Discuss our English quiz
13:54 UK time, Wednesday, 24 June 2009
Of all the subjects in the school curriculum, English literature is perhaps the hardest to test.
Why? Because answers are frequently up for discussion. While doing today's Magazine GCSE English test may instantly transport you back to a stuffy school hall on a sunny June afternoon, one key difference is there's no room in our online quiz to discuss and elaborate on your answers... until you landed on this page.
Use the comment box at the bottom of this post to discuss the answers to our quiz - it could mean the difference between an A and an A*.
The 
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2 stunning guesses gave me...2 out of 7. Shameful.
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not very GCSE-like questions. After studying particularl literature in great depth for 2 years, a GCSE student would be asked to analyse the use of language and such. If you've not read the literature in question, let alone studied it, then you're not going to get the answers to those questions correct. So there. I have justfied my also pitiful 2 out of 7!
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I got an A grade O level in English Lit! These were not the books I studied :)
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I've not read any of these either, but 'sensible' guesses got me 4 out of 7. Does that mean my education wasn't wasted?
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Excellent - 2 points. I shall immediately return my 1st class degree in English Literature and start again with Janet and John.
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6 out of 7, I think that makes me a good guesser!
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I got 6 out of 7 (I really am a bookworm). I though the question on Tennyson was unfair - the verbs may have indicated the fright of the soldiers, but they could also by their rhythm have suggested the noise of the charge.
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As far as I can see, most of the questions are merely 'Do you remember this bit of the book or play'? No discussion required you either get it right, or wrong.
The Light Brigade question is an exception, but unfortunately I haven't read it.
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Having scored 1/7 I have to say that the questions are specific to the curriculum and I would not expect too many people to have such in-depth knowledge of random pieces of Lit.
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Unless the English Lit GCSE has changed significantly since I did it 9 years ago, they were nothing like GCSE questions. Those questions were simply finding out whether you had read the book in question (most of which I hadn't), rather than testing your ability to analyse the work.
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6/7. The last question could be the sound of battle. Tennyson is conveying the movement and sound of the charge.
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I got 5 out of 7. My impression is that you could answer most of them if you had seen the film. C'est magnifique, mais ce n'est pas rigoureux.
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5 and ive just finished my gcse =)
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7 of 7 for me, a former English major. Surely I would have to hang my head at anything less. Having said that, some of the questions are open to more than one answer and a clever justification in the essay would, I think, win the points.
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6 out of 7. I agree with the comments about the Charge of the Light Brigade. It certainly made me think of the 'sound and fury' of a charge. Though I did also have a vision of Errol Flyn in there somewhere too so also anyone who has seen a film can get these right too. I have never read Much Ado or any Jane Eyre - movies rule apparently.
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I am sorry but I take exception with the Charge of the Light Brigade question. It is onoematoepoeic and alliterative and the terms 'volley' and 'thunder' expresses danger, yes, but that it obvious. The figure of speech was what was asked for and the horrific sound is therefore, in my view, correct.
If you'd ever been in a battle you'd know. It's very hot, too.
But this just shows there are no right answers - except where a question of fact is at issue - and that's what literature is for - not to make you intellectual and snooty but practically, to ensure you learn to make choices and defend them. That's why we teach it still. The same as teaching art to make people paint what they see, not what they think they see.
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I agree with KayFilex. I also got 6/7, but the Tennyson question was open to wide interpretation.
Certainly when I wuz at Uni, you could choose your interpretation as long as you could cogently justify your choice.
Poor ajudicating.
MoliereRedux
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6 out of 7 - Not bad for someone who did English Literature GCSE over 25 years ago.....
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3 out of 7 but a GCSE you choose a selection by your teacher to learn and not all of the questions are accurate. In English Lit. we have to learn 50 poem and their techniques and write an essay and got to write an essay of a novel in my case "Of Mice and Men" (I did get that question correct). Please bear in mind it not just multiple choice questions.
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6/7..mmm not bad! Poorly paid NHS worker playing hooky on day off when should really be building dog-run! CoLB question got wrong as looking for deeper meaning to discuss! :-D
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6 out of 7, mainly through guesswork, though I read Macbeth at school for O level Eng Lit. I've seen Romeo and Juliet and that question I got wrong.
The only one of the books I've actually read is Of Mice and Men, and that long time ago. Otherwise intuition (or unconscious memory) based on what I know of each work from film adaptations, or their reputation.
With the Jane Eyre question I guessed what a Bronte heroine would be like, and therefore what she wouldn't have done. With the Charge of the Light Brigade the answer came from a gut feeling, having read military accounts of that campaign. I know what a malapropism is, which clearly is an advantage with another question.
I have to admit, I'm not absolutely sure what is being tested here.
Still (thankfully) at least Chaucer no longer appears to be on the syllabus. I also hope schools no longer spend months reading one book out-loud in class; if anything kills a passion for reading it's that.
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KayFilex wrote:
I got 6 out of 7 (I really am a bookworm). I though the question on Tennyson was unfair - the verbs may have indicated the fright of the soldiers, but they could also by their rhythm have suggested the noise of the charge.
