IGCSE FIRST LANGUAGE Exam Guide

WHAT YOU ARE EXAMINED ON  In this course, you are examined on two thing:  Reading Skills  Writing Skills  It sounds easy put like that, right?

READING SKILLS  Sadly, you are not just asked to prove you can read but that you can:  Understand what you have read;  Make inferences and read between the lines of what you have read;  And analyse the writer’s skills and the effects of what you have read.  That sounds a little harder but nothing beyond our abilities.

WRITING SKILLS  Again, this course doesn’t look for your skill in being able to hold a pen; it is slightly more advanced than that and looks for your ability to:  Read one type of text and use that information to create a different type of text;  Demonstrate your ability to write in a particular genre;  Demonstrate your ability to write in your own words;  And show off your ambitious vocabulary and sentence structure.

HOW TO TRAIN YOURSELF  Obviously we will be working as hard as we can and I will be giving homework at the end of every lesson (you may have noticed that) but you can also do a bit of extra:  Read newspapers online – The Daily Telegraph, The Independent, The Guardian, The Times (although this has a paywall).  Why these papers? These are the papers where many of the texts you will face in the exam will come from. If you can read these by yourself, understand them and spot all the different literary techniques used then the exam will be easier.  You should all be doing this once a week, at least.

A RELAXING SLIDE TO CALM US ALL

HOW TO TRAIN YOURSELF II  Read books.  As many as you can, as often as you can.  On my phone I keep a note of the books I read in a year. It helps me see whether I am reading enough. I aim for one a fortnight.  Now you people have exams and assessments and lives but you should try to read one book a month.  It will improve your reading skills, you vocabulary, your sentence structure, your brain, your sense of well being…even your sleep pattern.  Trust me, it will be useful in all ways but especially in English.

HOW TO TRAIN YOURSELF III  Write.  Write regularly.  Start a journal. It will only be for you but if you have a good day or a bad day at school then you can write about it. Experiment with vocabulary and sentence structure.  No one will see it but you.  What’s the worst that can happen?

HOW TO TRAIN YOURSELF IV  The following may seem silly but, in the long term and exam day itself, will be of great use:  Eat breakfast – a good breakfast with some fruit.  Regular exercise – even a small walk every day.  Regular sleep pattern – on week days especially, plan to get plenty of sleep.  Have chilling time – studying and homework are vital for success but relaxation is vital for good mental health…which is also vital for success.

CHILLING TIME SLIDE

THE EXAM ITSELF  You will sit two papers:  Paper 2 – Extended Reading (2 hours)  Paper 3 – Directed Writing and Composition (2 hours)

PAPER 2  Split into three sections:  In the first section, you must read Passage A and then:  Candidates write about 250–350 words, responding in one of the following text types: letter, report, journal, speech, interview, newspaper report or magazine article (15 marks for reading, 5 marks for writing)  So we need to be able to do two things:  Understand the text and be able to pick out the key points;  And understand how to write in the above text types

PAPER 2  Split into three sections:  In the second section, still concentrating on Passage A:  Candidates write about 200–300 words (for 10 marks) demonstrating understanding of how writers achieve effects.  So we need to be able to do two things:  Pick out relevant literary techniques;  And be able to analyse them in enough depth to show how the writer has used them.

PAPER 2  Split into 3 sections:  In the third section, you must now read Passage B and then:  Answering a specific question, write key points in note form (15 marks)and then summarise as continuous writing of 200–250 words (5 marks).  So we need to be able to do two things:  Understand the passage enough to pick out key points  Use our own words when writing in coherent sentences.

LET’S TAKE A BREATH

PAPER 3  Split into two sections:  In the first section, you will read a passage and then:  Candidates use, develop and evaluate the information in a discursive/argumentative letter or article of about words (10 marks for reading, 15 for writing).  We need to be able to do two things:  Understand the passage and pick out the key points.  Use our own words in the correct text type.  This may seem a lot like Q1 in Paper 2 (and you’d be right) but there are more marks available her for writing.

PAPER 3  Split into two sections:  In the second section, you will have to:  Choose one question from a choice of two descriptive and two narrative titles and then write about 350–450 words (25 marks).  We need to be able to do two things:  Write in the correct genre that has been requested.  Show off our vocabulary and range of sentence structures.

KEY TERMS CHECKLIST  Summarise  Skim  Scan  Own words  Text type  Punctuation  Connotations  Imagery  Characterisation  Setting  Ambituous vocabulary  Persuasive techiniques  Punctuation  Narration  Paragraphing  Direct Speech

SUCCESS CRITERIA  Attend every day  Do all homework  Read a lot  Be enthusiastic  Be ambitious  Be a team player  Remember how it feels when you gain a poor mark and be determined not to let it happen again.

AN INSPIRATIONAL QUOTE