GCSEEnglish LiteratureAQARevision Notes2. The 19th Century NovelHow to Answer the 19th-century Novel Essay QuestionMark Scheme

Mark Scheme (AQA GCSE English Literature)

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Mark Scheme

The mark scheme in English Literature can seem daunting, and difficult to understand. This is because there is no “correct answer” for any essay: the exam board does not provide points that need to be included in any essay, and instead, examiners have to use the mark scheme to place an answer into a level.

It is therefore essential to understand the mark scheme really well yourself: if you understand exactly what you are being assessed on, you understand how to improve. Below you will find sections on:

Translating the mark scheme

Here is a simple version of the AQA mark scheme for the 19th-century novel question, and below, a student-friendly translation of the mark scheme with expert advice and guidance, broken down into the different assessment objectives.

19th-century-novel-mark-scheme-page-aqa-gcse-english

AO1

What it says: “Maintain a critical style and develop an informed personal response”

What it means: Write a clear essay with a central argument based on your own opinions. All parts of the essay must directly answer the question

Commentary: 

  • Examiners want to see what they call a “coherent” response: an answer that relates to a central argument in every part of the essay
    • This is why it is vital to plan your answer first
  • This argument should always link directly to the question, so include the keywords of the question in your thesis and your topic sentences
  • Examiners want to see your opinions, not the opinions of an imagined 19th-century reader

Tick list: 

  • Have I included a thesis statement in my introduction?
  • Does my thesis statement include a central argument based on my own opinions?
  • Does my thesis statement include keywords from the question?
  • Have I included topic sentences for all of my paragraphs?
  • Do all of my paragraphs directly answer the question?
  • Have I included a conclusion that sums up my argument and links to my thesis?

What it says: “Use textual references, including quotations, to support and illustrate interpretations”

What it means: Select quotations and references from both the extract and the rest of the novel. These must be accurate, and provide evidence for the points you make in your argument

Commentary: 

  • Examiners reward the highest marks to students who relate the ideas and themes of the extract to other parts of the novel
    • To link to elsewhere in the novel, use phrases like: “Earlier/later in the novel”, “Similarly, in Chapter X”, “the author also highlights this idea when”
  • References do not need to be direct quotations
  • You do not get more marks for more quotations
    • All references just need to be accurate and provide evidence for your points and overall argument
  • All references must be relevant to the points of your essay
    • Examiners dislike when students include irrelevant quotations

Tick list: 

  • Have I chosen two or three quotations from the extract?
  • Have I linked these quotations, and ideas presented in the extract, to other parts of the novel?
  • Have I chosen at least three other quotations and references from elsewhere in the novel?
  • Do all of my references directly support my argument?
    • Does each reference I have included support the points made in my topic sentences?

AO2

What it says: “Analyse the language, form and structure used by a writer to create meanings and effects”

What it means: Use analysis of the author’s choices to support your argument. This evidence can be the language used by the author, as well as the form of the novel chosen and the order of events in the novel

Commentary:

  • Examiners want students to move away from word-level analysis to whole-text analysis
    • This means not just focusing your analysis on the language in the extract, or quotations you have memorised
    • Instead, think about choices the author has made in terms of form and structure, contrasts and character development
  • This analysis should move from how the author uses language, structure and form, to why they do it
    • What is the author using their language/characters to say? What is the author’s overall message?

Tick list:

  • Does my analysis provide evidence for the points in my argument?
  • Have I moved from close word-level analysis to whole-text analysis?
  • Have I included an analysis of structure and/or form?
  • Have I explained my analysis in terms of the author’s overall message?

What it says: “[...] using relevant subject terminology where appropriate”

What it means: Include terminology on writers’ techniques only when techniques are explained fully and relevant to your argument

Commentary:

  • Examiners don’t like what they call “technique-spotting”
    • This is where a student uses (sometimes very sophisticated) vocabulary to name the literary techniques the author uses without explaining them
  • Equally, they don’t reward analysis that just names a word class (“the noun X”; “the verb Y”)
    • They think this is “unnecessary and unhelpful”
  • The author’s techniques should only be analysed if they provide further evidence to support your argument
  • Examiners want students to move from what technique the author uses to how and why they are using them

Tick list: 

  • Have I removed any unnecessary technique spotting?
  • Have I removed any unnecessary naming of word classes?
  • Have I explained the author’s use of techniques in terms of his overall message?

AO3

What it says: “Show understanding of the relationships between texts and the contexts in which they were written”

What it means: Use contextual ideas and perspectives to support your argument and to provide further insight into the author’s choices

Commentary:

  • Context is not historical or biographical information that has nothing to do with the ideas presented in the 19th-century novel
  • Instead, context should be seen as the ideas and perspectives of the author’s time
  • These ideas and perspectives (19th-century views on religion, gender, the supernatural, etc.) help us understand why the authors present their novels and characters in the way they do
    • Why do characters behave the way they do?
    • Why is this scene set in this particular place?
    • Why is this theme significant in the text?
  • Examiners want to see context linked to the themes and ideas of the novel
  • All context should also be linked to your overall argument
    • What further insight does an understanding of the behaviours and beliefs of the novelist’s era provide to my argument?

