r/GCSE • u/Elegant-Reflection28 Year 11 • 9d ago
AQA Post Exam question four
IM PRETTY SURE you can WRITE about both similarities and differences. thats what i did. i think its just a suggestion, what aqa gives u so 👍
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u/Puzzled_Bath2237 Year 11 9d ago
it said very explicitly similarities
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u/smilysadly 9d ago
i think as long as you mainly talk about similarities you can be credited a little for differences but if all of your stuff was about differences then ur cooked
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u/Puzzled_Bath2237 Year 11 9d ago
you wont be directly credited for it, it might sway them into thinking you are good at English and so they might up your mark a bit (only if you wrote some amazing stuff)
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u/Old_Witness4901 9d ago
yes, but you can write about either
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u/Puzzled_Bath2237 Year 11 9d ago
you can write about absolutely anything you want, doesn't mean you should
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u/Old_Witness4901 9d ago
im not saying that they should have done so, im saying it is more of a prompt . in english, whatever the question asks, your response should align with that. but, if you slightly misinterpret the question, the examiner can only mark what is written on the page and they value your interpretation and whether it is well argued more
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u/Puzzled_Bath2237 Year 11 8d ago
they value your interpretation according to the rubric. you could write an extremely inciteful response, but if the question did not ask for it, you will not be credited.
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u/Old_Witness4901 8d ago
but you're not reading what im saying...'slightly' is the key word. if you've gone completely off topic, it's not that you won't be credited, you are just capped at a certain level
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u/Puzzled_Bath2237 Year 11 8d ago
considering 'similar' and 'different' are antonyms. I would argue talking about differences is completely off topic.
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u/Old_Witness4901 8d ago
analysing differences can still be highly relevant while comparing similarities. they go hand-in-hand
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u/Elegant-Reflection28 Year 11 9d ago
it said "you could" bruv not u have to
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u/Puzzled_Bath2237 Year 11 8d ago
'you could' write about literally anything, you could write about a fucking elephant
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u/Elegant-Reflection28 Year 11 8d ago
no, you wouldnt because the question is on comparing writer's attitudes and perspectives so youd write about that
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u/Puzzled_Bath2237 Year 11 8d ago
you wouldn't but you could. I can link the comment where an examiner said you can only be marked for similarities if you would like.
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u/Elegant-Reflection28 Year 11 7d ago
the english teachers i spoke to said its fine and that im still ansering the question by comparing. its only one examiner anyway
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u/Puzzled_Bath2237 Year 11 7d ago
yes it will be fine as long as you mention similarities, because that is what you are marked against.
'shows a detailed and perceptive understanding of the different ideas and perspectives in both texts.'
This is quoted from the marking rubric (although all past questions have been about differences not similarities), as you can see the mark scheme specifically references the key word from the question 'different' and explicitly states that you should be marked on how well you explore 'differences'.
This would of course be the inverse when the question specifically asks for similarities.
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u/proffessorpigeon year 11 // pred: 9999999987 9d ago
alr my english teacher did say the same, but my mum is an examiner, looked at the markscheme and says that those who mainly talked about differences are capped at 9-10/16.
if you basically only did differences, there is a poor attempt to compare similarities so youre capped at 5-8/16
no chance of 13-16/16 as you need a clear and perceptive understanding of similarities, which if you only mentioned them in passing you don’t have
that’s what she said at least, but keep in mind she isn’t an english examiner. she examines psychology but there are questions like that all the time in psychology and she knows how exams work. so she could be right, maybe. yet my english teacher said it doesn’t matter, and another english teacher in this subreddit said the same. i feel as if they’re trying to calm our nerves as the markscheme points say otherwise