I agree. That was the same one I goofed on. To be honest, I don't think I read any of the texts in the quiz. We had Hardy (Far from the Madding Crowd), 12th Night, and Stephen Spender at school, and my own choice of reading now is George Orwell (still amazingly relevant) and Omar Khayyam, plus history rather than literature.
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Why are you moaning about not having studied any as set texts? If you loved literature you should be familiar with them all!
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6 out of 7 "must read more" it is a shame the exam boards are not as demanding. I have not read the Charge of the light brigade one so guessed wrong. GCSE questions will soon be asking wot duz Jenny meen by her text to Johnny. I remember the gist of the text mentioned from over 25 years ago. I do not think that children today will be able to do so in 25 years time. most of them have trouble remembering the last thing you said to them.
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Whilst a GCSE student may have read one or more of the texts upon which the test is based, it would be unusually rare to find a student who has read all of them. A successful student would not be required to know half as many texts. In the context of this particular test and in proportion to the knowledge required at Key Stage Four, I would suggest that two or three correct answers are sufficient to mirror the highest grades at GCSE. In fact, seeing as GCSE exams demand a number of essays from candidates and not answers to multiple choice questions I would question whether much weight can be attached to a result in this test. Without wishing to blow my own trumpet or, indeed, excuse a poor performance, I scored a grand total of two and I have an A* in Literature at GCSE and am yet to drop a mark in an A-level literature exam.
I wouldn't read very much into your score unless you got them all right.
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6 for me. I ahve never studied GCSE, so just goes to shoe what the uneducated can do. OR do Scottish Highers count?
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Studying literature is not about knowing the facts of a story or play. I am dismayed if this is the kind of information that is being examined.
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I agree with most of the comments here - the study of English Literature is not just about knowing the book's finer details but by knowing what those details mean in context. The joy of studying arts and humanities like English or History is that there is no 'right' answer.
I'm just diappointed at my 3 out of 7 :)
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6 out of 7, but I also think Tennyson's Charge of the Light Brigade question has more than one "correct answer" in the choices. "Storm'd and thundered" suggests both noise and danger and is an interpretation. Question 6 is actually an English Language question rather than a Literature question. Juliet is compared to sun, moon and stars, it would have been less of a trick question if it had said "AND juliet is the ...." I did School Certificate back in 1976 and HSC in 1977 & 1978 but these questions don't test for that.
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Yes I got 7 out of 7 and yes I did study English Lit at GCSE and A-Level.
However a few of the texts I have not studied but basic common sence is all that was needed.
I would love to do my GCSE's now if this is the standard.
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5/7! I guessed two of the right answers, just by following the way the question pointed me so in a way the candidates are being steered towards the right answer, and the questions are not a true test of the person's knowledge.
Also, in the last question, how do we know that Tennyson meant the 'violent' verbs to suggest fright, he might have thought he was using them to suggest the noise of battle for all we know, they certainly put the noise and turmolt of battle into my mind.
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6. I disown this quiz and everything it stands for. Stupid subjective Poetry question.
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I sat GCSE English Literature six years ago and achieved an A*.
Have to concur with the other views here though that this test isn't a very good representation of what goes in to a GCSE English paper (be it Lit. or Lang.), both of which consist mainly of extended answers not suited to the magazine quiz format. Also, where was the poetry???
My score - 5/7, not too bad considering that I only studied two of those texts.
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Hehe, I've got an MA in English, but as many of the people above have said I fell down either on texts I hadn't studied or the vague Tennyson interpretation where, lets face it, the semantic field (GCSE terminology!) from which Tennyson draws his vocabulary was most likely employed to highlight all of the suggested emotions in the answers - the quizmaster's insistence it was soldiers anger is far too narrow an interpretation, unless he has evidence from Tennysson to prove otherwise!
Anyhoo, at 4/7 I was very accurately informed I should read more, which is frankly true of everybody in the world!
Enjoyed the quiz, but as the intro to this comments string very correctly states English Lit is something that cannot be properly tested via multiple guess - it's rather a topic which lends itself excellently to anybody with a glimmer of imagination and the desire to express themselves at great lengths on subjects only of interest to other people within the field!
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Hmmm. Reading some of the comments on here I'm starting to feel that this was a pretty big blunder from the BBC - reinforcing the view that exams are getting easier by completely misrepresenting what they consist of.
I would like to stress that students are required to use much more of their own interpretation and would not be given such leading questions in a true exam - neither would they be able to select answers through multiple choice. English papers as a whole require a lot of independent thinking from students to achieve the higher grades.
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I very much agree with CarolineMB and disagree with the quiz answer: while the verbs may indeed reinforce the sense of danger through their meaning, their sound is also vital here: both "volleyed" and "thunder'd" are to some extent onomatopoeic, and the alliteration of "storm'd", "shot" and "shell" is obviously deliberate and surely(!) intended to convey the sound of dangerous objects whistling by the ear. The given answer is surely also true - the verbs increase the sense of danger, but their sounds also evoke the noise of battle. Both answers are part of the right response.
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So far a majority verdict that the Charge of the Light Brigade question is far too difficult for todays GCSE student....throw it to degree students for a 25% pass!
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I'm a bit surprised, as a Cambridge graduate in Modern Languages (i.e. large literature component), to score 4/7 and be told to read more. The test strikes me as being more like Trivial Pursuit than a test of the ability to read and appreciate literature. And, incidentally, how does the tester know what effect Tennyson was hoping to achieve in The Charge of the Light Brigade? The answer given is totally subjective. Kind regards.
