12th May 2022
Dear Year 11 Parents/Carers,
The first English Language exam is on the 18th of May which leaves only seven days of revision.
It is paramount that this weekend students take home all the necessary resources that they need for revision. All students have a folder ( that was given to them in Sept) and students should have all their notes and revision resources in the folder. The students are being given their folder to take home this weekend. Can you please check that your son/daughter has got their English folder full of necessary resources ready for the weekend.
The students who are organised, prepared and most importantly practice, practice and practice will be the most successful students. There are five questions in Wednesday’s exam and your son/daughter should have an exam strategy for the paper as a whole and for each individual question.
To check that your son/daughter is ready for Wednesday’s exam, you could repeatedly ask them these questions about Wednesday’s exam( the answers are included for your reference):
- What question do you do first in Wednesday’s English Language exam and why?
Q5 because it is worth 40 marks out of 80 marks. It is the question with the most marks.
- What question do you do second in Wednesday’s English Language exam and why?
Q4 because it is the question with the second highest marks- 20 marks.
- What question do you do last and why?
Q3 because it is the only question requiring a student to read the whole extract. By doing it last, a student will be familiar with a lot of the extract so it will make it easier for the student to complete it in the allocated ten minutes.
- How long should you spend on each question and why?
On average a minute a mark.
Q1- 4 marks- 5 minutes
Q2- 8 marks- 10 minutes
Q3- 8 marks- 10 minutes
Q4- 20 marks- 20/25 minutes
Q5- 40 marks- 40/45 minutes
Your son/daughter should be able to talk you through their steps for completing each question.
This weekend, students should be revising their template for the 40 mark Q5. Students should also be revising the templates and structures for Q1-4. Students should revise their vocabulary booklet with all the vocabulary that they have been taught this year.
In terms of equipment for the exams, in addition to pens, we encourage students to have at least two highlighters for an English exam to support their note taking and preparation for each question.
Yours sincerely,
Ray Gallagher
Assistant Head, Head of English
HDHS
