HELP WITH ENGLISH 1123............... Kinda important !

[Mustafa Malik]

Hello every1
I have some doubts about the subject. I have seen many ppl doing great in other subjects, but when it comes to english they all ended up with C or D!!
Why is that so?? Is it hard or the marking is hard?
My teacher has asked me to write quotations, use new vocab words and use semi colons and colons in my essays. Is it recommended?? I mean does the CIE english demand this?
In any case, plz help me on how to improve my language so i can score an A in may june 2013?
I am open to hear suggestions, advises.
Hoping to get a warm answer by the XPC

 

[areeshkhan]

according to me content of the essay is the most cardinal thing.As according to the marking scheme it contains 12 marks out of 30 marks question.secondly this a part which grasp examiner`s heed on your essay.
as far as vocabulary is concerned it contains 3 marks only,but if you are trying to get A or A* than you will have to be best in all parts of composition
in fact what I used to do is: first i write an essay,used thesaurus and than asked my teacher to check it. My classmate and I requested my teacher to give us a vocabulary bank so whenever are English class begins she give us few new words which we can use in our composition.
you may also ask your teacher to do the same. many other will recommend you to read books and newspaper but i disagree with this stuff because only few months are left for papers and this is not going to bring any improvement in shorter period of time.

 

[Deadly Orchid]

That's strange. I have always heard that English Language is the easiest subject. And the subject with the highest grades/ most As in our school is Eng Lang. Its not hard! everything is general. The best way to improve your language skills is by reading. Whenever you find a word you don't know, check its meaning and understand its usage by making sentences. And as you read, you get a good idea of sentence structures, spelling as well as content (reading stories and novels gives you inspiration, while newspapers etc are good for general writing)

 

[Mustafa Malik]

according to me content of the essay is the most cardinal thing.As according to the marking scheme it contains 12 marks out of 30 marks question.secondly this a part which grasp examiner`s heed on your essay.
as far as vocabulary is concerned it contains 3 marks only,but if you are trying to get A or A* than you will have to be best in all parts of composition
in fact what I used to do is: first i write an essay,used thesaurus and than asked my teacher to check it. My classmate and I requested my teacher to give us a vocabulary bank so whenever are English class begins she give us few new words which we can use in our composition.
you may also ask your teacher to do the same. many other will recommend you to read books and newspaper but i disagree with this stuff because only few months are left for papers and this is not going to bring any improvement in shorter period of time.

That's strange. I have always heard that English Language is the easiest subject. And the subject with the highest grades/ most As in our school is Eng Lang. Its not hard! everything is general. The best way to improve your language skills is by reading. Whenever you find a word you don't know, check its meaning and understand its usage by making sentences. And as you read, you get a good idea of sentence structures, spelling as well as content (reading stories and novels gives you inspiration, while newspapers etc are good for general writing)

You both seem to contradict !!
Its confusing but i think i got what i needed. Thnx both of u
BUT what abt the quotation thing??? and same for semi colons etc???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????
do u recommend english redspot books??

 

[momo_khan]

Hello every1
I have some doubts about the subject. I have seen many ppl doing great in other subjects, but when it comes to english they all ended up with C or D!!
Why is that so?? Is it hard or the marking is hard?
My teacher has asked me to write quotations, use new vocab words and use semi colons and colons in my essays. Is it recommended?? I mean does the CIE english demand this?
In any case, plz help me on how to improve my language so i can score an A in may june 2013?
I am open to hear suggestions, advises.
Hoping to get a warm answer by the XPC

hi there indeed it is a hard subject but getting an A is not impossible one of my friends got an A * !
though at my first attempti got an E which is horrible and so i decided to resit the exam in my alevels .... alhamdullilah i got a B ! which is okay for someone who is doing alevels at the same time !
all i did was three months before my actual exam i started doing past papers....i completed every past paper before exam ! plus i did old redspot
after i did my exam i was told that i was the only one sitting in the exam from the whole of saudi in november session ! so the threshold was high so this made my day !
if you need i can help you with the essays and comprehension
plus never choose argumentative ...always go for fiction !

 

[momo_khan]

also when it comes down to story writing never start from places that you have not visited ! write about your home town .... if you are a muslim then describe eid rather than christmas your examiner will be interested in some thing new plus never use much vocabulary in essay writing ...write plain and simple but interesting vocabulary helps in the comprehension part
hope it helped

 

[Deadly Orchid]

according to me content of the essay is the most cardinal thing.As according to the marking scheme it contains 12 marks out of 30 marks question.secondly this a part which grasp examiner`s heed on your essay.

Content is not the most important thing in part 2 i.e creative writing while in directed writing it has equal importance. Language is more important because its an English LANGUAGE paper!

 

[littlecloud11]

You both seem to contradict !!
Its confusing but i think i got what i needed. Thnx both of u
BUT what abt the quotation thing??? and same for semi colons etc???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????
do u recommend english redspot books??

Quotations or colons are not essential in any form of writing . It all depends on the demand of the Topic you choose and your style of writing. For example, narratives or stories just seems more realistic with the use of quotations but it's not a necessity.
Punctuations are there to allow you to make more variations in your sentence structure, which does gain you points from CIE and that's probably what your teacher tried to tell you. Don't get too conscious while using punctuations, just keep it consistent with your writing flair.
Also, i don't recommend red spot for improving your writing. It's way better if you just pick out a novel from your shelf instead. The only possible way to make any marked improvement in your writing is to read.

 

[Mustafa Malik]

Quotations or colons are not essential in any form of writing . It all depends on the demand of the Topic you choose and your style of writing. For example, narratives or stories just seems more realistic with the use of quotations but it's not a necessity.
Punctuations are there to allow you to make more variations in your sentence structure, which does gain you points from CIE and that's probably what your teacher tried to tell you. Don't get too conscious while using punctuations, just keep it consistent with your writing flair.
Also, i don't recommend red spot for improving your writing. It's way better if you just pick out a novel from your shelf instead. The only possible way to make any marked improvement in your writing is to read.

yes i agree wd u. My teacher made me confused... thnx

 

[E.H Jane]

Hello every1
I have some doubts about the subject. I have seen many ppl doing great in other subjects, but when it comes to english they all ended up with C or D!!
Why is that so?? Is it hard or the marking is hard?
My teacher has asked me to write quotations, use new vocab words and use semi colons and colons in my essays. Is it recommended?? I mean does the CIE english demand this?
In any case, plz help me on how to improve my language so i can score an A in may june 2013?
I am open to hear suggestions, advises.
Hoping to get a warm answer by the XPC

Hope this helps you with the writing exercises
http://www.xtremepapers.com/communi...l-you-need-for-igcse-writing-exercises.21475/

 

[Mustafa Malik]

Hope this helps you with the writing exercises
http://www.xtremepapers.com/communi...l-you-need-for-igcse-writing-exercises.21475/

thanks for ur post

 

[E.H Jane]

thanks for ur post

nytym