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As a mere student of Electrical Engineering, I am quite pleased with my 7/7. Except I am sure there's far more to real Eng Lit than this little quiz.
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On the one hand, I feel I should be ashamed for only getting 2 of 7, as I'm an English major, and I've read every one of those bits of literature. On the other hand, it has been at least 10 years since I last read each of those other than Jane Eyre, and I'm horrid with names and facts.
All the same, I'm a little offended we're leading our children to believe this sort of thing is necessary. Can anyone tell me which literature profession requires us to memorise minute facts? That sort of thing takes time away from what's really important: how the facts are used to tell the story and influence the reader. The Of Mice and Men question was good (though I got it wrong; I HATE that book!), as were the questions about Much Ado and Lord Tennyson's poem. Neither require one to have read the literature, but to understand /concepts/ one can learn from it, or from anywhere else.
I agree with most of you when I say I am offended at the "correct" answer for the last question. Thunder is a noun describing a sound, thus "Thunder'd" describes the occurrence of that sound. I should think everyone's first reaction is to say the series of verbs describe the sound. This is an example of the poetic principle that the poet should always draw on the five senses whenever possible... sound being on of them. Danger is more of an emotive thing, and is thus more vague, being experienced different from each individual. Emotions result /from/ the senses. If Tennyson had been trying only for the perceived danger, I would have considered him misguided. Now, placing myself in the tutor's shoes, I would have accepted both the danger and the sound as acceptable answers.
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Is it true that GCSE English Lit requires the study of all these texts? When I did O level English Lit, I remember studying only 2 texts for the exam (Macbeth and Chaucer's Prologue).
(But the teacher did write on my report that I was the worst pupil he had ever taught!)
4/7 by chance.
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My children, currently teens at school, could answer none of these questions
I, a product of much experiamental teaching etc in the 70s scored 4/7
My mum, a product of a classical education not seen for a very long while, easily scored 7/7
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I'm a 6 as well. I gave the "wrong" answer for the Tennyson, but I think the official answer is wrong. I haven't read Jane Eyre since I was a child (50 years ago) and I have never read Of Mice and Men. I am certainly a bookworm, as anyone who knows me would certify, and I doubt if those questions are typical GCSE standard or content.
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5/7 eh? Not bad I suppose but then I have never read any of the books or poems here. Just shows what one achieve with a combination of logic and luck.
Bit worrying if GCSE's were really this easy.
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Poor test this one, basically coming down to "have you read these particular books?" Well, no, I haven't for the most part. As I recall, Lord of the Flies, The Merchant of Venice, and the poetry of Wilfred Owen were the texts used when I studied GCSE English Literature.
It would have made more sense to have had questions on a choice of texts, rather than an arbitrary selection of texts that even current GCSE English Literature students may not have read (depending on their particular exam board and syllabus), but I appreciate the quiz system may not allow that.
Having said that, the last question, on Tennyson's Charge of the Light Brigade, which didn't rely on having read the poem (with the particular text included in the question) wasn't a great question either as others have stated, with more than one answer being arguably correct.
Pretty poor show all round I'm afraid!
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It looks like they still rely on the same tired old collection of standard classic and 'important' modern authors they did when I was at school 40 years ago. You'd think they could have introduced some variety in both: Oliver Goldsmith, Bernard Shaw, and Raymond Chandler for example.
And what's wrong with studying literature that people might actually have gone out and bought themselves? Stephanie Meyer's Twilight trilogy is as sensitive, subtle, and well-written as any fiction I've read and (as usual) much better than the film (unlike J.K.Rowling's).
The appalling thing is that the entire literary education of so many people is determined by the tyranny of the 'set text' for exams. Better not to test literature at all, I think.
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5/7 - Not bad. Agre with the comments about the Tennyson question. More of a discussion question than a right or wro
Only knew the Romeo and Juliet one because I remember Frank Bruno doing that quote in some TV show...does that count?
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I agree with the other comments. I got a 'B' at O Level English Lit (mind you, that was in 1982), and read Orwell's "1984" and Shakespeare's "Twelfth Night". The GCSE quiz is pretty irrelevant if the questions are not about literature we've read!
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I really think someone at the BBC has messed up here. This is not even remotely related to "GCSE English Literature", but is instead a trivia quiz. I realise this is the Magazine section, but surely this is highly misleading?
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.. This test is a bit of a scam really; seeing as no one pupil would've studied all these texts..
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If only students' work could be marked by clicking on a screen and them receiving their score accompanied by some pithy summative comment! To think of the hours I've wasted marking pages and pages and pages and pages...(fade to black)
Plus, as an English teacher of many years I'd like to suggest that what happens above bears no resemblence to a GCSE at all...it isn't easy enough.
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IbanezDemon and Medieval-Evil: Isn't the point of the GCSE quizzes to be a taste of what's on today's GCSE syllabus. Poetry, Prose and a play; indeed the ones /on/ the syllabus, so why is it irrelevant and misleading?
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4/7 and haven't read any of the books, nor seen the films. And I got an A in Eng Lit in 1982, but couldn't tell you either of the books we read... although one was a "Richard" I think.