Tick list:

  • Have I removed any irrelevant contextual information?
  • Is all my context linked to the ideas and perspectives of the author’s time?
  • Does all my context provide additional insight into my main argument?

Understanding the different levels

The mark scheme for English Literature has six levels, with Level 1 at the bottom, and Level 6 at the top. Examiners do not receive a list of points that need to be included for a student’s essay to achieve Level 3, say, or Level 5. Instead, the mark scheme contains different “descriptors” for each level:

  • “Descriptors” are the:
    • Features that a response is expected to have to achieve at each level
      • This means: How well a student has responded to the question (the overall quality of the answer)
    • Skills a student is expected to show to achieve each level
      • This means: The specific skills needed to explore and analyse a text
  • For example, the “descriptors” for a Level 1 response are:
    • An attempt to answer the question (quality of answer)
    • A narrative or descriptive approach (quality of answer)
    • A simple analysis of the writer’s methods and context (skills shown)
  • In contrast, examiners expect a lot more for a Level 6 response. The “descriptors” for Level 6 include:
    • Responding to the full task with a well-structured argument (quality of answer)
    • A critical, exploratory and conceptualised approach (quality of answer)
    • Insightful analysis of the writer’s methods (skills shown)
    • An integrated and exploratory approach to context (skills shown)

Essentially, when examiners are putting student essays into a particular level, they are just deciding how well the student has displayed the expected features and skills of each assessment objective. So if you understand each AO, and what is required for each AO, you will know how to improve.

Exam Tip

Examiners use a “best-fit” approach when marking. This means that if a student’s response is uneven (for example, their analysis of the writer’s methods and context is Level 5 quality, but their selection of quotations and references is only Level 4), then examiners will place the response in the level they think is most reflective of the answer as a whole. In this case, it would probably be Level 4, but at the top of the level. 

The exception is if a student fails to answer the question - and this includes only analysing the extract, and not the novel as a whole - which will mean the highest level a student can achieve is Level 2. So always make sure you read, reread and understand the question, and refer to the rest of the novel in your answer!

What makes a Level 6 answer?

If you want to achieve a Grade 9, you should be aiming for a Level 6 response. Below you will see a table that explains how to move from a Level 5 response to Level 6.

Question:

19th-century-novel-mark-scheme-page-aqa-gcse-english-2

Part of essay

Level 5 

Level 6

Reason

Introduction

Dickens presents the suffering of the poor in numerous ways throughout the novella. Prevailing Victorian attitudes towards the poor meant they viewed their predicament as entirely of their own making and Dickens conveys their harsh attitudes in the extract.

The suffering of the poor is one of the most prevalent ideas within A Christmas Carol and Dickens presents the poor and destitute to the reader from the outset. Dickens depicts the exploitation and ignorance of the poor through various characters in the novella and he demonstrates how they are trapped in a system through no fault of their own which conveys his message for social change.

The Level 6 introduction is in the form of a thesis statement, which presents an overarching argument that includes Dickens as an author making deliberate choices and conveying a message. 

Topic sentence

Dickens uses Ignorance and Want as an allegory in the extract and uses this device to convey his message.  

In this extract, Dickens uses the two characters, Ignorance and Want, as an allegory, as they are symbolic of society’s cruelty towards the suffering of the poor and underscore his moral message.

The Level 6 response develops the idea within the question much more thoroughly and links it directly to Dickens’ message.

Analysis of writer’s methods

Ignorance and Want convey Dickens’s concerns about the suffering of the poor. They are first described through a range of adjectives: “wretched, abject, frightful, hideous, miserable” which convey a horrifying image to the reader which would invoke sympathy. The repeated use of synonyms adds to the sense that their poverty is unending. Images of decay are also described such as “shrivelled hand” and “stale” which again create horror in the reader and demonstrate how wretched the poor are.

Dickens uses these two characters to highlight the effects of societal avarice and greed. The fact that the children are first shown emerging from the spirit's garment emphasises Dickens's point that poverty and its devastating effects are mostly concealed, unknown, and disregarded by society. Further, Dickens’ imagery depicts the children as emaciated and wretched which induces both horror and pity from the reader. Further the religious undertones depicted in the phrase: “They knelt down at its feet, and clung upon the outside of its garment” suggests how the poor are not provided with the resources to help themselves and instead must grovel and plead for assistance and are reliant on the charity of others.  

The Level 5 response presents thoughtful and developed ideas and demonstrates a clear exploration of the writer’s methods to create meanings and uses appropriate references to support their ideas.

