English 

What you need to do to achieve this grade:

• Make an attempt to answer the question.

• Use some quotations from the text to support your ideas.

• Name some methods used by a writer.

• Make an attempt to explain the effect of the writer’s methods.

Example question and grade 3 answer:

In ‘The Richest Poor Man in the Valley’, how does the poet present ideas about living a happy and contented life?

In the poem Harry is shown to like life but not need any money. For example, ‘money, houses, bank accounts and lies’ shows that people want these things in their life to try and be happy. The word ‘lies’ shows that not everybody is honest. 

Harry is also said to live in a ‘caravan’. This shows that he does not have much money and lives a very simple life without all of the money and other things that he mentioned before. 

What you need to do to achieve this grade:

• Focus on the question throughout your answer.

• Use a range of relevant quotations to support your ideas.

• Accurately name methods used by a writer.

• Clearly explain the effect of the writer’s methods.

Example question and grade 5 answer:

In ‘The Richest Poor Man in the Valley’, how does the poet present ideas about living a happy and contented life?

The poet suggests that happiness can be found in friendship and enjoying simple pleasures rather than just wanting things.

Firstly, the poem describes how many people want ‘money, houses, bank accounts and lies’. This list emphasises material things that most people aim for in their lives, with ‘money’ and ‘bank accounts’ revealing that this is often focused on wealth rather than true happiness.

This is then contrasted by what ‘Harry’ instead seems to take pleasure in. The simple sentence ‘he was living in a caravan until the day he died’ can be seen to reflect the simplicity of his life, as though he didn’t need anything too fancy. The noun ‘caravan’ has connotations of being small and simple, therefore reflecting the way Harry lives a happy and contented life without the material objects mentioned in the previous stanzas. 

What you need to do to achieve this grade:

• Make a thoughtful and developed argument in relation to the question.

• Use a wide range of precisely-chosen quotations to support your ideas and these are integrated throughout your response.

• Refer to more complex methods used by a writer to support your analysis.

• Examine in detail the effect of the writer’s methods to create meaning.

Exemplar question and grade 7 answer:

In ‘The Richest Poor Man in the Valley’, how does the poet present ideas about living a happy and contented life?

Macrae juxtaposes ideas about an unconventional life against one that only values fulfilment through material gain. Through an exploration of imagery, the poet suggests that a contented life comes from our connection with nature and meaningful relationships.

In order to explore their view on what we should prioritise in life, the poet employs an extended metaphor relating to value. Harry is associated with resources such as ‘silver’ and ‘diamonds’ which implies that his life is metaphorically rich as he focuses on spending time with ‘his two dogs’ and ‘his friends’. Even though this appears similar to the references to man-made constructs such as ‘money’ and ‘bank accounts’, there is a suggestion that materialism corrupts true ideals, with the enjambment highlighting these as superficial ‘lies’. This technique is used by the poet to emphasise that what society perceives as success only leads to discontent and an unfulfilled life. By placing ‘lies’ in its own line, the poet emphasises the idea that they are socially constructed and that having these things does not lead to a life of happiness. 

Finally, the poet uses the last lines of the poem to criticise what most people value in life. For instance, the half rhyme in ‘thousand’ and ‘diamonds’ could imply that a life full of material wealth will only lead you to only being half content, but a life of kindness will lead to true fulfilment.