 Now let's begin by talking about English language a paper one now as you can see behind me essentially I've sketched out a walkthrough of Essentially what to anticipate of section a of this paper? And this is of course the first half of the paper now the paper in total bear in mind in terms of timings the entire paper for both Section a and section b is two and two hours 15 minutes now given that both sections so both section a which is the nonfiction text section and Section b which is a transactional writing both of them are worth equal amounts of marks if you do your numbers It's 45 marks in total for section a and 45 marks in total for section b You want to split this time up to these two hours of 15 minutes evenly Okay, you don't want to spend more time on section a and less time on section b because Essentially what you're going to do is you might be securing the marks the 45 marks as much as you can for section a But you may be neglecting section b. Okay, so you want to split your time evenly now Let's look over section a in terms of timings But also what to anticipate in terms of the wording of the questions, okay? So let's walk through it now as I've mentioned section a is the first part in the paper to be honest Whether you start with section a or section b it depends on you, but I would suggest just work through it chronologically Okay, so starting with section a which is the nonfiction text Remember that you're going to be given an unseen text that would be the first text that you get and of course You're going to compare you have some questions within this section that ask you to look at the scene edexel text so a text from the anthology itself and of course some of the questions are going to ask you about this text Which you've already studied so this is the scene part of the paper and of course You're also going to be responding to an unseen extract and when it comes to how this is split up Do bear in mind that text one which is the unseen text that you get to you've never seen this before in the paper now The questions one two and three in this paper will only be solely related to that unseen text In other words the first three questions in section a are related to the unseen text Okay now in terms of Timings always remember number one because obviously you're getting a text that you've never seen before you want to Allocate the first ten minutes of these two and a half hours when you're looking at section a Allocate that time to reading through this unseen text planning Highlighting also already thinking about the similarities that it shares with the scene text You're going to be asked to compare it to okay So in terms of the first thing that you need to do when you're starting off with section a spend ten minutes set aside those first ten minutes to read through and Highlight and you know kind of pick up on all the kind of commonalities and themes that your unseen text that you've never seen before We'll have with the Seen text that you're going to be asked to compare it to now when it comes to question number one Which is related to of course text one question one is worth two marks Okay, so it's just a question which is very very brief and in terms of wordings You're always going to be asked to select two words or phrases that relate to a key word Okay, so for this question don't spend more than three and a half minutes and then you move on okay Question one. It's simply worth two marks So you don't want to be spending too much time kind of writing reams and reams of writing You don't even have that much space. Okay, then question two, which is again related to text one the unseen text It's worth four marks now for this question in terms of the wording This question always asks you something along the lines of look at lines And then you're given the line numbers and then it asks you in your own words discuss x yz So again, you're discussing the key words in the question if it's asking in your own words What you cannot do for this question is quote from the text. Okay, you interpret it using your own words You're not using the same words as in the text. Okay, again, this is worth four marks Spend five minutes and you move on okay Make sure you're always keeping an eye on the time be very very strict and very vigilant about how you are Allocating your time now question three. This is the third question related to text one the unseen text now question three Which is worth five marks that would suggest spending seven minutes on this question And the wording of this question is always something along the lines of from lines. You're given a line numbers Explain what we learn about key word. Okay. Now. Do you bear in mind? There's always a theme that comes up There's always something generally that comes up and we're going to see this in a past paper question that I have prepared for one Of the unseen text and you're going to see that there's a kind of theme that crops up Okay, so these key words are always related to this theme and the theme obviously also links to the edex cell Anthology so the IGC SC anthology text that you're going to be asked to work with and to compare it to and of course These are the texts that you've seen before. Okay now text to so this is now the text from the non fiction anthology text to asks you Only rather in other words question for is now where you have to link it to text to okay So I'm going to rephrase myself again now questions one to three are related to text one Then question for is now where text to this is the text taken from the Anthology the one that you've prepared for the one that you've done all of these hours of study for Now this is where you're going to be asked a question related Specifically to that text not the first text, but just specifically to the scene text Okay, now this question question for is worth 12 marks and what I would suggest in terms of timing you want to spend 14 minutes on this question Okay, you want to kind of develop your answer now in terms of the wording and the phrasing of this question You're often asked to look at language and structures. This is the language and structure question Okay, so as I've mentioned questions one to three They ask you questions related to text one then question number four is the first question you get related to text two This is the scene anthology Then finally you have question five in section eight now question five is the question where you now have to compare text one and Text two and this question is worth 22 marks. So for this question I would suggest spending 28 minutes now I remember when I was mentioning for question one two three the three point five so three and a half minutes Seven five minutes and seven minutes the reason why you want to be really stricter so that you can give yourself enough time sufficient amounts of time in order to allocate it to the 12 market and especially the 22 market It's really really silly if you spend lots of time on the first three questions and you run out of time You find yourself rushing through the latter questions question four and five because that's where the bulk of the marks are Okay, now for question five in terms of wording It's always something to do with compare dot dot dot ideas and perspectives how both writers show the ideas and perspectives on The theme that it is explored on the keywords that are explored within both texts Okay, now in total in terms of when you're working through section a this is the nonfiction text in total of this Two hours 15 minutes. You should be allocating half of this time which is in total 67 and a half minutes of your time in this exam Okay, of course, this is the time