Today’s advice is related to the IB English Paper 1 exam.

Gave you
shudders didn’t it?
Maybe I’m weird but in all honesty, the English exams really weren’t
too stressful compared to the other exams I did. Just my personal
opinion.
Also, it’s probably because English is my first language…BUT.
Nevertheless, hopefully today’s tip will help you. With IB exams (or
mocks) just around the corner, it’s a better time than ever to get a
head start on your studying
So today’s advice is hopefully really going to help both SL and HL
students in their IB English Paper 1 final exam (and Paper 2).
I did HL myself so the techniques I used when doing these exams
worked for me. Hopefully they’ll work for you too. Fingers crossed.
IB English Paper 1, here we go. Let’s get you guys prepped.
With IB English Paper 1, it’s all about textual analysis. You want to
really immerse yourself in the paper and get your brain cranking out
good questions and analysis.
That’s why you have to read. You have 4 texts, A, B, C, and D, to
read and you need to compare and contrast them.
That’s not to mean compare A and D. No.
You need to choose between A and B or C and D. Not in any other
order. Hopefully when you’re reading this, you’ll have plenty of time
to practice the advice I’m giving.
If not, don’t fret. Panicking never helps.
So. Back to my point. First thing you’re gonna want to do when you
flip over that big ol’ scary exam paper is allocate 30 minutes of
reading time for yourself (20 if you’re doing the SL English Paper 1
exam).
Now look. It’s a 2 hour exam (an hour and a half for the SL English
Paper 1) and no way are you going to get through that exam with a
decent grade without prep.
During these 30 minutes, you need to be scribbling furiously on the
texts. Bring highlighters with you or just underline or circle anything
important.
Oh, and before I go on, you need to decide what you want to
analyse. You can have a quick skim read and decide which to
analyse more thoroughly or do a quick analysis of both sets of texts
and then make a decision. It’s up to you.
Here’s where the real fun begins.
Remember when I told you to highlight and circle anything
important? You know like literary devices, thematic idea, tone of the
writer, possible audience appeal, stylistic devices (which are the
same as literary devices), and structure of the text?
Yeah well now you gotta analyse it all bit by bit. You realistically
have about 15 (about 10 or so for SL) minutes by now.
If you’ve practiced past papers, which I highly suggest you do if
you’re reading this ahead of the exam period, then 15 minutes
(again, 10 for SL) should be enough time.
When you’re analyzing, remember it’s a comparison between the
other text. So while you’re analyzing both texts, remember to ask
yourself “Ok but how does this compare to the other text?”.
This has to translate into your writing.
You need to make it clear that you’re comparing and
contrasting.
How you do it is up to you. What I used to do was write a whole
paragraph on a point I had on a text and then in the next paragraph,
start with “On the other hand, Text C tends to portray….” or if they
were similar I’d go “Similarly, the author of Text D parallels Text C
through the use of…..”
Another way I used to approach comparisons between texts was
dedicate about half a paragraph for each text. With both methods
though, you’re going to need to make sure you have a balance.
So basically each paragraph has to be of similar length to each other
unless you have your points in the same paragraph. Then you have
to make sure you have enough sentences dedicated to each point
about the Texts.
I’m sorry to say but with your current time constraints, you’re gonna
need to do a bit of multitasking and plan your way to that level 7.
While you analyze, your brain should be working overtime to try to
paint some similarities and differences between the two texts.
Your essay obviously needs structure and you need to know how to
do it. Here’s a good way of doing it. I used to write my paragraphs
according to the following structure:
Audience/Purpose – Who is the author writing to and what is the
purpose of them doing so?
Content/Theme – What’s actually in the text? Is there a theme you
can detect?
Tone/Mood – What is the author’s tone? What kind of mood is
he/she writing about?
Style – What kind of style do they write with? Formal, informal?
Iambic pentameter or blank verse?
Structure – How does the author structure the text? Is there
anything visually appealing? Images? Diagrams?
For each of these, I would write either two paragraphs, one point for
each text. If I was rushing, I might squeeze both points into one
paragraph. I would HIGHLY recommend you do the same.
SL students, you guys will benefit enormously if you follow what I’m
saying. This is all the stuff that got me an overall level 7 in HL
English. HL. Of course I’m saying that it’ll help given that you
thoroughly practice these techniques. So it’s up to you really
So yeah. Up there is basically done for you plan. You should centre
your analysis and reading around the plan I gave you above.
Constantly ask yourselves the questions above and pick your texts
apart finding answers to the questions:
“Ok what’s the likely target audience in this text? Why would the
author target them? What’s the purpose? Is it stated obviously or
can I assume it?”
“What kind of content is it? What historical aspects does it refer to?
What’s the thematic background of this piece?”
“What’s the tone the author is writing in? Why would he/she write in
such a tone? How about the mood that this afflicts on the reader?
What can I say there?”
“What’s the writing style here? What kind of devices are used to
achieve this effect?”
“Why does the author choose such a structure? What can I say
regarding this point?”
Ask yourselves those questions and find the answers as best you
can. Remember it’s analytical. English is all about interpretation. So
long as you have a solid argument, you can interpret the texts in any
which way you want.
It’s not what you argue, it’s HOW you argue. Are your analyses in
depth enough to convince the examiner? That’s what you’ve gotta
practice
Alrighty so that’s the first tip of this series. I’ll be sure to put up more
posts relating to IB English Past Papers in future. I’ve still got Paper
2 to cover and I’m sure I’ll think of more tips to give for English Paper
1 in future.
On a side note though, I actually like giving past paper advice
because the papers are quite similar for both HL and SL so the
techniques I talk about can usually be put to the test in both cases.