Agree with the Tennyson comments, certainly down to interpretation.
Oh how I wish I could retake my 'O's and 'A's now.....
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I can't believe, reading some comments here, that people actually believe this quiz represents the true standard of a GCSE English Literature exam.
I appreciate that the quiz was mainly designed for a simple, internet-friendly test but the BBC need to make clear that this does not represent the style, nor difficulty, of a GCSE exam.
It is completely false to say these are typical GCSE questions, and just adds fuel to the fire of the "exams are getting easier" debate when there are clearly people gullible enough to actually believe that this is the current standard of GCSE.
If you really want to see a modern GCSE exam paper, then visit the exam board websites where you can download freely accesible past papers from recent years.
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6/7, fluke!! :)
I loved Of Mice and Men at school.
GCSE years we studied Of Mice of Men, An Inspctor Calls, Romeo & Juliet and Macbeth.
Really nice blast from the past but I agree that it is not at all reflective of GCSE exams. Good fun though, thanks!
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5/7 and never read any of the literature discussed. I do actually have a degree in English though - somehow I escaped without indulging in many of the classics...
Totally agree with some people's comments on the last question - the answer is subjective, it could be to express any one of those things, how do we know exactly what Tennyson wanted to get across?
Nevertheless, I'm sure GCSE questions are more involved than these and require the writing of an essay, not just selecting a multiple choice answer... surely?
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I agree with jordan1224.
There is no 'guessing' in Eng Lit exams. In fact, it's not even multiple choice.
And for the record, the last question could have been sound. The repeated use of the 'd' sound in the verbs is clearly meant to portray the sound of gunfire.
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Only fell down on the Tennyson (and the official answer is open to debate in my opinion anyway!) - but why not link to past GCSE English papers? Then we could all see the context in which such questions are given.
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@ sal3monkeys
"Why are you moaning about not having studied any as set texts? If you loved literature you should be familiar with them all!"
I have to disagree with you on that. Just because I have The Complete Works Of William Shakespeare, it doesn't mean that I've read everything in it. I read more than almost everyone I know, but I read a broad range of genres, not just the classics. I enjoy the classics, don't get me wrong, but I also red YA, horror, thriller, crime, fantasy, chick lit, historical fiction... the list goes on.
As far as Shakespeare goes, I'm currently building up a collection of films on DVD so that my kids have an early introduction. My four year old loves Romeo and Juliet already. But then again, I also like watching James Bond, Harry Potter, Twilight, the Bourne films, anything with Al Pacino... oh wait, he was in The Merchant Of Venice.
My point is that if you were answering questions on these texts in an exam, then you'd have read the texts. I studied none of these texts at GCSE, and I got 6/7. As it stands, this is just a not-quite-so-general knowledge quiz. If you know the subject matter, you'll get the answers right (probably - pesky Tennyson question!), if you don't know them , then you at least have a chance of getting the answer right by guessing.
I'm not fussed at whether I got a few questions right or wrong, and I don't care about my result in my GCSE. No piece of paper, nor a number on a screen, can tell you if you can read or not. It's all subjective when it comes right down to it.
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6/7 after having studied only three of the texts.
The Tennyson question was my downfall, as it was one of those questions where, no matter what the poet intended, if you support your answer well enough it can't be wrong.
Besides, GCSE students won't have studied these exact texts.
It bears no resemblance whatsoever to a real exam, but perhaps the magazine monitor should become the new examining board???
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7/7 - Hadn't studied many of the texts and those I did I studied many years ago. However, I had enough knowledge of them and their subject matters through films/mentions in media/general references made, I could work out the answers I didn't know by what I knew of the text's subject. I feel the Tennyson answer was the correct one taking into account the subject matter of the poem as well as the language used. I do agree that the point of English Lit exams is the ability to discuss why you have come to a particular answer and back up your decision.
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I got 4 and every one of them was a pure guess as not read any of these.
But what does this all mean?
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A paltry 2/7 for me.
jakehadlee wrote "I shall immediately return my 1st class degree in English Literature and start again with Janet and John."
At junior school, I loved reading and couldn't wait to read the next Janet & John book.
Unfortunately, I was frequently told that I couldn't have read the book in that amount of time and was sent back to read it again.
I read most of the Janet & John books twice!
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We oldies are all incensed after getting 7/7 on the previous tests. Pleas set tests we can answer easily so we can carry on being grumpy and superior about modern "education".
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too many "girlie" books! Somewhat surprised to have got 6...
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I scored 6/7; I have never read Hamlet, so I got that one wrong. There again, the only ones which I HAD read was Jane Eyre and Romeo & Juliet - though I didn't enjoy the latter and it must be 31 years ago in any case!
I am familiar with The Charge of the Light Brigade, so had an educated guess at the answer. I guessed at the other questions too. The only one which I actually knew the correct answer was Jane Eyre. I have read this for pleasure, not just at school.
If it's possible to score over 85% largely by guesswork, what does that really say about GCSEs?
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As a qualified English teacher (though haven't worked for 4 years - baby brain!) I scored 6 out of 7. In common with quite a few others, I fell down on the Tennyson question. I agree it was a bit unfair - an arguement could have been made for any of those three options. At least it wasn't a complete disaster!
