Is AQA Destroying English?

[@kingigiggytalex7595]

To anyone who is doing their GCSEs, trust Mr Salles!!! I was predicted a 6 in English literature and, after watching all of his videos, I managed to get a 9 in English literature at 97% and English language at 96%!! Thank you Mr Salles

[@MrSallesTeachesEnglish]

Well done!

[@ebeth6356]

Wow!

[@dahlia5644]

The 'HELP ME GET ME OUT OF HERE'- me everyday in english language lessons in school back in y11. you make an extremely valid point, i used to write stories before i started the gcse course, as the years progressed i stopped writing stories and found myself hating lessons where i'd be talking, drawing or anything to avoid writing a story in class simply because of how it was structured and it is SO demoralising thinking you did well and you get a grade back based on a criteria which is so hard for even students to use. for mfl as well it's ridiculous, for french you have to memorise A LOT to get through- your pronunciation doesn't improve, your understanding of french culture/words doesn't improve, it's just a memory test in the exam and once you come out you forget it. to get a high grade in french, you have to use phrases which you would not normally use in real life and listen to people speak french about random topics fastly. thankfully my french teacher was amazing so she taught us the structure and how to find loopholes in the exam, but teachers like her are RARE even more so for languages where i know in the opposite class, they'd be given textbooks and no understanding of how the grammar works or techniques to make the exam easier. thank you for making the english exams so much easier, and i look forward to more videos slandering the hypocrisy of the exam boards!

[@MrSallesTeachesEnglish]

I hope you are able to get back to stories you enjoy writing! Totally agree with you about MFL too!

[@Ella-gc6ih]

Love this slander. As someone who got 8s and 9s at GCSE English lang and lit and then was an a* student throughout English combined at college, only to end up with a B in my a-level exams, I definitely hold a grudge against aqa English exams for the awful questions/extracts we got

[@MrSallesTeachesEnglish]

Yes, it is very likely that your A level grade was wrong. I hope you are fully enjoying university now!

[@poderosoravioli]

a bit unrelated to this video, but i’m studying english literature and language at college now since on results day i got an 8 in literature and managed to pass language after being predicted 2s, and 3s. your videos were like a safety blanket for not only enhancing my studies, but general confidence, and i just wanted to tell you how grateful i am for you creating these videos for students to find. i’ve realised i want to do this for the rest of my life, and study a masters degree in english to then possibly become a teacher! so just thank you so, so much!!!

[@MrSallesTeachesEnglish]

That’s more impact than I would ever expect. Good luck with your studies!

[@5okari]

This video is spot on! We need more students, teachers and parents talking about this!

[@jacksloman3438]

Mr salles I totally agree with your point about inconsistency in marking as I took my English lit exam and got a high grade 6 and I got it re marked and it ballooned all the way up to a grade 8!! It is not fair that a persons grade is determined by the examiner!! Thanks you so much Mr salles you helped me a lot!!!

[@MrSallesTeachesEnglish]

Thanks. I'm very glad you asked for a remark.

[@styrannosaurus-rex]

Agreed. Going into both A level Literature and Language, both (but more so language) are nothing like the GCSE, and I dont think the energy in my language p1q5 can make a full book (unless you want flowery descriptions to fall asleep to). Thanks for these videos, really helped with preparing for the step up into A levels.

[@N.E.L.L]

Your intellectualism and honesty are a hidden blessing.

[@mrsir8968]

I completely agree with you! I feel like the English GCSE exams don't actually test our English knowledge. For example, my first language is not English, I have hardly ever read a fiction book in my life, nor do I know tonnes of good vocabulary, but I managed to do very well in both my GCSE English Language and English literature exams just by watching your videos. In comparison, many of my friends know a lot more English vocabulary and speak English fluently, yet they didn't necessarily have better grades.

[@mrsir8968]

More to that, I feel like the English GCSE exams have a lot of bugs. For example, in my English language paper 1 question 5, I wrote down a pre-memorised story that I prepared beforehand. Using this method, I went up by 3 grades in my writing section.

