Learning Style for 3 Written Language Art Exams

Author: Mattheus,MrCarLover1A133 // Category:
Paper 1 – Writing 1h 45 mins

There are two components in this examination paper: narrative writing and situational writing. Let me start with how I feel we can prepare for narrative writing. We have been taught and guided to write tightly and choose important and vital words to enhance our narrative piece instead of spending time elaborating on insignificant and irrelevant subjects. Hence, I feel that perhaps spending some time to write a few pieces of micro-fiction would probably be helpful. Another important thing to take note is time management. I personally feel that this is very important in producing a good and complete narrative piece as there have been times when I spent to much time on the introduction, resulting in a good start and a very abrupt and slipshod ending. Perhaps one way to improve on this is to practice narrative writing at home and timing myself to stay within the time given. An alternative is to map out a detailed timeframe to alert me when I should be moving on to the next part of the story. The last thing to be taken into account is the ability to concoct an engaging story idea within a very short period of time, say, five minutes. This will not only be able to capture the marker's/reader's attention but give me adequate time to pen down the whole story. A good way to prepare for this is actually by reading more model compositions or even novels and discovering their strength in managing to hold the reader's attention.

Now, on to situational writing. Although the idea for the letter has already been provided, reasoning and tone are very vital. Hence, the ability to write well in these two aspects would prove beneficial in the examination. Solution: reading up. All the notes to producing a convincing and powerful letter have already been provided. We have to familiarize ourselves with all these points in ensuring a well written letter. A key note to remember though, during the exam, is not to dwell too long on the situational writing.

Paper 2 – Comprehension 1h 45 mins

Comprehension is based solely on understanding the passage and the questions posed. I don't think there is much we can do to prepare for comprehension. Perhaps just noting a few salient points: answering in the correct tenses, interpreting the question correctly and not lifting from the passage but using our own words to explain. The summary is very much like writing micro-fiction: writing tight. Although a summary is supposed to be written in our own words, we have been encouraged by the school English department to lift from the passage. Basically, we have to be precise so that the gist of the passage remains.

Paper 3 – Literature Strand 1 1h 45 mins

Unseen prose/poetry analysis is also based on being able to understand what the passage or poem is trying to put across. For unseen prose, we are supposed to take note of the characterization of the character in the story, the diction used by the author, sentence structure, treatment of subject and figurative language. As for the poetry analysis, the main thing we are supposed to keep in mind is more or less the figure of speech used in the poem.

With regards to the Animal Farm test, I feel that familiarising myself with the storyline and the different types of characters and who they represent in the Russian Revolution would be enough for the preparation of the test.