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Seeing as I did English Lit GCSE last year I can tell you, in case any one was wondering, that the actual question aren't actually like this. As this is a multiple choice quiz I wouldn't expect them to be like the real questions as they require you explain and discuss certain aspects of the works we read.
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Re Tennyson's "Volleyed and thunder'd; Storm'd at with shot and shell."
All battles are noisy, and there were many in the Crimean war.
The Charge of the Light Brigade stood out in its day (and remains controversial) because it seemed the cavalry were sent to almost certain death, certainly they charged the wrong target. They were unbelievably heroic and recklessly brave, but their command was inept and riven by feuds. Of the approx 660 cavalry nearly half were killed or wounded and many others were captured. It was seen by the press of the day as a disaster.
Tennyson did not witness the charge but wrote his poem after reading an account in the Times newspaper. It famously contains the lines: "Theirs not to reason why, Theirs but to do and die:"
It was the violence they faced and the number of casualties they took that Tennyson wanted to convey. It's worth looking up the full poem.
"Cannon to right of them,
Cannon to left of them,
Cannon in front of them
Volley'd and thunder'd;
Storm'd at with shot and shell,
Boldly they rode and well,
Into the jaws of Death,
Into the mouth of Hell
Rode the six hundred."
This may be a case where knowing the context helps provide the correct answer.
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This test entirely misrepresents English as an academic subject. Five of the questions merely test whether one has read the book and can remember particular, arbitrarily chosen details of it. The other two, the questions on Steinbeck and Tennyson, ask us to choose from sets of alternatives that are not really alternatives (they could all be true) and are in any case questions of opinion.
English Literature is the discipline of literary criticism - expressing, extending and justifying your opinions of books, and engaging critically with intellectual challenges to those opinions. The test gives no opportunity for this at all.
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I agree with many other views posted here. English is not like science or maths where you can box questions neatly into a multiple choice format. GCSE students would, typically, be required to study a few texts, including prose, poetry and drama, in much greater detail than is suggested by this quiz! Of course they need to know the text but then they must go beyond the surface and examine the writer's language, style and presentation of ideas. They also need to know how to write an essay which enables them to elaborate their ideas and provide evidence from the text.
Why do people insist exams are getting easier when more students pass? Why not, dare I say, suggest pupils are getting smarter and now know how to write essays which are focused, well-structured, and well-supported with evidence from the text. This is something to be celebrated, surely.
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4/7 a pass! Almost as much as I got for my O level English Lit - I didn't read those books either! I love reading but there was something about my set books and plays that I just couldn't make myself read them. Still managed a C though.
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My O-level Eng Lit, IIRC, consisted of one Shakespeare play and one novel. This one covered too many subjects. Although I'll gloat about getting 6 out of 7 right.
I still can't stand anything by Tolkein after being force fed The Hobbit in third year seniors (what they call year nine now).
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I got a 7/7 and I live in the United States. All of the readings in the quiz were required for me in high school, with the exception of the Tennyson poem. I'm not sure why people had problems with the latter, as it mentions "shot and shell" and "volleyed," all of which imply imminent danger to their lives.
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To the bloggers who complained about the Charge of the Light Brigade question: the whole point of the poem is that 'someone had blundered'. The soldiers who rode into the valley of death had been sent into an impossible position by an incompetent general. It was a famous massacre. The poem is magnificent, and worth reading aloud, at any age.
I got seven out of seven for the test, but I expected to do that. I used to teach English literature.
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I'm well old (over 40) and have never read any of these books but still managed to get 5/7. How i don't really know but it was an entertaining five minutes.
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Music2ologist may have taught EngLit but he is wrong about the Charge of the Light Brigade. The question was clearly ambiguous and there is more than one answer.
I hope these are not actual exam questions - a little more depth please...
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Very interesting; I managed six, guessing two, knowing four. I note that two Americans are included, writers of great humanitarian works that influenced the world, in the opinions of many. Both were made into world-famous films.
It would not surprise me to find that in the UK today, these are less likely to be known to younger generations, on the same scale as older folk. A personal reflection on the importance -or not - attached to such subjects now.
The media developments have at least as much to do with this, as those in education, IMHO.
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Being from California I'm not exactly sure what "GSCE" stands for, but I read 6 of the 7 items back in high school thirty years ago and got 6 of 7 on the quiz. Charge of the Light Brigade is the one we didn't study and is the one I missed. I agree with the others who preferred the "noise of war" answer and think either answer is defensible. Current high school students here still read most of these, as well as newer books. I think society will be poorer if students aren't exposed to a common background of classic English literature, so they will recognize many references to them that occur throughout life. Thanks for the quiz.
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1/7
I wasn't too good at airy-fairy subjects although I did get a B at O' level.
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I agree with Candace. I changed my mind about the Tennyson question because it could have been the sound of battle. So I got 5 instead of 6. A couple of those were guesses of course.
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I am an old fart who passed English Lit over 40 years ago. Of all of the 7 pieces of literature featured, I had only read one - Macbeth. Yet I still scored 6/7 by intelligent guesswork. This makes me angry - the multiple choice questioning adopted by modern educators is not a true test, and I feel that my view is endorsed by the need to properly educate young people from the start of their entry into the workplace.
