Hi Piggys

Thank you for placing your tips on here; they were very helpful.

I was just wondering if you could give me your thoughts on the AQA literature paper today (assuming you have seen it).

I understand that some did ‘conflict’ and some did ‘love and relationships’.

Apparently the poem that came up for the ‘conflict’ section was the poem in the specimen paper so everyone (I assume) is likely to have studied the specimen paper and therefore have a very good understanding of how to analyse that poem.

The poem that came up on the ‘love and relationships’ section was one that apparantly no-one thought would come up and so, I am told, some teachers didn’t spend any time on it (probably because it is such an awful poem to write about and compare to other poems and it doesn’t have any metaphors etc).

If the above is correct, it would seem that those doing ‘conflict’ were at an advantage to those doing ‘love and relationships’ yet the latter have to score as highly to get the same grade. I could understand if they were different exams being marked differently but when it is the same exam with the same marking scheme and grade boundary, it seems a little unfair to give one lot the poem from the specimen paper and the other lot get the worst poem to write about.

I just wondered what you thought.

Thanks in anticipation.

You wondered what I thought? Ok . Here goes:

1) Unless you are fully conversant with the poetry anthologies and know a lot about poetry then please do not describe 'Singh Song!' as 'an awful poem'. I think it's marvellous, and I'm willing to bet that I know more about the poetry anthologies than you do. FYI it is bursting with imagery and vibrant language and ideas, so sorry - you are just plain wrong. The idea that it is 'impossible to compare because it doesn't have any metaphors' is , frankly, rubbish. If that is the impression your dc has got then take it up with the school. It sounds like someone didn't revise thoroughly.

2) 'Apparently no-one thought it would come up'. Oh yeah? like who? any teacher who advises their class that a certain poem 'won't come up' is in the wrong job. My dd's year revised it. Why didn't yours? Complain to the school. I revised it with my students.

3) So Ozymandias came up on a specimen paper? It doesn't really make any difference. This GCSE spec has only been running for three years now. Last year's Y11 was the first cohort. There are no established patterns, so playing a tactical game in trying to guess what will and won't come up is not intelligent. Specimen papers are exactly that.

4). I really must take issue with your description of 'Singh Song!' as 'the worst poem'. Explain to me why it's 'worse' than any of the others in the anthology. I love it. And I'm pretty clued up about these things. Have you even read it? I'm aghast at your dismissive, insulting comments. Worthy of a true philistine.

5) The 'level' of the poems in each section of the anthologies -and I am including the EDEXCEL and OCR anthologies in this - is similar. There isn't one which is 'easier' or 'harder' than another. If you are studying an anthology then you must assume that any of the poems could appear on the exam paper.

That's what I thought.

Piggys - I'm sorry to see your reply is so unnecessarily aggressive and you chose to put words in my mouth - I never said it was 'impossible to compare'. Obviously I'm not an English Literature teacher like you and so clearly my knowledge is inferior to yours in this area but I am entitled to my opinion about the poem and don't expect to be called names for it. I hope you're not as rude to your students.

Bravado; sorry. It's my Achilles heel - people describing a writer/reading/poems as 'rubbish' or 'awful' when they know nothing. I feel duty bound to intervene. It's one thing to hear a child saying 'I hate books' or 'poetry is boring' but another thing entirely to hear a grown adult describe something they likely know nothing about as 'awful' and 'the worst'. So many people are dismissive about literature these days, adults included. I try to stand up for it. Poetry is a vast and varied genre. It's not all Keats and Wordsworth . I'm doing Poems of the Decade in 6th form at the moment which illustrates how diverse and forward thinking the genre is. Maybe I'll send Pinecone a copy.

Anyway there it is.