[@MrSallesTeachesEnglish]

Exactly. This is what the exam encourages

[@yousiffthegamerbtwbtw9439]

I’m actually non native speaker like you and I guss you have some techs to help me. Would you mind to give me some tips for how to pass my English language exam Thanks

[@mrsir8968]

@@yousiffthegamerbtwbtw9439 Hi, here are my advices. Q1-4: I suggest you do all of the past paper questions 1 - 4 available, then look at the mark schemes and try to redo them again after using the advice provided by the mark scheme. This is actually a method suggested by Mr Salles in one of his videos and it works very well. This will be a very time consuming process but I promise it will improve your grades. I suggest you start doing this as soon as possible (maybe over half term?) so that you will eventually forget what your answers are and you will be able to redo these past paper questions again. Note that the passage you will get in your actual GCSEs won't be too different from other passages from previous exams. It is imperative that you know the technical terms, such as onomatopoeia, alliteration, assonance, sibilance, imageries... This can easily be found online and if you watch enough of Mr Salles' videos, you will eventually know these terms. Q5 For paper 1 question 5, I suggest you prepare a story beforehand and really make it a very good story by giving yourself 1-2 months to prepare it, then spend like eg 15 minutes / 30 minutes a day to refine it. This will take numerous drafts but I can't think of a better way of doing it. Also, Mr Everything English suggests you use the priest story (if you don't know what I mean, it is fine). I suggest you don't use the priest story as I assume after 2022 June, many examiners would have known about this method (just have a look at how many people watched Mr Everything English's video on the priest story). The way I created my own story was that I bought Mr Salles' creative writing guide (the green/blue one), picked one of his story (to be specific, I chose the one about the green-eyed dog) as a template and changed it completely. Remember that even copying a single line could be plagiarism, it is better to only use it as a template. Hint: in creative writing, try to never start a sentence with "the" unless absolutely necessary. For paper 2 question 5, most people think you can't prepare for it, but you can. For every topic, you can always talk about cost (either how something is too luxurious and the money should be spent somewhere else, or something is very cheap and convenient and how it could reduce poverty etc) and so you can prepare some paragraphs for it. For most topics you could link it to how it affects our future generations. Reading articles and practices certainly help. Hope my advices help.

[@someone...000]

YEEESSSSS! FINALLY! THANK YOU! Love the exam slander. Honestly the exams have never made sense to me, but i thought i was the only one. Mr Salles you are a TOP G!

[@MrSallesTeachesEnglish]

Thank you!

[@DIBADYASU]

thanks for your help Mr Salles! I used to get a 5s in lit and lang, but thanks to you and my teacher i got a 8 in lang and 9 in lit :)

[@MrSallesTeachesEnglish]

Great job!

[@serenkitchener7177]

You taught me English in Year 7 (back in 2010/2011) and I attribute my fondness for the subject to your amazing teaching. Absolutely loved all your lessons and learnt so much from you! I have additional work as an English literature tutor on the side of my actual job now, and find your videos super helpful for my lesson planning :D

[@MrSallesTeachesEnglish]

Hi Seren, I loved teaching at Warneford. I’m so pleased my teaching made a difference (although I can’t take too much credit as it was year 7!) Although I’m still in Swindon, I rarely bump in to ex Highworth students, so my memory is jogged much less than I would like. It was lovely to receive this comment. Good luck with tutoring and the real job.

[@macjarvis2882]

you were amazing for GCSE! I watched so many of your videos and got a 9 in both literature and language, with 126/130 in the literature section! Thank you so much!

[@MrSallesTeachesEnglish]

Brilliant, well done.

[@macjarvis2882]

@@MrSallesTeachesEnglish thank you!!

[@ola8997]

How did you use Mr Salles' videos to improve your grades? I know the basics are taking notes, but I'm sure it's possible to somehow use these videos differently in a more productive way :)

[@macjarvis2882]

@@ola8997 id recommend watching his video that goes through every theme in macbeth / aic etc. the trick is to write as many essays as you can and get them marked

[@ola8997]

@@macjarvis2882 thank you!