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4 out of 7 but I got an B on my English Lit GCSE last year. The only texts on the quiz I've read are Jane Eyre, Of Mice and Men, Much Ado About Nothing, and Romeo and Juliet. The others were just guesses.
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chuffed at my score - 5 out of 7 - not bad for one so aged!
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Is it right to say correct and especially "Wrong!" when asking questions about interpretive texts?
"In the text only the reader speaks" - Barthes.
2 out of 7 :P
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Do you think that the questions posed in this inane quiz offer even the tiniest insight into the complexities of human experience, as distilled and expressed through the many talented writers, playwrights and poets we are lucky enough to know about?
Yes?
Wrong!
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Clever response - and you're quite right, of course. But a better way of spending a few minutes of leisure than doing yet more sudoko, perhaps?
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6/7 - got an A* in GCSE English Literature five years ago. *feels old and geeky* The one I got wrong was the Tennyson one.
I did Of Mice And Men at GCSE (I think), plus A View From The Bridge and some other stuff I can't remember. I read Jane Eyre and Macbeth when I was in Year Eight and have seen Romeo and Juliet so managed to vaguely remember them. The rest I just guessed really.
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6 out of 7. Happy with that but I would disagree with the final question. I think it does highlight the noise of the battle and literature does not have only one meaning. Apart from the reader concluding what he or she thinks of the text, it can also have a range of possible meanings.
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I have read all of these books, some repeatedly! However, I scored one point! The questions are largely related to parrot like recall of a small particular element rather than the issues or full context of a book. The detail of the To Kill a Mockingbird question for example, ignores the importance of the statement - simply an inane checklist question. I feel justified in my one point!
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'This makes me angry - the multiple choice questioning adopted by modern educators is not a true test, and I feel that my view is endorsed by the need to properly educate young people from the start of their entry into the workplace.'
Multiple choice questioning is not a method of assessment used in English, so this 'test' is misleading. English Literature is always assessed through essay writing and speaking. It's a bit worrying when people draw their misguided conclusions about how people are educated from a daft quiz on the BBC website.
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6 from 7. Far better than my O level result!
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i managed to get 5/7 :) quite happy with that.
At GSCE i got a B in English (3 years ago) and it seems like i would have got a B in this little test.
i know it sounds a little silly, but this has made my morning haha
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5/7 - not bad for someone who left school 15 years ago and has only ever read one of those books. It seems good instincts are all you need to pass nowadays.
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5/7 not bad for someone who had actually never read any of those books or plays (even with an A level in enlgish lit !)
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I got 6 out of 7, and I would like to appeal. There isn't a single correct answer to question 7. Tennyson's verb choice does many things, including both emphasising the noise and highlighting the danger! (sorry, but I do have an English degree!)
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I'm just finishing marking this year's GCSE English literature and it's a bit misleading to suggest these are 'questions of GCSE standard' that assess how people would 'fare in curriculum tests'. No student would face anything like this - they write essays. Also, only the final 3 questions start to deal with the level of understanding that would be expected of a C grade candidate, but since you're given options anyway it's not really a valid test. Not if you want to present it in the fashion that it has been.
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Wah!!!!! I just got 7/7!!!! Did my gcse's 30 years ago, regrettably have no time or patience to read books these days, and the only 2 I have read anyway were To Kill a Mocking Bird and R&J. I just answered the questions using gut instinct and human psychology.... Maybe I should start an Eng Lit post-grad course???? ;)
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I notice people's comments about the unfairness of the Tennyson question. In fact it's quite right - one of the options notes that the device is used to emphasise the noise of battle, but that is created through the alliteration in the quoted section: "Storm'd at with shot and shell." The question, though, specifies the "violent verbs", which is a different aspect of the quotation. This focuses on the meaning rather than creating an aural effect and consequently generates an emotional significance, which is explained here as the danger faced by the soldiers. If you got it wrong you didn't read the question carefully enough!
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6 out of 7 - got the last one wrong (Tennyson) but that's because I really do think that he used those words to evoke the noise and confusion of battle, not the danger necessarily.
Ah well, I guess it goes to show that the interpretation of poetry at least, if not all literature, is subjective.
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The Tennyson question shows what is wrong with English Lit: it is not about your interpretation but the interpretation of the question setter or the person who wrote the explanation of the poem that the pupils were using. Of course, if Tennyson said that is what he meant fair enough but a BBC experiment a few years ago had the authors of books on the GSCE syllabus answer the questions on their book. They got poor marks with comments from the markers saying 'This pupil has little understanding of the text' etc.
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I am an old mom and I have read all the books in the quiz.I got 6 out of 10 but - I disagree with the last answer. Yes it was dangerous - war is! The way the poet writes emphasises the hullaballo of the situation. I just gave a copy of 'to Kill..' to a 14 year old girl as she has been reading Maeve Binchy. Ok but there are better things in life!
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I must be good I got 6 out of 10 oops!
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Well I got 6/7. Not bad since it is 20 years since I read some of those texts.
A bit insulting to be told I need to read more!
