Year 9 Duration of the exam : 90 minutes - 1 hour for Section A (Reading), 30 minutes for Section B (Writing) Equipment needed for exam: Pens (black), Highlighters (for Reading section) How you will be assessed: Your exam will be 1 hour 30 minutes long and will consist of a reading and a writing section. Reading Section: You will have an extract from a novel to read, and you will have four questions to answer. Q1 is worth one mark, and it will ask you to identify a phrase which tells you something from a particular selection of lines. For this one you ONLY need to write down the quote which answers the question. You don’t have to put it into a sentence. Q2 is worth 2 marks and it will ask you to give two ways in which the writer shows you something in a particular number of lines. You can use your own words or quotes, but quotes is probably the easiest way to do it. Again, you don’t need to put these into a sentence. Q3 is worth 6 marks, and it will ask you how the writer uses language and structure to create a particular impression. You need to write two paragraphs, one on language and one on structure. For each one you should identify a technique, give an example, and explain what that example shows. For language, you should comment on particular word choices and for structure you should explain exactly how the technique links to what’s going on in the extract. For language, you could look at similes, metaphors, alliteration, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, imagery, personification or just interesting or descriptive language. For structure, you could look at how the extract starts, how it ends, length of sentences or paragraphs, use of repetition, lists, punctuation or the order of events. Q4 is worth 15 marks and it will ask you to evaluate how successfully the writer creates a particular impression. THIS IS NOT ABOUT LANGUAGE AND STRUCTURE. You are aiming to write three to four paragraphs, each one focusing on a different way the writer creates this impression. You could look at the use of setting, characters or people, ideas, themes, tone, events. In each paragraphs, you should identify one way the writer creates the impression you’re being asked about, give at least one example to back it up (preferably two), explain how these examples create whatever impression it is, and REALLY IMPORTANTLY say how successfully this thing is created, and why.
Writing Section: This is worth 40 marks. You will be asked to produce a piece of creative writing on a particular theme. MAKE SURE YOU PLAN!!! You should aim to create a story out of your piece. Start your story in an interesting way – start at the end, start with something dramatic, start with dialogue, start in the middle of action, start with purposeful description Focus on keeping your reader engaged throughout – keep using interesting description, drop hints as to what’s going to happen, keep building tension, don’t go off on a tangent, and keep in mind where you’re aiming to get to. Use a range of sentence structures, punctuation, interesting vocabulary and descriptive techniques. Make sure you use paragraphs. End your story in a satisfying way – a good idea is to try and connect the beginning and the end. If you end on a cliffhanger, make sure it’s a good one. Remember, something should have changed by the end of the story.