[@CrappyEntertainment]

I honestly love videos like this, exposing an exam board and making it super interesting to listen to. Amazing!

[@MrSallesTeachesEnglish]

Thank you

[@sparklejumpropequeen4872]

im doing a levels now and i still watch your videos COZ NO ONE IN THE GCSE KZbin GAME IS DOING IT LIKE YOU SIR!!! massive respect

[@MrSallesTeachesEnglish]

Thank you!

[@soot2006]

I watched your videos the night before my GCSEs and I got a 9 in both lang and lit :) Thank you very much for making English so fascinating

[@MrSallesTeachesEnglish]

That's great!

[@momomimi3681]

The English literature and language exams are absolutely soul destroying.

[@jisoopink]

I used to love English. I loved reading and writing stories and even became a junior reporter in my local newspaper where I wrote reviews. Then I got to my gcses and everything went downhill from there... To be honest, compared to other subjects like maths and science I feel like the stuff we learn in English is so useless like when in life will we ever need to compare two random texts Thank you mr salles for this video this needed to be said somewhere

[@MrSallesTeachesEnglish]

Agreed

[@katrinarobin4034]

I couldn’t agree more. I’m an English Lead and find the syllabus so creative and uninspiring. No wonder students are turned off.

[@htasul]

This video was really well presented and argued, not that I'd expect anything less from an English teacher

[@MrSallesTeachesEnglish]

Glad you like it!

[@olivia_dance]

love this aqa slander

[@chloewhite7512]

HI!!! i sat my GCSE's this year and i want to thank you for all the help! I did have an English tutor for English language but i didn't for English literature. I was expected 6's but i had been working at a 3 in both language and literature and i got 7's in them both !!! you really helped me with my English literature. I was 2 marks off an 8 in language and 3 marks off an 8 in literature!!!! Any way thank you so much for all your help. :)

[@MrSallesTeachesEnglish]

Well done! I am much cheaper than a tutor...

[@chloewhite7512]

@@MrSallesTeachesEnglish Thank you so much! Also ye hahahaha :)

[@mhd7777]

Hello Mr Salles, Thank you so much for all you do for our students. I wanted to bring to your attention an upcoming forum with Colin Hughes (AQA Chief Exec) in attendance taking questions and comments from attendees. It is the Westminster Forum which is a cross-party group that helps create policy. The forum is titled: The future of assessment in England’s secondary schools and is on the 23rd of November. It would be great if you could attend (it's online) and pose some questions to Mr Hughes. Thank you, Mrs D

[@MrSallesTeachesEnglish]

Well, if it is online I ought to take a look. I can’t believe a QA will take questions from me but it is definitely worth a go. Thanks for the encouragement and the push!

[@jantutor8881]

I could not agree more! I've bemoaned the mechanical and flaccid nature of English GCSEs for years. English should be a creative subject that militates against the increasing mechanisation of other aspects of society. So Mr Salles, what do we do about this?

[@MrSallesTeachesEnglish]

I don't know. Private schools are allowed to get their own qualifications accredited. That's one possibility. The other is that an existing exam board offers an alternative when this gets to 1 million views (it won't). Or, we teach our students to be creative and they get great grades as a byproduct. I'm also releasing a series of guides which make each question really easy to get top marks on, without becoming too mechanical.

[@goatandsonsltd665]

I did my exams earlier this year with your help. I’ve carried on by doing A-Level Literature and it’s great. Although I did notice that the exams on English did not at all require any real English skills to get good grades which meant the talented and creative students didn’t get what they deserved!! Thank you for pointing it out and addressing AQA, sir.

[@goatandsonsltd665]

Also thanks to you I got 2 8’s! One mark of a 9 in Lit.

[@MrSallesTeachesEnglish]

No idea if AQA will respond, but I hope students realise the GCSE isn't what the subject is really like. So pleased that you are enjoying A level.

