DIY Comprehensions

[Applejack]

Hi,

I'm attempting to write my own comprehension questions after finding a very helpful reference to Project Gutenberg by moved in a previous thread.

Would love to hear any suggestions, hints or even help with pinpointing the extracts of texts used for past English papers. I've already purchased the CSSE English and Maths papers used in the past 3 years.

DS seems to be struggling with comprehension as he only managed to get 72% on the English familiarisation paper on the CSSE website

[Applejack]

Please could one of the mods move this to the Essex forum? Ty

[ToadMum]

If you look back far enough in 'Essex', you will find a post detailing the books used for several years back from the time of the post. I assume you have the 2014 entry ('The Hound of the Baskervilles' main sitting, reserve date passage was from 'Lord of the Flies', no idea exactly what, I'm afraid)? Earlier papers have used 'Tess of the D'Urbevilles', 'Captain Corelli's Mandolin' and for 2012 entry, the piece was either specially written for the exam or was from an unpublished novel, I think (definitely not a 'classic', anyway). I'm sure people will have copies of older papers and will be able to tell you what the passages were - unfortunately, I think we have passed all of ours on to friends.

[Applejack]

Thank you Toadmum. I do have the 2014 entry paper

I was just looking through that list:-

The English paper is a comprehension, usually from a 19th century text. There are 50 marks. Past texts used for comprehension have been as follows:

1997 The Road to Wigan Pier – George Orwell (old style paper) (pub date 1937)
1999 The Adventures of Tom Sawyer – Mark Twain (pub. date 1876)
2000 Jane Eyre – Charlotte Bronte (pub date 1847)
2001 Kipps – H. G. Wells (pub. date 1905)
2002 Far from the Madding Crowd – Thomas Hardy (pub. date 1874)
2003 Tobermory – H. H. Munro (pub. date 1909?)
2004 Silas Marner – George Eliot (pub. date 1861)
2005 The Snow Geese – William Fiennes (pub. date 2002)
2006 The Mill on the Floss – George Eliot (pub. date 1860)
2007 Tess of the d’Urbervilles – Thomas Hardy (pub. date 1891)
2008 The Destructors – Graham Greene (pub. date 1954)
2009 Longitude – Dava Sobel (pub. date 1995)
2010 Bleak House – Charles Dickens (pub. date 1852-1853)
2010x Hard Times – Charles Dickens (pub. date 1854)
2011 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin – Louis de Bernières (pub date 1994)
2011x Atonement – Ian McEwen (pub date 2001)

[Daogroupie]

I know these texts very well. I have written comprehension papers on them myself so I would be able to identify the passages very quickly. If you have the papers I can help.

I am very interested to see Silas Marner on the list as that was the backup paper last year so it sounds like they used a past paper as a backup paper. I commented at the time that the backup paper was harder than the main paper which was Laurie Lee Cider with Rosie, another text I know very well. PM for more details. DG

[Applejack]

Thank you Daogroupie for offering to help but unfortunately I don't have any copies of the past papers posted above. I'm hoping someone will post a snippet or short extract, to help with my self-assigned task

Are there specific chapters that you can recommend in any of the books mentioned?

[sleeplessinhalstead]

I have the papers back to 2008 if that helps anyone. I seem to be missing the 2013 text sheet unfortunately, I can only find the questions.

[Mci]

Hi,


Can I please have the past papers, please?
My daughter is going to sit the test this September and I only have the familiarisation papers from the CSSE website.

Thank you very much!

[hoptoit]

Me too please . May I also have the available past papers for my daughter.

Big big thank you!

[delnidhi12]

Hi,

Can I please have a copy of the past papers.
Thanks.