AS-LEVEL CLASSICAL CIVILISATION

Transcription

1 AS-LEVEL CLASSICAL CIVILISATION CIV2A Homer Iliad Report on the Examination 2020 June 2016 Version: 0.1

2 Further copies of this Report are available from aqa.org.uk Copyright 2016 AQA and its licensors. All rights reserved. AQA retains the copyright on all its publications. However, registered schools/colleges for AQA are permitted to copy material from this booklet for their own internal use, with the following important exception: AQA cannot give permission to schools/colleges to photocopy any material that is acknowledged to a third party even for internal use within the centre.

3 CIV2A Homer Iliad General Comments Once again the vast majority of students who sat this paper had clearly read the selections from the poem with genuine interest and enthusiasm. Few failed to show full knowledge of the storyline. In fact, many appreciated key differences between characters, were aware of the recurrent themes and were able to discuss them, at least in general terms. Of the initial passage-based questions, Option A on warfare was three times more popular than Option B on Patroclus and Hector, but there was a very similar overall performance on each. In Section 2, Option D on Achilles and Agamemnon was slightly more popular than Option C on women. Section 1 Option A For the short answer questions, Question 02 on the women in Troy was usually well-known, but Question 01 on Adrestus produced a mixed performance. This referred to one of the key duels seen on the battlefield and it was surprising that a number of students did not recall his treatment at the hands of Menelaus and Agamemnon; about half however managed to score at least two marks here. The 10-mark question required a discussion of Homer s techniques for creating sympathy for the warriors whose deaths he was describing. Most students reached Level 3 on Question 03 by picking two or three examples from the passage for discussion, but only about one in five achieved Level 4. Too often comment was of a very basic nature, simply stating he creates sympathy by saying Axylus had a wide circle of friends or similar; deeper analysis was often left implicit or simply not attempted. Better responses made five or six points with evidence to support; these were then analysed in an insightful manner, often relating to ways in which Homer created sympathy through mention of those left behind, or emphasising the description of the pain of the actual victims. Similarly the better responses to Question 04 focused on both suffering and glory when discussing specific examples of fighting; weaker responses simply related a series of examples, perhaps (but not invariably) finishing each with a single sentence of analysis referring either to glory or (more often) suffering. Again there was a preponderance of high Level 3 and low Level 4 answers, accompanied by a sense of frustration at the many missed opportunities to develop some promising arguments. While the mean mark was much the same here as for the equivalent Question 08 on Option B, there were a slightly higher number of really good answers to Question 04. Option B Nearly all students who chose this option named Sarpedon correctly for Question 05, but nearly half were unsure about the weapon used to slay Patroclus (a spear not a sword) for Question 06. Similarly in Question 07, Patroclus last words were sometimes confused with the later speech of Hector as he prepared to die in Book 22. Most students however scored at least two of the three marks here. The passage offered a rich store of material for discussing build-up of tension (Question 08): here too students often did the hard work, selecting four or five excellent examples for discussion, then failed to link them closely enough to tension. One or two saw the lengthy build-up as dissipating rather than creating tension; this line of argument was credited as long as examples from the passage were used in support. Question 09 asked about the deaths of Patroclus and Hector. Although it was not required by the wording of the question, students who 3 of 6

4 adopted a comparative approach often produced a wider range of analysis than those who simply divided the essay into two halves, each dealing with one character. Here all too often the responses were largely narrative, with the analysis (as in Question 04 above) left to a concluding paragraph. The best essays managed to embed the analysis within the descriptive framework, but such answers were relatively rare. As mentioned above, there was very little difference in performance at all levels between the two 20 mark essays. Section 2 The specification details for the 30 mark questions allocate some 12 marks for the knowledge elements of the topic, while the other 18 marks are given over to understanding and evaluation. It is vital for students to read each title carefully as there will always be key words and concepts encouraging an analytical rather than narrative approach to the question a comment that has been made frequently in previous years. This year too many students failed to respond to the words completely in Question 10 and much in Question 11: hence the regularity of Level 3 and low Level 4 marks awarded. Option C Students who attempted this assessment of the comparative values of women and men as revealed in the Iliad, generally showed good knowledge of both the part played by women in the story, and the conflict between their roles (often described as home makers ), and those of their male counterparts. As always the bullet points worked well as aides-memoire, but were not best used as surrogate essay plans. Occasionally the men were relegated to a final paragraph, hindering any attempt to analyse in the earlier sections and leading to a disjointed essay. There were, however some excellent responses, moving between bullet points to bring out themes such as attitudes to war, grieving, familial feelings and so on, where similarities as well as differences between women and their men were well brought out. A significantly larger percentage of students reached Level 4 on Question 10 than on the equivalent Question 11. Option D The general points above applied equally, perhaps even more directly, to the average performance on Question 11 which looked to establish the levels of responsibility for the quarrel between Agamemnon and Achilles. This is one of the best-known themes of the Iliad and so offered an irresistible temptation for some students to repeat narrative. Many spent a very long time retelling the events of Book 1 in minute detail, before jumping to Book 16 and the death of Patroclus, where again all events were fully described, leaving little time for Book 19. This often led to a lack of balance (and even the virtual omission of the key events of Book 9), as well as, more importantly, a lack of subtle analysis, which would have taken Level 3 responses into Level 4 and beyond. Hence the mean mark for this question was slightly lower than for the Option C equivalent. Better answers took an analytical rather than narrative approach to the events of Book 1, assigned responsibility at that point, moved on to use the details of the embassy in Book 9 to assess whether the position had changed, balanced this further against Achilles behaviour in Books 11 and 16, before debating the merits of each man s stance in Book 19. Such essays were the ones that gained the higher levels available. 4 of 6

5 Overall, despite the points raised above, there was evidence that the vast majority of students had again enjoyed and worked hard at studying the Iliad. 5 of 6

6 Mark Ranges and Award of Grades Grade boundaries and cumulative percentage grades are available on the Results Statistics page of the AQA Website. Converting Marks into UMS marks Convert raw marks into Uniform Mark Scale (UMS) marks by using the link below. UMS conversion calculator 6 of 6