[@bexbayman7638]

I was predicted a 7 and an 8 in lit and lang, and constantly felt like I couldn't reach the top, but I ended up getting two 9s! After the initial celebration, I felt annoyed that I had really not enjoyed English, because of the pressure I was putting on myself to get to a higher level (when in reality, I was already there), and the fact that I never felt confident or good enough. Maybe this was the fault of the teacher, but generally I feel like the exams are marked too ambiguously. Nevertheless, I decided to take it at A-level, because I realised how passionate I was about English, and how much GCSE had made me hate it. So I want to thank you, because your videos were brilliant through it all. Your question predictions were great, and I reckon those Elon Musk facts were what I needed for my article lol :)

[@MrSallesTeachesEnglish]

That's amazing persistence and self knowledge. I'm so glad Elon Musk did the business!

[@learningisoutloud]

Awesome video Mr Salles. As a fellow long time English teacher, I’m a fan of your work!

[@MrSallesTeachesEnglish]

Thank you very much! I know quite a few English teachers must watch my channel, as my book The Full English is selling well, but they very rarely contact me. I think English teachers may be too polite and reserved!

[@theredstonebuilder1120]

Yes they are. Haven't even watched the video. Year 12 student now. Yes. AQA are destroying English. Confined it to pointless analysis of quotes rather than their actual meaning and context, disregard character development massively, and make creative writing a timed thing instead of teaching us how to actually be creative and write imaginative original short stories.

[@MrSallesTeachesEnglish]

Exactly so!

[@theredstonebuilder1120]

@@MrSallesTeachesEnglish ironic that AQA make us study texts that focus on marxism and capitalism as bad ideas in society... only to then run a "charity" that won't help people so they can earn more money

[@rosewoodtutoringsolutions1808]

Spot on. I tutor English Literature and Language to students who, for whatever reason, are not in mainstream education. I've lost count of how many times an articulate, thoughtful young person tells me 'I'm useless at English'. It does make me cross! It also saddens me that they feel judged by an exam system that is outdated, narrow and frankly appears designed to kill off any love of the English language or joy of reading. Appalled to hear the facts on AQA. Is this the same with the other exam boards? By the way, your videos are excellent, and I recommend you to all my students :)

[@MrSallesTeachesEnglish]

Thank you very much. I don't know about the other exam boards I'm afraid.

[@englishwithmrssmith511]

Oh my goodness! Shocking revelations, yet sadly predictable when Education is organized as a business - financial profit rather than valuable teaching & learning 🤨😫

[@joeblackmore5443]

I agree, I have talked to many other students and we all agree in too many subjects, like English, we are taught to answer the questions set by the examiners rather than how to do things the subject actually entails, like write poetry as you suggested.

[@katherinebloomer9254]

I hope the minister of education views this!

[@katiemiaana]

Great video you called them out Mr Salles

[@shirleanna6492]

Another year another 9, Mr S. 🥳 Thank you. 🙏🙏🙏 Moving to 2.0 next year... 😬

[@shirleanna6492]

Remark...

[@stevenanderson5811]

hi sir i want to say a huge thank you u are littreally the best teacher of my whole life i passed english lit with a 8 and a lang 6 thank you so much you made me want to study and i have took this into my alevels love ya

[@MrSallesTeachesEnglish]

Brilliant results. I hope A level rocks

[@stevenanderson5811]

@@MrSallesTeachesEnglish sir honestly to tell you i dontcry much but when i got my results i sat on my table and cried you see i had a huge deppression when i was in year 10 so i did not expect it to happen seriously you had made me love education again so thank you loads ps i was predicted 3 in lag and 5 in lit

[@user94783]

@@stevenanderson5811 im so so happy for you, you aced it 👏🏻👏🏻

[@diegobertora3470]

Great video as usual. Also, you may not remember, but I posted a question about handwriting and your advice convinced me to get a laptop. Thanks a lot (this will help in loads of subjects not just english)

[@MrSallesTeachesEnglish]

I do remember. Good luck with the laptop. Don't forget to learn to touch type!

