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📷 The Two Mistakes That Fill Every June Examiner Report
📷 The Two Mistakes That Fill Every June Examiner Report
Every year, AQA examiners write the same two sentences. They use different words each time, but the meaning never changes: too many students retell the story instead of analysing it, and too many students list every technique they can name without explaining a single one.
These are the traps. They look like analysis. They feel productive. They cap you at Level 2.
What is plot-retell, and why does it cap you at Level 2?: <strong>Plot-retell</strong> means narrating what happens in the extract instead of analysing how the writer creates effects.<br><br><strong>Why it caps at L2:</strong> the examiner has already read the extract. Telling them what happens adds nothing. AQA rewards students who explain <em>how</em> the writer constructed the moment — not <em>what</em> the moment is.<br><br><strong>The diagnostic test:</strong> could the examiner have written your sentence without reading your answer? If yes, it is plot-retell. Analysis requires the <em>writer</em> + a specific <em>technique or word</em> + a <em>why</em>.
English Language glossary
- What is plot-retell, and why does it cap you at Level 2?
- <strong>Plot-retell</strong> means narrating what happens in the extract instead of analysing how the writer creates effects.<br><br><strong>Why it caps at L2:</strong> the examiner has already read the extract. Telling them what happens adds nothing. AQA rewards students who explain <em>how</em> the writer constructed the moment — not <em>what</em> the moment is.<br><br><strong>The diagnostic test:</strong> could the examiner have written your sentence without reading your answer? If yes, it is plot-retell. Analysis requires the <em>writer</em> + a specific <em>technique or word</em> + a <em>why</em>.
🔎 Trap One: Plot-Retell
What it is: narrating what happens in the extract instead of analysing how the writer creates effects. Plot-retell answers tell the examiner things they already know — they have read the extract too.
Now try it yourself
Quiz · Question 1 of 10
Which of these sentences is analysis rather than plot-retell?
Tap an answer to check it