Common Mod Paper 1 (1 Viewer)

[mmmm.]

For the 2019 paper 1 essay on MOV - To what extent does the exploration of human experience in The Merchant of Venice invite you to reconsider your understanding of deception? If i had prepared an essay which didn't talk about deception, would it be fine if i said to little extent and focus on the other human experiences within the play, or for a higher mark, would i have to talk about deception in my entire essay.

 

[studiesofboard]

That is what I am doing with my text. I am just talking about human expeiences broadly. - Certain human experiences like 'loss'.

 

[mmmm.]

So say if your essay doesn't have the human experience that the essay talks about. Can you still get high marks if you say to little extent and be like, the text reconsiders our understanding of deception to little extent, but focuses on other human experiences such as ...?

 

[studiesofboard]

If your engaging with the stimulus then you should be good

 

[anthony___]

It's much easier to gain the top marks if you agree with the statement – if you think about it from a marker's point of view, it's going to be pretty obvious you've just memorised your response.

The best thing to do in that scenario would be to have your first paragraph as the theme in the question, and then your next paragraphs as the others you want to speak about (whilst still going to the statement).

If there's a question you've got absolutely nothing for then, yes, this is the best way to approach it.

 

[#RoadTo31Atar]

What I'm planning to do is to choose my quotes during reading time on the day of the exam depending on what fits the question the best

My paragraphs are usually:

1 = Antonio and Bassanio's friendship
2 = Shylock vs Antonio
3 = Shylock's downfall

I've found that I can adapt to a lot of questions using this but idk what kind of mark you're going for. I got 16/20 for this section in trials without memorising an essay beforehand and I memorised 10 quotes for this.

 

[mmmm.]

Did you memorise 10 quotes for each idea or for the entire essay? and do you mind sharing what quotes you used for each point. For my essay, i talked about how the individual experience is dictated by the collective, mercy vs justice, and then the idea of Portia's agency. and got 15/20

idk what kind of mark you're going for

like 15+

 

[#RoadTo31Atar]

Did you memorise 10 quotes for each idea or for the entire essay? and do you mind sharing what quotes you used for each point. For my essay, i talked about how the individual experience is dictated by the collective, mercy vs justice, and then the idea of Portia's agency. and got 15/20


like 15+

I used this video along with some other "quotes" that I just know like very small stuff e.g oxymoronic "merry bond" or other buzzwords like 5 act structure, the play begins in media res, "pound of flesh", I would also make my own judgments by saying that Shylock is expected to give mercy but none is given to him and that mercy is a basic Christian belief etc.

One thing is that I did not do themes because I really didn't want to spend time studying english so my essays are just based around key events of the play. I can def see how your themes would fit the quotes really well tho because they are broad.

Also you don't have to use all 10 quotes, I think I only used like 4-5 from the video along with my other buzzwords thrown in here and there making it seem more sophisticated and prepared.

 

[erucibon]

All your paragraphs should be answering the question to a good extent. That being said, i think for common module you definitely could use preprepared stuff and adapt it. At the end of the day, the markers are assessing how well you know your text such that you can answer a specific question, not whether you can use big words and analysis on a seperate topic (that is, if they aren't shit and coinflip our marks)

 

[ultra908]

It's much easier to gain the top marks if you agree with the statement

I don't think this is true at all. Markers will reward deeply thought out and critical answers which are unique, and going against the statement is certainly a way to do this.

That is not to say, you should write whatever you have preprepared- you must address the question at hand, and it must be clear that you are doing so. You shouldnt try to change the question into another one you would prefer to answer, because you must answer the question you are given. There is however, no problem in disagreeing with the statement given.

 

[mmmm.]

I don't think this is true at all. Markers will reward deeply thought out and critical answers which are unique, and going against the statement is certainly a way to do this.

That is not to say, you should write whatever you have preprepared- you must address the question at hand, and it must be clear that you are doing so. You shouldnt try to change the question into another one you would prefer to answer, because you must answer the question you are given. There is however, no problem in disagreeing with the statement given.

So regarding last years question - To what extent does the exploration of human experience in The Merchant of Venice invite you to reconsider your understanding of deception? Would it be fine to say: The merchant of venice invites the reader to reconsider their understanding of deception to little extent, but focuses on other human experiences such as ...?

Or how would i go about disagreeing with the question if the above isn't right?

 

[ultra908]

So regarding last years question - To what extent does the exploration of human experience in The Merchant of Venice invite you to reconsider your understanding of deception? Would it be fine to say: The merchant of venice invites the reader to reconsider their understanding of deception to little extent, but focuses on other human experiences such as ...?

Or how would i go about disagreeing with the question if the above isn't right?

in my opinion, you havent really answered the question, youve just changed it. Your essay still needs to primarily address the issue of 'deception'. Because its a 'to what extent' question, its kind of hard to go directly against the statement.

A way to disagree with the statement would be smth like "the merchant of venice's representation of deception is shallow and one dimensional, affirming my expectations of..."

I dont do merchant of venice soz, so idk if thats a good argument for your text but thats my idea of "disagreeing".

 

[mmmm.]

in my opinion, you havent really answered the question, youve just changed it. Your essay still needs to primarily address the issue of 'deception'. Because its a 'to what extent' question, its kind of hard to go directly against the statement.

A way to disagree with the statement would be smth like "the merchant of venice's representation of deception is shallow and one dimensional, affirming my expectations of..."

I dont do merchant of venice soz, so idk if thats a good argument for your text but thats my idea of "disagreeing".

Oh ok, and when you had the ... at the end of the statement your wrote, what would you add there? would it be the other human experiences?

 

[Ashadowcalledregret]

Does anyone do GBTWYCF? If so what themes do you do? I just want a wide variety cos my school is useless.

 

[erucibon]

It depends on the question whether disagreeing a good idea

 

[#RoadTo31Atar]

I think the problem with disagreeing is that how often would you really be given a statement that is wrong, I feel like the statements are always either right most of the time or all the time. In history you get these kind of questions a lot and it is always better to agree with the statement and the most you should do is just say a counter argument in one of you paragraphs and acknowledge a different perspective. I don't see how or why you would do that in English tho.