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I'd want to point out after 3Dots' observation that candidates are not in any way marked down for offering different interpretations of texts. Only if they suggest something ludicrous that cannot be supported from the text would there be an issue of incorrect interpretation, and even then they would not be marked down - the comment in question would simply earn no credit. The Tennyson question has nothing to do with interpretation, it is a technical question about poetic devices and 'violent verbs' does not refer to a sound effect, which is what is needed for a reinforcement of the noise of battle. Those alliterative aspects that do create that effect are indeed in the quotation but that is not what the question asked about. From my own marking I can certainly agree that many candidates have a poor understanding of the texts, but it is not because they are offering different interpretations from mine, it's because they're barely saying anything about it at all.
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The answer to question 7 on the Charge of The Light Brigade, could be either to reinforcement of the noise or the danger faced by the soldiers. This is an objective question and if a student answer fully describing why they thought the words reinforced the noise/danger they would have to receive full marks. You must never forget that with poetry it is as much the way the poem is read as the words that are used. Again a similar technique is used in Vitai Lampada with a jaunty refrain making the reader read the poem quickly even though the poem itself is a tragic description of war.
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Oh the folly of such tests. In this three choice, seven question test over 17% will achieve a 4/7 pass or better using guesswork alone. If the candidate knows just one of the answers, the chances of guessing another 3 or more correct increases the probability of passing to 51%.
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I did GCSE English Lit 20 years ago and the only commonality between my reading list and the questions was Of Mice and Men. Coincidentally, my English teacher also didn't understand onomatopoeia either.
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I agree with iceravenlady (post 16) - the choice of words is definitely suggestive of sounds and noise.
I had 6/7, having sat A Level Eng Lit some 14 years ago.
denmark77
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@janemom, how do you get 6 out of 10 when there are only 7 questions?
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" This is an objective question and if a student answer fully describing why they thought the words reinforced the noise/danger they would have to receive full marks."
They really wouldn't. If such a question were set (and as I noted earlier these are nothing like GCSE questions) the candidate would get some credit for correctly identifying technical devices such as alliteration and onomatopoeia. However, they would not receive full marks because that is not what the question asked. A candidate answering in that fashion would have correctly noticed that there were technical devices employed by the poet to re-create the sounds of war but would have failed to notice that the question asked them to focus on the concept of 'violent verbs', which is rather different. 'Violence' does not intrinsically convey the idea of noise but is instead working on a semantic level - it is dealing with emotional impact as opposed to sound-effects. Consequently only the first option can be correct.
People have been confused because they have focused on the quotation itself rather than what they were specifically asked about it. Option C could have been correct if a different question had been asked.
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Just to add that this is another reason why I think it's irresponsible of the BBC to present this as being representative of GCSE questions. True GCSE questions never set out to 'trap' candidates, which is exactly what the Tennyson options do. An answer is given which can be said to be true for the quotation but not the question that is asked about it. Such questions would not be part of any GCSE literature exam and so this creates a very misleading impression of how students are assessed by the examination system. Clearly many of the respondents posting here have been left with the impression that this is how GCSE exams operate.
Sure, these quizzes are good fun but the introduction should make that clear rather than passing it off as being in some way representative of what real students do as part of their assessment.
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Quote "'Violence' does not intrinsically convey the idea of noise but is instead working on a semantic level - it is dealing with emotional impact as opposed to sound-effects. Consequently only the first option can be correct."
True violence does not automatically convey noise but violent verbs such as Thundered and Stormed do by their very nature convey both danger, violence and noise.
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Took o' level eng lit in 1984. Got an A. Took this test and got 7/7. These works are all classics and should have been read by anyone taking english, whether they were on the exam or not. Just proves that the exams these days are much easier than when I sat mine.
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@69 "All battles are noisy" - I think you'll find they're all dangerous too.
@111 I have to disagree. The description of the verbs as violent in the question does not inherently mean that Tennyson used those verbs to convey only danger. The adverb 'violent' can be applied to noise to mean 'extremely loud' - the reader could consider the description of the verbs as 'violent' as emphasis regardless of whether they regard the verbs as intended to convey danger or noise.
The verbs in question, "volleyed", "storm'd", and "thunder'd" do, of course, convey both noise and danger. Neither answer is exclusively correct. It is far from unreasonable though, for someone to consider the group and regard them as, collectively, being more evocative of 'noise' (or 'violent noise' if you prefer) than danger.
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7/7 :) - I got O level grade C for EL. Haven't read most of these but have some background knowledge of them plus good at guessing!
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I would hope that examiners making English Lit papers are not just mindless drones looking for text book perfect answers. The whole point of literature is that everyone has there own feelings about what the author/poet is trying to convey.
I remember having an argument with my English teacher when I sat GCSE English about my answer in my mocks to the dreaded question: "What do you think this person/character is thinking about this situation?" I wrote my answer and the teacher marked it and said I was wrong the character did not think that. I maintained that it is what I thought the character would think and how therfore could I ever possibly get the answer wrong as whatever I wrote must be what I thought.
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At 2:32pm on 24 Jun 2009, jakehadlee wrote:
Excellent - 2 points. I shall immediately return my 1st class degree in English Literature and start again with Janet and John.
This made me laugh out loud. I guessed most and got 5. And I hated English at school.
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I too hated English at school, but mainly because they tried to tell me what to read, what to like and what to think.
"I am not a number!"
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"I would hope that examiners making English Lit papers are not just mindless drones looking for text book perfect answers."
