the comments section, and I'll give feedback.
Bearing in mind that you have LABELLED AND HIGHLIGHTED a lot of potential pieces of evidence in the text, you then have to work hard to clarify to yourself which are your best points - which have close links to DET - which can be DEV'd as effectively as possible. With these thoughts in mind, you should be therefore looking to pick you best points and the ones that you believe will get you the marks. Hence:
Group 4
Pain P Prioritise (I usually * my best points in my plan) and then
Ow O Order (I usually number them 1,2,3 etc in the order I feel they should go in)
Here is some final guidance about the remainder of the question, in relation to genre and the writing marks.
Bearing in mind that you have LABELLED AND HIGHLIGHTED a lot of potential pieces of evidence in the text, you then have to work hard to clarify to yourself which are your best points - which have close links to DET - which can be DEV'd as effectively as possible. With these thoughts in mind, you should be therefore looking to pick you best points and the ones that you believe will get you the marks. Hence:
Group 4
Pain P Prioritise (I usually * my best points in my plan) and then
Ow O Order (I usually number them 1,2,3 etc in the order I feel they should go in)
Here is some final guidance about the remainder of the question, in relation to genre and the writing marks.