Year 8 EOY English Exam

Year 8 Exams will take place during the first two double lessons after half term.
Section A (Non-Fiction Reading) will be completed in the first lesson and Section B
(Non-Fiction Writing) in the second.
You will also complete two MCQs during Week 5 of this half term. The quizzes will be
on ‘A Christmas Carol’ and ‘A Raisin in the Sun’.
Section A: Non-Fiction Reading
Your teacher will read a 21st Century source to you and then you will be given 25 minutes
to complete the following:

• 3 information retrieval questions (Source A only)

• 1 language analysis table (Source A only)

Your teacher will then read a 19th Century source to you, which is linked thematically to the
first, and then you will be given 45 minutes to complete the following:

• 2 information retrieval questions (Source B only)

• 1 comparative analysis question – this question will require you to write one or two
comparative analytical paragraphs on BOTH sources.
Source B: Non-Fiction Writing
For this section of the exam, you will be required to write a letter. The question for this
section will be pre-released during the final week of this half term.

During the final week of this half term, you will:

• Spend time planning your letter using a planning grid worksheet.

• Peer assess your plans to get feedback on your ideas from your peers.
The planning sheets will be collected at the end of the lesson.

During the exam you will:

• Receive your planning sheet back and be given some time to review your ideas before
beginning the exam.
• You will then be given 60 minutes to write your letter.
MCQs
Once you have finished revising ‘A Christmas Carol’ and ‘A Raisin in the
Sun’ in your lessons, you will take two multiple choice quizzes on the
two texts.
• You will complete the quizzes on Chromebooks during a lesson in
Week 5 of this half term.
• You will be given 30 minutes to complete both quizzes.
 Section A Reading revision ideas
Suggested Revision Tasks: Section B Writing revision ideas

We are using lesson time to prepare for these exams, but you could also do the following:

• Read examples of non-fiction e.g. newspaper articles, blog posts, reviews etc.
• After reading a piece of non-fiction, consider the following: writer’s point of view, use of
rhetorical devices, how the writer presents the focus of the text etc.
• Practice your comparative analytical writing. You could redraft responses you have written
during lessons, use the texts we have been exploring in lessons to write new comparisons
with a different focus in mind, compare texts you have found yourself etc.
• Revise rhetorical devices (DAFOREST) – Do you know all the techniques? Can you use them
accurately?
• Practice using punctuation and different sentence types by writing sentences/paragraphs
using a range of both correctly and for effect. You can also google practice punctuation
quizzes or watch videos on YouTube.
• Practice letter writing using the success criteria you have been given during lessons.
 Suggested Revision Tasks:
We are using lesson time to prepare for these exams, but you could also do the following:

You could also try to incorporate the strategies you have been learning in tutor time.

• Spaced Practice and Interleaving - remember not cram all of the information you need the night
before the exam. In English you could complete some of the tasks highlighted in yellow on the
previous slide this week as we focused on them at the beginning of the half term; then next week
or over the half term, start on the tasks highlighted in yellow as we will be coming back to reading
practice in lessons.
• Brain dumps - You could try success criteria brain dumps e.g. without looking in your book create a
mindmap of the success criteria you need when writing a comparative analysis, letter etc. Then
check use your book to check your mindmap. Remember to add anything you’ve missed!
• Flash Cards - You could create some flash cards which remind you of the rhetorical devices. E.g. you
could write each rhetorical device on a separate card and include a the definition and an example
of the technique. Use these to revise and then get a friend or family member to test you!