Chapters 19 to 23

The Exam

Planning a Character Question Response

You must be able to: understand what an exam question is asking you and prepare your response.

How might an exam question be phrased?

Remember that exam questions usually follow a typical structure. For example, a character question might look like this:

... it felt great to know that Dad had my back. (Dante) Explore the signi cance of Tyler within the novel. You must refer to the context of the novel in your answer. [40 marks] (includes 8 marks for the range of appropriate vocabulary and sentence structures, and accurate use of spelling and punctuation)

Remember that the quotation is there as a prompt. You do not need to incorporate it into your essay if it doesn’t t your plan.

How do I work out what to do?

The rst thing to remember is the assessment objectives. You are going to be assessed on your ability to construct a logical and well-supported argument (AO1) that also integrates context (AO3) into the response. Remember that context can include the social and historical context of the novel, the writer’s intentions, and the context of the novel itself. You need to identify at least four or ve points about the focus of the question that you can cover in the 50 minutes you have in the exam. As you will need time to both plan and proofread, you will probably be writing for about 35–40 minutes. You will not have time to write about everything that a character does or every time a theme is shown. Remember that the accuracy of your writing is also assessed (AO4) so proofreading your response is essential.

How do I prepare for a character question?

For character questions, you need to think about what the characters symbolise or represent beyond their role in the novel. For the example above, you need to think about what Tyler represents in terms of the way he re ects ideas about responsibility, masculinity and family. Because you are also being assessed for AO3, you need to link this to the author’s intentions. You also need to think about the context within the novel. For example, the fact that Tyler is so repressive of his emotions means that his sons do the same thing.

Your response needs to be a cohesive essay that is fully focused on the question. When putting your plan together, you need to make sure that you are thinking about the order of ideas as well as the content.

What should my plan look like?

Planning can be quite individual, so you need to work out a method that works for you. One option is to produce a spider diagram of all the ideas you have about the question:

Once you have the ideas written down, you could then number them so you know the order that you are going to follow. This will help you produce a fl uent and cohesive essay. You also need to make sure you have context interwoven with all of your points.

He represents the two sides of parenting – caring when he takes time off work to help Adam and Dante, and strict when he is disappointed with Dante for not taking precautions with Melanie.

Tyler refl ects ideas about masculinity that Blackman is trying to challenge. He says that ‘doing a runner is usually the man’s province’ and ‘boys don’t cry’.

Tyler eventually opens up about his emotions. He almost gives permission for Dante to admit his own fears: ‘Boys don’t cry, but real men do.’

The relationship between Tyler and Dante changes over the course of the novel. It starts very strained with Tyler being critical of Dante and ends with Dante being grateful his dad has his back.

How is Tyler signifi cant in the novel?

Blackman draws parallels between Tyler’s experiences of fatherhood and Dante’s life: ‘That’s another fi ve years off my life’. Loss of chances.

Tyler represents the sort of support network that Melanie does not have access to. He buys Emma things she needs and helps Dante with parenting her. He shares his experiences of needing a ‘routine’.

Summary

• Make sure you know what the focus of the question is. • Make sure you are able to discuss what the character represents both within the novel and in wider society. • Make sure you think about the order of your points to help produce a cohesive essay. • Make sure you integrate context into every point.

Questions

1. Which three assessment objectives are you tested on in this exam? 2. What things can you write about to cover context? 3. Why is it so important to proofread your answer?