English

YEAR 7 SUMMER EXAM REVISION AND PREPARATION

(updated April 25)

You will sit one English Exam

Your exam will be divided into two separate sections. You will have to manage your time wisely. (1 hour 30 minutes)

Section A: Reading Assessment (15 marks)

• This will involve you reading an ‘unseen’ non-fiction text and answering questions about it. 

• You will be assessed on skills of retrieval (selecting evidence) and inference (understanding).

• TIP: Look at how many marks each question is worth as this will give you an idea of long to spend on it.

Section B: Poetry (15 marks)

• You will be asked to write about one of the poems from your Year 7 Poetry Anthology.

• You will be given one question.

• This will require a detailed response in which you will need to analyse the techniques used by the poet. 

Here are some example titles for the final question:

How does the poet use language and structure to present their speaker’s feelings?

How does the poet use language and structure to present the theme of power?

How does the poet use language and structure to present strong emotions?

Your key focus should be on the poets’ methods and meanings, so you need to be writing about the techniques used and the effects created. 

Note that you will have a clean copy of the poem in the exam. You are not expected to know quotations off by heart, but you will need to revise all of your notes / annotations.

How can I prepare for this exam? 

Reading Preparation

• Read. Read many different types of texts to improve your reading speed and processing speed. Read the newspaper and articles both online and in printed publications. 

• Revise technical terminology – identify features and, most importantly, be able to comment on their effects. Make sure that you know and can comment on the type of sentences being used (simple, compound, complex); the word class (nouns, verbs, adverbs, adjectives etc); as well as any other features (similes, metaphors, emotive language, rhetorical question, paragraphs etc)

Poetry Preparation 

• Read through your notes in your Poetry Anthology. Ask somebody to test you - focusing on a line, asking you to identify the technique and explain why it’s used. 

• An electronic anthology will be attached on Google Classroom so you can practise with a blank copy

• Read through any practice paragraphs you may have written in your English book

• Revise poetic terminology - language (simile, metaphor, personification, alliteration, imagery etc) and structure (rhyme, rhythm, repetition etc)