[@diegobertora3470]

@@MrSallesTeachesEnglish Do you have any experience with how to learn to touch type? I have heard it isn't too difficult so I'll try to learn with free lessons online. Btw, on behalf of every english student smart enough to watch your videos, THANK YOU

[@9di564]

💯 agree with this video! The AQA exams are just useless and makes me feel like a failure.

[@KSinghhhM]

Needed video

[@AdnanKhan-qs6dt]

In English language question 5(paper 1) what’s better to do to get a higher and better mark, a story or a description suggested by a picture?

[@legend_2778]

Love your content sir keep it up 👍🏼

[@idrk1507]

I wish you did English Literature A level stuff

[@grassytramtracks]

Absolutely, I like reading, writing (both creative writing and writing non fiction, i really enjoyed doing my speech) and books, but I hate the dry analysis and the essays I have to write about said dry analysis. Now don't get me started on the futility of learning quotes. The GCSE course is absolutely killing any joy within me for books, reading and writing.

[@livin0000]

There's also a stupid amount of leeway involved when marking exams, simply based on the examineers discretion

[@MrSallesTeachesEnglish]

Very true!

[@Professionallypessimistic]

The only part of A level English language I enjoyed was the creative writing.

[@Professionallypessimistic]

To preface, not revising was completely my fault. The course was soul destroying, in the end I didn’t revise and mentally checked out, I ended up with a C. Luckily, with a contextual offer, I still managed to get in to a decent course.

[@swldnsstory9843]

POV: I'm in Year 12, got an 8 in English Literature, dropped it but still watch Mr. Salles

[@MrSallesTeachesEnglish]

Thank!

[@CFC.NobarR]

Same as you. I dropped a-level English for chemistry. Main reasons why I dropped it was cause I find it too risky with the subjective marking. Also I didn’t like some of the books/poetry.

[@heyrandommm]

Hey Mr Salles! I have a question! About the English Language Paper 1, can you only make stories based on the titles to be realistic? If it was written in a fantasy world, will the examiners be confused?

[@MrSallesTeachesEnglish]

No, do it! Fantasy is great

[@heyrandommm]

Oh Mr Salles, I'm worried about time. I will have to spend roughly an hour's work on the reading section and then have 45 minutes left to write a story, 2 stories and plan them. My teacher says fantasy stories take longer to plan and are disliked by the examiner.

[@masudabdul497]

hi sir, could you do a updated analysis of War Photographer please. The last one was 9 years ago

[@MrSallesTeachesEnglish]

Yes

[@masudabdul497]

@@MrSallesTeachesEnglish thanks sir

[@ee-tg6zt]

you tell em girl!

[@katrinarobin4034]

There needs to be far more emphasis on grammar and creative writing as well as reading a variety of text for inspiration and appreciation. But creativity = self expression, dangerous these days…

[@MrSallesTeachesEnglish]

I agree with you Katrina, in fact I’ve just bought a book on teaching grammar in primary school, after meeting the author at a reunion! At least you have the opportunity to write the curriculum you value and teach creative tasks.

[@gamingtimeplayz]

English is a weird one for me, there’s multiple answers to a related text. I like subjects that has 1 real answer e.g. sciences

[@z.8085]

Can you go over the time and place poems please I'm no good in English

[@nazza00]

Hello Mr Salles, I am a year 8 student and am struggling with English, where would a student like me start? I don't know what texts I will be studying for GCSE but I wanted to get a headstart on things as I am finding your videos difficult to follow as there is a lot you need to already know...thank you for any help

[@MrSallesTeachesEnglish]

Your English teachers will tell you what texts they teach in year 10. You should also read interesting books and try to write in the same style. Good luck

[@NA-pj1to]

@@MrSallesTeachesEnglish Will do Mr Salles, thank you for replying!!!

