Exam technique (Edexcel A-Level English Language and Literature) quiz

Imaginative and original creative writing of your own composition

Analysis of how meanings are shaped in texts

Accurate spelling, punctuation and presentation only

The sheer overall length and word count of the answer

Comparing Voices (Component 1, Section A)

The Section B literary comparison (Component 2)

The drama essay (Component 1, Section B)

The coursework commentary

Only literature, focusing entirely on its theme, character and plot development

Only language, producing a plain catalogue of named linguistic features

Only its historical and biographical context surrounding the writing

Both literature and language at once, so features evidence the interpretation

Claim, evidence, analysis

Summary, opinion, conclusion

Introduction, plot, ending

Quotation, paraphrase, repetition

Whether the paragraph is simply long enough to comfortably fill the space on the page

Whether the literary claim would survive if you deleted the linguistic evidence

Whether it names at least one recognised critic somewhere within it

Whether it contains at least one embedded quotation from the text

1 hour

3 hours 30 minutes

2 hours 30 minutes

45 minutes

Spend most of the available time on the first and stronger section

Split the time evenly and protect the second section's time

Skip the second section entirely if the first runs over

Write the conclusion of each answer before anything else

Strictly alphabetically by the surname of each author covered

By page number only, in the order they appear in the book

Randomly, in no particular order at all

By aspect of the theme, with short retrievable quotations

Because different tasks assess different objectives, so you target what the task rewards

To pad the answer out and make it considerably longer than it actually needs to be for the marks

Because the assessment objectives are kept secret from the candidates

To give yourself an excuse to avoid using any textual evidence

Examiners only ever read the very first line of each answer and ignore the rest of it completely

Longer answers will reliably score higher marks than shorter ones in absolutely every single case without any exception at all

A complete, argued answer scores across the objectives, whereas an unfinished one loses its missing argument and conclusion

The conclusion is genuinely the only part of the whole answer that is actually marked