A2 exam tips (WITH LINKS TO PRESENTATIONS)

For this exam, you will have two hours and three questions to answer:

1a (25 marks, 30 mins) is on the development of your skills across the course

1b (25 marks, 30 mins) analysing ONE of your productions in relation to a particular concept from a list

section B (50 marks, 60 mins) on WeMedia and Democracy

For 1a five different areas can come up: Creativity, Post-production, Research, Conventions of real media, Use of digital technology. You have to show what you did and how your skills developed, with close reference to examples. It's about YOU, your SKILLS, the PROJECTS and REFLECTION

For 1b the five areas are Narrative, Genre, Audience, Media Language, Representation. What you have to do is take ONE of your productions and analyse it, using critical ideas from the area in the question. It's about the WORK, the CONCEPT, the IDEAS. Again detailed reference to specific examples will be essential.

 For Section B, you will have a choice of TWO questions- you answer ONE. You use the case studies from class and refer to TWO or more critics to apply their ideas. The best answers always generate a sense of debate- arguments on both sides- and back points up with examples in detail.

Here are links to the presentations from the session on May 12 - you can download PDFs.

WEMedia
Q.1a and b
Narrative Theories  by Andrea Joyce

Exam tips AS (WITH PRESENTATION LINKED)

For this exam, which is coming up very soon (mid-May), you have two hours in which to complete the paper. However, the first 30 minutes will be taken up with four screenings of the TV drama extract, when you take notes, so your actual essay writing time will be just 90 minutes- two essays of 45 mins each. They are worth an equal amount of marks, so you should spend an equal amount of time on each of them.

Key things you have to do:

note-taking on the extract- you need points on camerawork, editing, mise-en-scene and sound and you need to be able to relate these to the type of representation that comes up, so that should help focus your thinking throughout. How your notes appear on the page is up to you, as they are not marked, but are there just to help you. So you might find a spider diagram, a table or some kind of visually organised format works best for you.

writing- you need to be selective about what you write; don't try to cover the whole sequence, but pick key moments and examples that stand out for each of the technical areas

terminology- you need to use this accurately and to cover a range from each area, including shot distance, angle, camera movement, costume, props, settings, editing terms and types of sound- music, voice and atmosphere

Representation- be very focussed as you watch on the area you are asked about and keep thinking about how it is constructed through the technical features.

Structure: don't just go through with a blow by blow account, break it down into four areas and do a couple of paragraphs on each, then pull it together with a conclusion.


How it is marked: 20 for argument, explanation and analysis  20 for use of examples to support your points, 10 for terminology

The second section is on media institutions and there are a range of possible questions which could come up, so you need to be able to adapt your material according to the question. For the newspaper industry, you need to know about: production, funding, marketing, distribution, technology, exchange (point of sale), the audience, online papers and free papers. You certainly need lots of examples to support your points. It is marked in the same way as Q.1.

PRESENTATION HERE