[@amandasimms8609]

Would you argue for exam reform? As an FE English Lang tutor myself, I feel that the testing method is outdated and needs to be reformed to reflect modern learners

[@amandasimms8609]

In addition, which exam board would you suggest is the better? I've done AQA and Edexcel and I preferred Edexcel overall but haven't seen it for a few years

[@MrSallesTeachesEnglish]

I would have totally different exams, with language only assessing writing.

[@amandasimms8609]

@@MrSallesTeachesEnglish how would you assess reading tho? Students need to be able to show that they can analyse text imo 🙂

[@MrSallesTeachesEnglish]

@@amandasimms8609 Yes, but how do they show it? Reading scores are nearly exactly the same as writing scores on the AQA papers. What is really being tested? Is it possible for someone to write well and be worse at reading? I don’t think it is. Assessing writing is also a much more useful assessment - it tells us much more about the student and their likely success in the world. Assessing writing will tell you a lot about reading. If some students read even better than they write, there is always GCSE literature!

[@amandasimms8609]

@@MrSallesTeachesEnglish I agree to a certain extent but I do think there is merit in being able to show understanding of the techniques they are being asked to use. An argument could be made that if they can use them, then they understand them however in some schools it would just be parroting or modelling (unfortunately) I'm not saying AQA have the best model but I do think there's merit in students showing understanding of both reading & writing

[@Curry_Muncher69420]

I blame Gove's reforms, English GCSEs have got a lot more dull since they were introduced and is the reason uptake in English has declined

[@fadikhoory5350]

Just get rid of the comparison papers and give us Language Paper 1 being text and the persuasive writing and the descriptive writing in one paper.

[@navyabajpai6946]

this goes exactly against the socialist message of 'An Inspector Calls' 😂

[@TheSensoryExplorer]

can you help me tell me waht to do for my english please i am targeted a grade 3 on my last year :(

[@samueljspeakman]

Hi, what tool/device do you use when recording from your PowerPoint slides on your computer screen?

[@MrSallesTeachesEnglish]

At the minute, Camtasia. A much cheaper screen recorder is Screencastomatic, which I used for 8 years.

[@kowalskigaming2103]

Just curious to know, where did you get the subject popularity statistics from? Also I did English Language and Literature for June 2022 GCSEs and I wanted to thank you in helping me to get a good grade through your videos

[@MrSallesTeachesEnglish]

Schoolsweek I think. I can’t remember

[@doubledd4831]

hello I have mocks in a few weeks can you please give clarifications on how to revise power and conflict poetry, It would be such nice gesture if you could make the power and conflict e book free for 30days

[@MrSallesTeachesEnglish]

I will see if I am allowed re copyright

[@doubledd4831]

@@MrSallesTeachesEnglish thank ur thr bestttttttt!!!!!!

[@Hassan047]

That would be epic

[@ikella9438]

This is genius

[@noobmeister3013]

Hank breaking bad?

[@shirleanna6492]

Sociology and psychology are good to do.

[@shirleanna6492]

I see what you're saying though. 😏

[@MrSallesTeachesEnglish]

I know, my daughter teaches psychology!

[@shirleanna6492]

@@MrSallesTeachesEnglish sociology, although mocked, opens up our eyes and gets us to ask questions about everything we've been taught. We need more of that, especially now...

[@user-pl9yq3fc8u]

yes

[@sglenny001]

I think you need to be Education Secretary

[@MrSallesTeachesEnglish]

Well, we’re running out of candidates!

[@sglenny001]

@@MrSallesTeachesEnglish that's very true but you seem to know your stuff and have tge dema that we all need so thankyou I got 6s in my English language thanks to you

[@danyul43]

I love u mr salles

[@jazzminekaur7512]

Yoooooooo

[@pritszz8318]

first

[@rainbowdolly]

I’m on a one woman mission to disseminate your video to all of the teaching community...

[@MrSallesTeachesEnglish]

Thanks!

[@jacksloman3438]

First

[@CrappyEntertainment]

@AQA #AQA