Paper 1 mock exam learner response

1) Type up any feedback in full (you do not need to write mark/grade if you do not wish to).

WWW: So many superb answers here, particularly Q3 + Q7. The challenge is to add a few percent to bring in the A*. 

EBI: The occasional issue is not offering enough evidence from the CSPs which keeps you from the top level e.g. Q2 and Q6. 

2) Write a question-by-question analysis of your performance. For each question, write how many marks you got from the number available and identify any points that you missed by carefully studying the AQA indicative content in the mark scheme:

Q1: 7/8 
Additional points: heavy focus on genres of order – the advert depicts the idea of the conflict being generated ‘from without’ and Bond represents the ultimate vanguard of British military intelligence, keeping Britain safe from those who would wish to harm it.

Q2: 9/12

Additional points: they both inhabit a cultural discourse which revolves around the notion of the reconstruction of a dominant masculine identity rooted in an imagined sense of the past, and this provocation of a sense of nostalgia (especially at times when male identities are thought to be in crisis) is used as a powerful sales technique.

Q3: 8/9

Additional points: the car is filled with young men who appear to be on some kind of all-night ‘urban safari’ culminating in the images of them throwing stones into a river near a run-down industrial setting; conforming to the negative stereotype that youth ‘lack direction and purpose’

Q4: 14/20 

Additional points: In relation to Sephora - The film itself offers colour-monochrome, moving image, still image, sound-silence, new stock-archive, past-present.

Q5: 6/6

Q6: 6/9

Additional points: the film-makers made use of an elaborate poster campaign which was designed to differ by region (eg called The music of my life in South America) in order to meet the demands and tastes of specific audiences globally, the trusted brands (brand synergy) connected with the film product on promotional material and using them to promote it eg the campaign made constant reference to Bruce Springsteen (a well-established international and highly successful music star) and Bend it Like Beckham, the director Gurinder Chadha’s previous smash hit film which made a huge international impact. This is an obvious attempt at minimising risk in order to maximise profit (Hesmondhalgh)

Q7: 17/20

Additional points: Newsbeat’s target audience of ‘digital natives’ is encouraged to interact with stories and contributors using social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook.

3) Look at Question 4 - a 20-mark essay evaluating Levi-Strauss's binary opposition theory. Write an essay plan for this question using the indicative content in the mark scheme and with enough content to meet the criteria for Level 4 (top level). This will be somewhere between 3-4 well-developed paragraphs plus an introduction answering the question planned in some detail.

Intro: Answer the question, 'to an extent...' 

Paragraph 1: Score binary oppositions & historical, social, cultural contexts

Paragraph 2: Sephora binary oppositions & historical, social, cultural contexts 

Paragraph 3: Score and Sephora, how much they apply 

4) Based on the whole of your Paper 1 learner response, plan FIVE topics / concepts / CSPs / theories that you will prioritise in your summer exam Media revision timetable.

- Sephora CSP

- Levi Strauss

- Blinded by the Light CSP

- Film industry

- In exam practice: being more balanced