The Level 6 response takes more of an analytical approach to the text by looking closely at elements of method and selecting precise references to illustrate their argument. It provides an argument which is much more convincing in its exploration than the Level 5 response. 

Context

The extract demonstrates how the Capitalist system and industrialisation had a detrimental impact on the lives of people during the Victoria era which meant that child labour and the exploitation of children became commonplace. Dickens could be using Ignorance and Want as symbols of the exploitation of poor children, which has therefore left them emaciated and undernourished. Dickens’s message here is one of social change.

In the rest of the novella, Dickens uses the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come to depict the devastating consequences of a Capitalist system in which Tiny Tim could potentially die. Similar to Ignorance and Want, Tiny Tim’s potential death highlights the poor living conditions and malnourishment experienced by many poor children during this era. Dickens uses these characters to highlight the high levels of child mortality in Victorian England and indicates that many of them were poor through no fault of their own. Dickens uses these characters to highlight to the reader that such tragedies are avoidable if greater equality is achieved within society. 

The Level 5 response is starting to demonstrate elements of exploratory thought
concerning context 

and begins to convey some tentative ideas as to Dickens’s purpose which is one of the indicators of a Level 5 response.


The Level 6 response demonstrates a more integrated engagement with the novel as a whole and its context, reflecting on the ideas in a more reflective and insightful way. Contextual information is also explicitly connected to Dickens’s overall message.




 


 

Overall student-friendly mark scheme

The GCSE mark scheme can be confusing as it is written for examiners, not students. Below is a translated mark scheme that breaks the assessment objectives into concise, clear instructions.

Assessment Objective

Number 

of marks

Meaning

AO1

12
  • Write a clear essay with a central argument based on your own opinions
  • All parts of the essay must directly answer the question
  • Select quotations and references from both the extract and the rest of the novel
  • Quotations must be accurate, and provide evidence for the points you make in your argument

AO2

12
  • Use analysis of the author’s choices to support your argument
  • Evidence can be analysis of the language used by the author, as well as the form and structure of the novel
  • Include terminology on writers’ techniques only when techniques are explained fully and relevant to your argument

AO3

6
  • Use contextual ideas and perspectives to support your argument and to provide further insight to the author’s choices

Exam Tip

When you’re writing one long essay, how do you ensure you gain the maximum number of marks awarded for each Assessment Objective? The number of marks is unequal, which makes it even more confusing. Do you have to produce twice as much analysis of the author’s choices as context?

The short answer is no: the most important thing is that you plan before you begin writing because the exam board suggests that the best student responses are the ones that start with very strong AO1: answers that have a clear and coherent argument. Then, it is very easy to provide analysis and context to support this clear, central argument, and also achieve excellent marks for AO2 and AO3.

It is also a good idea to familiarise yourself with the SME checklist below: if you can say “yes” to all the questions, your response should be on the way to the top marks.

Tick list for success

Marking your own essays can be difficult. However, if you use the tick list below, you can see which features and skills you have, and haven’t, included in your answer. If you can say “yes” to all of the questions below, your essay should be heading toward the highest level.

AO1

  • Have I included a thesis statement in my introduction?
  • Does my thesis statement include a central argument based on my own opinions?
  • Does my thesis statement include keywords from the question?
  • Have I included topic sentences for all of my paragraphs?
  • Do all of my paragraphs directly answer the question?
  • Have I included a conclusion that sums up my argument and links to my thesis?
  • Have I chosen two or three quotations from the extract?
  • Have I linked these quotations, and ideas presented in the extract, to other parts of the novel?
  • Have I chosen at least three other quotations and references from elsewhere in the novel?
  • Do all of my references directly support my argument?
    • Does each reference I have included support the points made in my topic sentences?

AO2

  • Does my analysis provide evidence for the points in my argument?
  • Have I moved from close word-level analysis to whole-text analysis?
  • Have I included analysis on structure and/or form?
  • Have I explained my analysis in terms of the author’s overall message?
  • Have I removed any unnecessary technique spotting?
  • Have I removed any unnecessary naming of word classes?
  • Have I explained the author’s use of techniques in terms of their overall message?

AO3

  • Have I removed any irrelevant contextual information?
  • Is all my context linked to the ideas and perspectives of the author’s time?
  • Does all my context provide additional insight into my main argument?

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    Nick

    Author: Nick

    Nick is a graduate of the University of Cambridge and King’s College London. He started his career in journalism and publishing, working as an editor on a political magazine and a number of books, before training as an English teacher. After nearly 10 years working in London schools, where he held leadership positions in English departments and within a Sixth Form, he moved on to become an examiner and education consultant. With more than a decade of experience as a tutor, Nick specialises in English, but has also taught Politics, Classical Civilisation and Religious Studies.