This coming Monday, 27 April 2015, is your English SA1 Paper 1. I hoped that you are prepared for this paper as we have practiced many times on it and I have also shared with you an important strategy to perform reasonably well for the paper.
There are a few things that you need to take note of when doing the paper. You will be given a question paper with the same format as shown in the sample above. Take note that there are 4 parts to the question paper.
Part 1: The question. Example, "Write a story of at least 120 words about a time when YOU and YOUR FRIENDS planned and played a prank on April Fool's Day in school." Read the question carefully. Take note of the words that I have capitalized and bold. Your story must be about YOU in first person and how you planned and played a prank in school. You can be as creative and imaginative as possible but always remember to be relevant to the title.
Part 2: The pictures. There will be 3 pictures shown in the above sample. You must use AT LEAST ONE of the pictures to tell your story. That means you can use 1 picture, any 2 of the pictures or even all 3 pictures to help you with the story. Take a good look at each picture so that you can come up with ideas to your story.
Part 3: The helping questions. There will usually be 6 to 8 helping questions for you to think of your story. You MUST answer every question stated in your story. These questions helps you to have a logical flow in your story and also to earn at least a minimum mark for your composition under the 'Content' category. For the last question about the characters' thoughts and feelings, make sure that you include that in your conclusion as we would like to see how you express someone's thoughts and feelings.
Part 4: The helping words/phrases. There will usually be 6 to 8 helping words/phrases inside a box and the bottom of the cover page. These helping words/phrases are from your spelling list so far from this semester. Try to use as many of the helping words as possible as it helps to make your story more interesting. You can also use words/phrases that you have learnt for this semester.
That is with regards to the question paper itself. Next, remember the strategy that I have taught you before. The Mountain Planner strategy. Remember that there are 5 steps to this strategy.
1) The Introduction. This is where you will describe the setting such as the location, the weather, the time and other details. You can also introduce the main characters in this part of the story. You can have around 2 to 3 paragraphs for the introduction.
2) The Build-up. This where you start to build up on your story before you reach the Peak of your story. Describe the events that lead up to the peak, drop some clues to make it interesting, show some dialogue in your story to make your characters more alive. You can have around 3 to 5 paragraphs for the build-up.
3) The Peak. This will the MOST INTERESTING part of your story. Describe all the things/events that is happening at this part of your story with great detail. What was the thing that went wrong? What was the mysterious thing that happened? What made the characters extremely excited? You can have around 2 to 3 paragraphs for the peak.
4) The Cooling Down. This is the results or consequences from the peak of your story. Describe how things will be settled or solved in this part of the story. You can add in dialogues here too to make the situation more interesting.
5) The Conclusion. This is where you will end your story and tie all the loose knots to the story. Remember not to leave your story hanging as the reader will be confused if you do not end properly. Describe the thoughts and feelings of your characters after the whole incident. You may end with a saying like I have taught you before.
I hope that you will do well for your Paper 1 on Monday. Practice over this weekend by writing again the compositions that we have done over the semester. I will attach the question papers below. You can also read story books over the weekend to give you ideas on what to write for this Monday. Remember that the theme we have learnt for this semester is PRANKS & MISHAPS.
Good luck and all the best!
Best regards,
Mr Luqman
Click "Link" to download a PDF format of all the question papers. If you cannot download it, take a look at the pictures below for the question papers.