that's given for the paper if you do have extra time Do the relevant maps in order to kind of allocate and add your extra minutes So if you have extra time just do the relevant maps However, if we're just strictly looking at the timings for this paper This would be my suggestion in terms of how to allocate your time effectively for the section a questions And please remember do not spend too much time on questions one to three the bulk of your time should be spent on question Four and five, but then once you're 67 and a half minutes is over you move on. Okay, so let's look at section B Now as I mentioned for section B This is a really important section because it counts for half of the overall papers marks So in other words, if you have in total two hours and 15 minutes for the entire paper You want to allocate half of that time for section B because it counts for exactly half of the marks available for this question Therefore my advice for section B is you want to spend one hour and 7.5 minutes in other words seven and minutes and 30 seconds So an hour and seven minutes and 30 seconds in total for this section Okay, now this is the section which is essentially called transactional writing in other words You are producing a non-fiction piece of text now for this section Firstly, you always have either a question six or seven now bear in mind You're not to answer both of the questions. You only pick one Question and then you answer that question for the remaining time. You never pick both questions. Okay now in terms of what? You should anticipate for either question because this is the non-fiction form of writing It's always going to be either a newspaper Magazine website speech or letter some kind of question related to that and do make sure that you check out the videos I've created and the lessons that I've created relating on how to develop a newspaper article and Magazine article a letter and speech and so on if you're not sure and if you're curious to kind of know how to plan that type of response however, going back to this Question six or seven will give you a choice of either or you pick whichever one you think you're gonna kind of enjoy writing about and you then After you've picked your question six or question seven Remember in terms of timing you've got one hour seven point five minutes in total This is how I would suggest you spend your time in terms of how to manage section B. Firstly spend 15 minutes planning, okay So 15 minutes might seem like a really long time to plan But honestly this time if you invest it well if you invest it in a detailed plan and make sure you write the detailed plan By the way in your exam transcript Okay, so that for example if you run out of time or if there's kind of any issues Your examiner when they're reading over your transcript that can also see that you've created a really detailed plan Don't spend more than 15 minutes though But 15 minutes is a really good chunk of time to spend in Planning this writing the reason why I suggest this amount of time rather than just five minutes or ten minutes is because Firstly two hours and 15 minutes is a long time to be writing So bear in mind that you've you're ready one hour and seven minutes into the paper So you're in sex you finished off section a maybe you're starting to feel a little bit tired You're still feeling alert, but you're starting to get a little bit tired Therefore as you're getting a little bit tired You're more prone to forget some of the ideas now if you jump straight into writing the answer and now you're kind of two hours in 15 On your last 15 minutes what tends to happen? You're really tired You're struggling maybe with the stress of making sure you get everything done in time and what tends to happen is your mind is Wondering it's going in ten different directions Therefore what happens as a result to your writing if what you've written is not very well planned is it's going to go Everywhere now if you invest this time so the 15 minutes into actually planning It means that even as you're getting tired and you you know as the time is going If your mind is wondering or if you're feeling stress or even forget what you're going to write about you go back to your plan Remind yourself, and then you say right that's exactly what I was going to write and also for the reader for the examiner Who finally reads what you've written it also will have a really good structure, okay? So 15 minutes might seem like a really long time But honestly I would suggest for a really good plan and for something of this nature because the council half of the marks Make sure you try and spend 15 minutes planning Then after you spent those 15 minutes planning you spend I would say roughly 47 and a half minutes Writing so obviously writing out in different sections depending on the type of writing you're expected to produce and then finally Make sure you allocate five minutes at the end to just skim reading what you've read You know picking out, you know, maybe spelling errors anything that you've written that maybe you might have missed Of course by the time that you know You're in the last five minutes of a two hour and 15 minutes exam You're probably your brain is a little bit frazzled However, you might find some glaring errors that perhaps you didn't pick up on as you are writing So this five minutes is also really good to just quickly pick up on that However, as I mentioned the majority in the bulk of your time should be spent actually writing But also try and allocate at least 15 minutes to planning now It's really tempting to look at this 15 minutes and say I'm gonna spend those 15 minutes in section a But what you're doing is you're sacrificing the maximum amount of marks you can get for section B Okay, that is not good planning or time management Be really strict with yourself be really strict with yourself in terms of how you allocate time for section a How you allocate time for questions one two three four and five, but then once that time is up move on Okay That is one of the major ways that you can really separate yourself from either getting a level five Level four mark versus the top level eight and level nine mark. It's both content So writing really good stuff, but also having the time That's the second element to write this good content Okay, if you're squandering all of this time on section a and you simply run out of time The examiner won't know the good content you have because you just didn't give yourself enough time to do so Okay, so I would say keep these timings really sacred Okay, it's really really important how you allocate and always have just a cheap Casio rich wristwatch or something don't take things like Apple watches because they're not allowed into examples But just have a wristwatch with you in the example as well There are different clocks around the room be very strict and very vigilant and very disciplined about how you allocate your time Okay, it's just a quickly recap in terms of timing spend 15 minutes planning your question 47 and a half minutes writing and then five minutes at the end reading over your answer And of course that will mean the total time we've spent on section B is one hour and seven and a half minutes That's really it when it comes to what to anticipate for English language a paper and of course do make sure you read and rewatch this video and Make note of these timings and always remember that these timings are very sacred Really take it into account and bear in mind that anytime you overspend time on one question Know that you're sacrificing another question and the marks that you can get from that. Okay, so thanks so much for listening