Some things to keep in mind before you go in

Key principles:

1. Go for the question that you are most comfortable and confident of doing. This is no time for what you think will be pulling off a brilliant intellectual stunt. Brilliant intellectual stunts are for essays you write in college. It is more likely that you will turn out brilliant essays on the'safer' questions.

2. Strategize. Look at the essay questions between Sections B and C, and choose the proper combination of texts to answer your choice of questions.

3. Don't write too much over your time limit. Roughly keep to 1 hr per question. Once you lose fifteen minutes on the next question, you'd start panicking and then it's not that good an essay.

4. Plan and organize. It's important that you do this quickly and not take your time because you'd have a maximum of ten minutes to do this. When planning, treat it as a jumpstart to the brain and don't panic/worry if you seem to have little evidence at that point. The brain, as you write along, will throw up something. You just need to have a rough sketch of the overall picture enough to go ahead with the question.

5. Always define the key terms of the question, and go into the various subcategories (e.g. 'alienation': discussion the different kinds of alienation). You will be marking out the scope of your essay discussion once you define your terms.

6. Don't balk at terms that seem difficult. Always define them first -- they might seem more manageable after you have defined them.

7. Answer the WHOLE QUESTION. Leave no term untouched or un-defined.

8. DON'T LOSE TRACK OF YOUR THOUGHT PROCESSES WHILE WRITING. Keep to the plan. (That's why it's important to have a view of the direction you are going to take with the essay during planning). DON'T LOSE FOCUS AND YOU WILL BE FINE. A shorter essay with great relevance and some substance is going to score better than a rambling essay with no argument and substantiation that makes little sense.

9. NO MATTER WHAT, DO NOT FREAK OUT. Trust yourself, even if you feel you're not prepared. It's a lot about confidence and maintaining lucidity during the exam.



THIS IS A PERIOD PAPER. I hope you realise that all the questions, all the texts are supposed to link up with each other in the greater context.

The separate sections:

1. PC -- choice of either poetry/drama, drama/prose, prose/poetry

PC is about PC first and foremost and not mainly about the 20th century context. The texts offered will probably range from more realist style, dealing with social (i.e. class divides)/moral/political issues of the time, to more symbolic, subjective writing with great experimentation in style.

READ THE QUESTION CAREFULLY. Sometimes the PC question requires you to focus on a certain aspect of the writing, be it in concerns/themes or style.

Identify key themes and key features. Your observations about the piece needs to support these greater themes and features. Discussion needs to be about theme and style and not either one.

Comment that these key themes and key features are characteristic of the twentieth century. Bring in context as you see fit (i.e. the period of great social change, political turmoil; two world wars as markers).

Look at the year of publication, as stated on the question.

Rough time period line:
1890s - 1910s (Conrad is situated here) -- End of 19th century (Victorians); industrialization was already in full swing, colonialism was in its heyday, development of science/increasing secular belief, proliferation of urban growth
1901 - 1910 King Edward VII ruled England

1910 - 1918 Period leading up to WWI. King George V's reign. We all knew what happened in WWI (thanks to Wilfred Owen) -- first war of that magnitude in terms of fighting area, technology used and destruction. America comes out of its isolationist policy to fight in WWI towards its end.

1920s - period of recovery after the war. The roaring twenties -- economic boom, flourishing of consumer industry (mass production of goods, e.g. Ford's automobiles), increasing decadence, followed by the Great Depression; extreme poverty caused much despair.

1930s - political turmoil. Hitler ascends to power and is determined to recapture German glory; European politicians opt for appeasement; rise of Fascism (dictators ascend to power)/totalitarian control;

"The audience took the fights dead seriously, shouting encouragements to the fighters, and even quarreling and betting amongst themselves or the results. Yet nearly all of them had been in the tent as long as I had, and stayed after I had left. The political moral is certainly depressing: these people could be made to believe in anybody and anything." (from Christopher Isherwood's "Good-bye to Berlin", 1939)

Bishop of Chichester decides to launch a religious drama revival with the comissioning of Murder in the Cathedral.

1940s - WWII. If they thought WWI was bad, WWII was worse. Much worse. Into the 1950s, the beginnings of existentialism (people were questioning about the purpose of life -- life is seen as absurd).

2. The Comparison question

The comparison questions are going to be broad. Look at the key term in question and define it such that you can bring in texts for discussion. Find points of similarity between the texts. Always discuss the two texts with each other and not separately.

Always keep the purpose of the text (purpose of style) in mind. That helps you focus on the similarities.

3. Single essay text question

The key thing is to LOOK FOR KEY TERMS -- ALL OF THEM. Do not miss out any part of the question. Interpret the ENTIRE QUESTION based on your definitions of your KEY TERMS.

Here, your evidence is going to be crucial (since the points, you would have stuffed into your head already by now). Give ARGUMENT THESIS - POINT - ELABORATE ON POINT - EVIDENCE - PC THE EVIDENCE TO TIE UP WITH POINT.


Ok. Good luck.