You are the class of 2000 and, as Nuala O'Faolain said in this paper when exams first became news, "Remember, it is a privilege to be able to do exams." And indeed it is.
So, find a calm space, resist the rush to extra classes, don't cram. Instead, lower the tempo and reflect quietly on your mock results. This can be done by completing a grid with the percentage mark awarded for each question laid out in front of you.
Based on need, plan a fourweek programme for English. It might look as simple as this:
Week 1 Essay and Prose
Week 2/3 Emma
Week 3/4 Poetry
Week 4 Drama
The essay is 25 per cent of the entire paper so it must have a high priority.
In your preparation you can set by a little stock of statistics which are great essay openers. For example this paper in January published an Our World/Their World rake of statistics. Here are a few provocative ones to kickstart an essay:
Americans spend $8 billion a year on cosmetics, there are 31 million refugees and displaced persons in the world, Europeans spend $11 billion a year on icecreams, 250 babies are born every minute.
Whether you use an anecdote (real or imagined), a statistic, a joke or a quote it should be apt. You should be able to exploit its point in the rest of the essay. By the last sentence in your first paragraph the reader should know where the essay is headed.
Essay titles are mere prompts to encourage you to write about what you already know. Remember, you have a great past as well as a great future. Indeed, the Department directive to teachers is: "If the topic can be relevant it is relevant."
Before you write a word - interrogate the topic. Ask what, when, whether, who, how - then allow the play of your young mind. Use well the extra time you have this year.
Be sure to leave a full white line between paragraphs.
Describe, describe, describe . . . the face, (red-veined) the nose (dribbling) the eyes (intelligent). Use strong verbs.
The most exciting pronoun is "I" - the authentic personal voice is worth a hundred global utterances.
A useful technique for tackling the style question is to write out a series of style words - some of them contrasting - and, after reading an earlier prose piece, tick the items of style you recognise as present in the piece - simple, ornate, technical/specialist terms, non-specific/colloquial, adjective-laden, bare, simple, rhetorical, questions, no questions, employed repetition of words/phrases/vocabulary, tone: formal, chatty, amusing, bitter.
Remember answers need not be long - 15 lines of pithy, dense commentary, well backed with quotes is far better than five paragraphs of waffle. Here is an opening sentence that encapsulates the structure of an answer as well as conveying the aspects of style demanded by the question: "This is an autobiographical, humorous, engaging, didactic, stimulating piece."
The rest of your answer simply demonstrates your assertion, mainly by use of reference.
PAPER 2
Paper 2 is where the RIGHTHAND MARGIN comes into its own, so heed this comment. In every literature question there will be at least two key words, For example: "The play enacts a tragic waste of goodness and a tragic corruption of innocence and virtue. Discuss . . . "
Every time the words goodness or corruption or their synonyms appear in the body of your answer a mark is placed in the right-hand margin. These marks determine the grade awarded to your answer.
DRAMA - Hamlet
This is a compulsory question for HL students and it is likely there will be a question on character(s) and on theme. A useful method of preparation for both questions is to select five or more characters and write five adjectives describing each one. Write a paragraph justifying the use of the five adjectives after trawling through the play - assume that each character appears in every act.
In this way you will revise the sequences of the play and increase your knowledge of the dramatic set pieces. Also, the traits of your selected characters will become embedded in your memory and you will learn quotes without having to rote-learn.
If you are intending to do your fourth question on either The Playboy of the Western World or Death of a Salesman (or if either play is your Drama choice for Lower Course) the same method can be applied. Perhaps you could reduce the adjectives to three.
POETRY
On the day you can be fairly certain that four poets will be named and that lines from one poem (at least) will be on the paper. A dynamic way of revising and refreshing the poems you like is to select three short excerpts - a word, a phrase, a line - which light up the text and illustrate an aspect of the poet's style. Write an honest paragraph of your own response to each quoted piece.
Here are some examples From John Donne, the words: "weaned", "snorted", "sucked". From W. B. Yeats, the words: "scarecrow", "circus animals", "Some woman's yellow hair".
EMMA
Employ a revision method similar to that described in the Drama section. Assume there will be a character and a thematic question and select five adjectives which describe the character. Then trawl through the novel and alight on the well-known set pieces - the opening, the ending, the visits, the Boxhill outing and the marriage proposals.
A FINAL SALVO
When answering on the afternoon of June 7th: remember that the right-hand margin will acquire a delicious tick every time you use a KEY word (or a synonym) from the question.
Write the KEY WORDS in BOLD CAPITALS in your answer - this may seem naive but the payoff will be wonderful when the right-hand margin becomes dark with beautiful ticks.