French

[Amber]

Actually, I wouldn't be surprised if he wrote that it was a pointless question.

Ah, now that is the kind of child who is a joy to teach! Good for him if he did! He will go far.

[mike1880]

In life maybe - but meanwhile he has to get through an Eng Lit exam, poor soul. I can't imagine how our eldest would tackle this sort of question, but I have an inkling it would involve staring blankly at the paper until the invigilator told them to stop writing...

Mike

[Amber]

In life maybe - but meanwhile he has to get through an Eng Lit exam, poor soul. I can't imagine how our eldest would tackle this sort of question, but I have an inkling it would involve staring blankly at the paper until the invigilator told them to stop writing...

Mike

Ah Mike, you are assuming 'exam' means something like it did in The Olden Days. Fear not, your son will have rehearsed every possible permutation of 'the right answer' long before he is required to write about it in anger. As things stand, he could even have a second go at it if the first did not cut the mustard. Though this will change (whenever doesn't it?), you can be assured that his English lessons will be very much geared to 'comparing and contrasting' until it goes out of fashion and something else replaces it.

[dyslexichelpneeded]

I 've had to research this module of the current English lit GCSE - and I came across something that suggested the reason students have to compare two texts is to overcome the risk of plagiarism! Unfortunately, the risk for an able student is that given two extensively analysable texts, there is so much to say that they cannot find a way through it - and the more work they do, the more difficult the problem becomes. (Sorry, OP - still off topic!)

[Looking for help]

But that is what they are taught to do !

i find all this extensive belittling of exam syllabus dispiriting to say the least and it is such a shame for the children involved. If only there had been online discussions of O Levels and what not in our day