1. A-level Exploring Conflict
Top Tips for Paper 2
A-level
Exploring Conflict

2. Paper 2 Time allowed: 2 hours 30 minutes
Open book exam but texts must not be annotated and must not contain additional notes or materials.
Use black ink or black ball-point pen.
There are two sections: Section A: Writing about Society Section B: Dramatic Encounters
Answer three questions in total: two questions from Section A and one question from Section B.

3. Paper 2 The Great Gatsby Re-creative writing and commentary
Section A
Section B
The Great Gatsby
Re-creative writing and commentary
55 marks in total
Recommended time: 1 hour and 20 minutes
A Streetcar Named Desire
Analysis of how conflict is created
45 marks
Recommended time: 1 hour and 10 minutes

4. Section A - The Great Gatsby
Re-creative Writing
Commentary
A05: 25 marks
Creativity is assessed via:
creation of a new and original piece of writing
control of chosen style(s)
use of the base text by staying within feasible parameters of the narrative.
A02: 15 marks
A04: 10 marks
A05: 5 marks
A02: Analyse your language choices. Explain your decisions.
A04: make connections between your writing and the base text. Refer specifically to the style of the base text.
A05: Produce a well organised and accurate text.

5. The Great Gatsby, Re-creative Writing
Planning will guide your creative writing and the commentary. It will help you to ensure that you craft the creative rewrite to include the features you want to reference in the commentary.
Familiarise yourself with features of Fitzgerald’s writing style and how you can use them to inspire your rewrite.
Get to know the characters so that you have ideas of how to represent them before you even go into the exam room.

6. The Great Gatsby, Commentary
For every language choice that you identify, explain how you used it and how this differs from or mirrors Fitzgerald’s style in the base text.
Did you use a heterodiegetic or homodiegetic narrator?
What dexis did you use? Did the change of narrative affect this?
What is explicitly stated and what is implicitly suggested?
Lexical choices (adjectives, adverbs, nouns) and their connotations.
Characterisation through discourse features or politeness strategies: the idiolect or sociolect of your new narrator. How does their speech compare to Nick’s?
Characterisation through body language. How does it reveal their emotional state and relationships?

7. Section B - A Streetcar Named Desire
A01: 15 marks
A02: 20 marks
A03: 10 marks
A01: Terminology: Select language levels with sustained relevance and evaluate patterns. Express ideas coherently and with development.
A02: Analysis: examine how meanings are shaped through the selection and exploration of relevant sections
A03: Context: Explain genre conventions and evaluate the influence of contextual factors (social, historical, biographical, literary) on the production and interpretation of their chosen text.

8. A Streetcar Named Desire
The exam question will specify a section of the play to analyse and ask you to refer to other parts of the play. You must familiarise yourself with the order of events.
You will be asked to “explore how and why Williams presents tension” How (using which dramatic and linguistic devices) and why (purpose and effect on the audience) tension is created.
The focus could be on any of the characters through marital conflict, sibling rivalry, social class tension, the battle of the sexes or the struggle between he male characters to be the alpha.

9. Most importantly…
Your health and happiness are infinitely more important than any exam.
Prepare so that you can be confident and do your best.
Never underestimate what you can achieve if you strive for it.
Ms Jenny is very proud of you.
Good luck!