Certainly not, darkmarker, and the descriptors used to standardise marking are based around skills, not specific comments. However, this question is not about interpretation, as was your unfortunate experience at school. It is about analysis of poetic diction, not thoughts and feelings.
"The adverb 'violent' can be applied to noise to mean 'extremely loud'"
Well, it could but that in itself would be a poetic act because noise is not inherently 'violent'. You can check in a dictionary yourself to see that violence carries the idea of physical force and injury, which is not something that noise achieves, so to apply violence as a descriptor is a metaphorical act. You only have to translate it to another context to see what I mean - if you were told a pupil had been violent towards your child at school would you immediately think of someone shouting at him, for instance, or pushing/kicking/punching? Violence conveys the notion of physical threat and therefore danger, which is why the question leads to the first answer. What Tennyson intended the whole quotation to achieve isn't relevant (and impossible to know); it's about the function of words.
That's the issue here. The quotation of course also employs sound effects to mimic the noise of the battlefield but that is not what the question asked 'candidates' to look at.
The point is that it is not a well-worded or structured question, hence the confusion. I can entirely understand why people felt the other answer was right but you have to bend the terms of the question severely to make it so. That's also why I posted here in the first place - because I think this is a very misleading quiz. It has nothing to do with real GCSE assessment.
Anyway, I'll leave it there.
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I got 1 out of 7 and had to guess them all!
But how many jobs or careers require that knowledge??
How would English Literature help me get a job as a computer programmer?
It wouldn't, would it!
English literature should be an optional subject for kids, the three 'R's are far more important!
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An embarrassing 3/7 and I have a BA Hons in English Lit .. in mitigation, I've never read the majority of books/plays in this test !
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This shouldn't be examined in an English exam- there was only one or two questions on techniques and they form a really large part of English in Schools.
As for the analysis questions... I always hate questions that ask you to analyse, because unless you interpret the phrase in question in exactly the same way as the examiner, you'll get it wrong (according to the marker). Everybody interprets things differently- Don't just teach what was interpreted by one person.
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Speaking here as someone who's taught Tennyson for A-level, that multiple choice was ridiculous. Any competent poet knows how to use language to create multiple effects, and Tennyson is considerably more than merely competent. The verbs quoted certainly 'reinforce the danger to the soldiers', but they also evoke the noise of battle; if we really want precision, 'volleyed' is more the former, and thunder'd' the latter (since thunder, though startling and even frightening, is not in itself dangerous). 'Stormed' could be both. Anyway, the words are doing more than just these two things - they're creating the sense of the insanity of battle, and of this particular doomed charge, where ear-splitting noise and the boom and flash of cannon deafen and blind the riders. And within this, there's the heroism of these men who are faced with the destruction of their world and yet ride on (the metre reproduces the rhythm of the gallop). None of this is even hinted at in the suggested responses.
Even worse than the exclusion of one perfectly correct answer is the approach to poetry manifested in this question, an approach which most English teachers spend years fighting against (sometimes one would love 'shot and shell', particularly in Year 10). It's the attitude which sees poetry as a sort of crossword puzzle where one solves clues to get the right answer, or a foreign language which one needs to translate into straightforward English. A student will write: "Tenison quotes volleys and thunders, this means that the canons are shotting at the soliders and are very dangrous." and then be annoyed because she doesn't get an A*.
Dominic69 - do you teach GCSE AQA B? Your comments would, I think, be more appropriate from someone who's been teaching that syllabus than the one I've been teaching for years, EDEXCEL B, where there are fewer purely 'technical' questions with one precise answer.
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Sue, I mark the AQA literature exam, however, there are no technical questions with one precise answer. As I explained earlier, the quiz is totally unrepresentative of what is in the exam, my comments were intended merely to clarify why the answer here was not the recreation of battle noise. As I also stated, it would be nonsense to suggest that battle noise is not evoked by those words, merely that a question directing you to comment on the 'violent verbs' is intending you to think about the danger conveyed rather than the aural qualities. In a genuine GCSE response you would of course want candidates to consider all levels of meaning but perversely this directs you to consider a particular aspect alone. As I also noted, it is not an effective or well-worded question but I could see why one answer was being specified.
I was attempting to be helpful but clearly it has not been taken in that way.
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Yay! 7/7 Have to say though that test is not correct as no child studies all of those books for GCSE, I did two of them (7 years ago hehe!) but it's just lucky that I read a lot of books or I probably wouldn't have known the answers. Also they are far easier than the GCSE questions!
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Heraclesken123 wrote: "Just proves that the exams these days are much easier than when I sat mine."
Sigh. How many times do you have to be told in the comments on this blog that these were nothing like true GCSE questions?
It appalls me that people are so quick to jump on the bandwagon of knocking down any achievements of today's children, despite clearly knowing nothing about the education and exam system which they love to attack.
We have become a nation of adult elitism where we constantly have to make ourselves feel superior to those younger than us, to the point where we are alienating our children with a feeling that no matter what they do or how much effort they give, it will never be enough.
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5 out of 7 and Ive only read 3 of the 7 books (actually Ive half read one and watched the video of the other two, its what you do at 15!). If this is what GCSE questions are like (I did standard grades) then I wish I had sat them! Easy peasy.
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