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A Descriptive Winner

In my year-long writing course at Dreaming Spires Home Learning , we held a contest to see who wrote the best descriptive piece based on the topic of going on safari. Here is our winner's response: strong in atmosphere but lacking just that bit of consistency for top marks. "The safari truck trundles along the dirt road, the soft hum of the engine the only sign of civilisation. The dirt road that it travels is smooth and worn from many long years of use. Around the open-backed vehicle, the long, waving fronds of grass roll past like tiny waves in the wind, flowing like a stream. The jeep seems to be floating, sailing along the yellow-green sea. Trees stand out against the sky, a fishbowl of brightest blue above our heads. The sun shines down on us, and a drowsy heat sets in. The whole world, rippling like the grass below us, seems to be slowly drifting beneath the far away sky. Animals move in the distance, blurred shapes in the heat. The tall neck of a giraffe can be
Recent posts

STOP PRESS! 4 x CAIE Literature Tutorials announced!

People are always asking me to tutor them for the CAIE literature exam and I often haven't the time, but this year, I'm going to offer 4 one-hour sessions on Wednesdays starting 1st of April, 2020, and meeting at 2 pm UK time. You can join all four or just a single one where you think your child needs most help. 1st April - unseen paper 4 8th April - poetry for paper 1, especially the anthology 15th April - prose for paper 1, especially Jane Eyre 22nd April - drama for paper 3, especially Macbeth Each session is £30 each, or all four for £100 in total.  Use this form to register, maximum is 4 students so don't delay!   Loading…

Face it - you're a Meeple

Do you know what a "meeple" is? It's a game--playing piece in the shape of a person, and coming to realise how you, an exam candidate, are like a meeple is important in your psyche for the exam, especially the CAIE English Language version. It's simple, really. Each question on the exam has a set of "rules" - the way it's asked, the way you answer, and what the mark scheme is looking for. There's a game to play here. Quite typically, the questions with longer answers will set a task along the lines of "You are the little girl" or "You are the father" or "You are the mayor" or some other kind of persona. In each case, "you" is not going to be ... well ... you. It's going to be the persona you adopt for answering the question as the game wants you to. This is particularly important in Paper 2, Question 1, where the task includes evaluating some texts. Personally, you may quite like the idea of start

What about those Word Counts?

We're entering the heavy-duty revision season again as CAIE rolls its new 2020 version off the shelves and into the exam halls. Questions are coming thick and fast from those trying to navigate what the mark scheme means about this, what the instructions mean about that, and one of those pesky little details - that is, word counts - is causing consternation amongst my current revision students. Word counts are usually just a guide for how much the board is expecting the material to merit, though it's not unusual to go over the count for Question 2 (d), the one about language analysis (in the old style exam, this was Question 2 in the Reading Paper noted as 21, 22, or 23). None of them are extremely consequential as long as you're writing enough. The one exception is Question 1(f), the summary of Text B. The summary question (Question 3 in the old style) is definitely expecting concise expression, so if (as it is now) advising "not more than 120" words,

Dreaming Spires Revision is Expanding - Now Offering Edexcel Crammers!

I'm really happy to announce that Yvonne Mason, my colleague at Dreaming Spires Home Learning , is joining the revision team for offering short courses over Easter to help hone a student's skills for their English Language IGCSE. Meeting up in Autumn Just like the CAIE course that I've run for almost a decade, Yvonne's course will go through past papers and suggest best practice, sharing tips, giving warnings of places where students often trip up. She won't, however, mark any mocks like I do for the CAIE due to time constraints this year. We can make suggestions as to someone who will mark mocks for you instead if you so wish. Both courses - my CAIE and her Edexcel - will run live, online daily during the Easter holidays starting the 15th of April. Hers will meet at 6 pm and mine at 7 pm. If this is something you want for your teen, then don't delay: we have a limited number of spaces and they're likely to fill up fast. To register for

English Language (0500) Crammer Date Change!

Students wanted a longer holiday, so we've compromised: we're now starting the crammer on the 4th of September and will run it for just four days, from 2-4 pm daily. I blame it on CIE for scheduling the exam so early this Autumn, but it is the last one of the current spec, so probably safest exam to take in the foreseeable future in terms of track record of past papers and examiners knowing how to mark it. Let me show you the way to go! (PS This isn't me in the photo, but it is my son and my dog)

Breaking News! Crammers Announced for August - NEW English Literature!

We're excited to announce that, starting August this year, Dreaming Spires Revision is offering daily crammers for not just CIE English Language exams (0500), but now the CIE English Literature exam (0486), too! Both courses will be offered on a daily basis during the fortnight of 13th-24th August, and registration is now open, so grab your place before we're full. Check out the "Upcoming Courses in English Language" tab for days and times for the 0500 crammer. Check out the "New Courses in English Literature" tab for days and times for the 0486 crammer. If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to get in touch via the contact form in the right-hand menu (PC), or email me at dreamingspiresrevision<at>gmail<dot>com