Exam Hints (based on Edexcel document)

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Professional Development and Training

Feedback to CentresEnglish Literature GCEUnit 1 - Exam

NEA08 Professional Development and Training from Edexcel - Issue 1 Jan 2010 © copyright London Qualifications trading as Edexcel

•Section C:

•Prose.


•Brighton Rock (Vintage) and either Lies of Silence (Vintage) or A Clockwork Orange (Penguin)


• Two tasks per text.• Candidates choose one.• Either a generic task• Or a passage-based response.• Proposition intended to allow for argumentation and to

fulfil the “other reader/s” requirement.• It is not the case that candidates are intended to quote

at length from critical sources (though some did). • Primary text to form the basis of the argument...• Secondary text to be used to extend it. • No specific “weighting” as to how much of the answer

should be devoted to secondary text, but those answers which completely ignored it (as some did) were inevitably self-penalising.


• AO1: 15 marks.• AO2: 25 marks.•No marks for context.•Not a comparative exercise – no marks for AO3.• Many candidates met the “extend your argument”

criterion impressively, drawing on the supporting text to expand their ideas effectively, rather than just looking at points of similarity and difference in the texts about which they were writing.

• As with the Poetry, those who simply narrated did far less well.


• “The more sophisticated arguments understood the characters as literary constructs, analysing them from a more intellectual stance.


• 6b: “The definition of key terms was vital...really successful arguments...opened...by considering what is meant by “romantic love”. This gave a much clearer focus...enabling (candidates) to develop beyond the (issue) of whether the novel is a “love story” into an evaluation of the nature of the love.”

Q7: The - How does the individual struggle to fit into society? question

Slide 88NEA08 Professional Development and Training from Edexcel - Issue 1 June 2009 © copyright London Qualifications trading as Edexcel


• 7a: This was the slightly more popular of the Brighton Rock choices. Candidates seemed to like the proposition, but as elsewhere, they were very keen to agree without any consideration of, for example, whether or not Pinkie really wants to fit in. There were very few discussions of Rose, for example, but when they did appear, they were often good.

• A colleague remarks:“It was possible to produce a clear developing argument in agreement with the title assertion; however, the most able candidates tended at least to question its validity. One such candidate argued, “Pinkie’s choice of damnation sets him apart from the rest of society, not because he struggles to fit in, but because he refuses to be the same.””


• 7b: Primarily, of course, the focus here was social and moral “corruption” and the main points of discussion revolved around Pinkie (Brighton Rock) & Alex (A Clockwork Orange).

• There was some good commentary on Rose and, to a lesser extent Ida, but neither of these featured as largely as they might have done.

• An examiner writes: “Most responses to this title were very successful in using the extract as a starting point, from which they developed their arguments, covering a wide range of examples of corrupt individuals and establishments. Ida proved a popular and fruitful focus in many answers, particularly those which probed the concept of “corruption”, considering whether she was necessarily more corrupt than Rose”.

• Lies of Silence was, again, under-represented, though there was some sound work on that text, unsurprisingly.

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