Why Your Language Questions are all about THE NUMBER OF EXPLANATIONS
(Lesson from 30 years of tutoring)
A lot of teachers and tutors are starting to contact me, thanking me for my common sense approach to the exam.
My evidence based approach - I don’t just make up methods I hope will work - I read and write hundreds of answers to find out what really gets the grades.
Great. That works for you, Mr Salles, but how do you know it will work for anyone else?
Well, 4000+ viewers told me it did.
Today, I’m giving you an email I received from Noshin, 30 years a tutor, who has just started to use my methods.
It is very difficult for teachers to use my methods, unless the whole department agrees.
It is also difficult for a tutor - if her results go down, parents will have wasted their money.
Noshin had the courage to use her common sense - the common sense which comes with decades of experience - to ask if there was a better way to prepare for the AQA exam.
Dear Mr Salles,
As an English tutor I'm finding your recent comments about AQA so refreshing. As a tutor, what I have found is that many English teachers seem somewhat confused about how to teach and mark AQA exam techniques. Whereas Edexcel English teachers are clearer in imparting what is expected of students in exams and also how to mark them.
I seriously thought I was taking crazy pills until I watched your videos!
You probably don't remember (I wouldn't expect you to) that I messaged you a few months ago and informed you that I provide free tuition for the majority of my students. I'm not a qualified teacher, but I have a Masters in Literature, Culture and Modernity and have been tutoring for over 30 years.
Over this time I have adopted a few different methods and then just a few months before the 2023 exams I decided to go with yours: explanations make points. I ditched the PETER/PEARL (etc) paragraphs for the language exams.
My students' results were astonishing!
I won't bore you with the stats but never before have I had such a jump from MY predicted grades three months before the exams and the actual results:
Language: three grade 9s, one grade 8 and my students who were working at level 5 all achieved level 7 (when I first started tutoring them, some of them were working at a level 3). The point being that your methods truly work for language and literature- all of a sudden, my students were gliding towards the finish line.
Some were excited for the exams!
A current student of mine told me he finds your method so much clearer than his teacher's, and he went from a level 2 to a level 7 (my marking). In his head he has clarity now. However, his teacher told him that's not the correct method to answer the questions and he has to use PETER paragraphs.
I told him to push back and explain the reasoning to his teacher who has now agreed to accept it for his mocks this coming week. Triumph.
I ask all my students to watch your videos and shorts. I also direct them to your books on Amazon Unlimited. Amazon have an ongoing subscription from me after the free trial thanks to you!
Thank you so much for all your hard work that now makes navigating AQA's exams easier and clearer.
It's been a bit of a conundrum having to teach it because of all the different ways that different schools do things. With your techniques I have a clearer focus in exam techniques, marking is not confusing and I have confidence in what I'm doing.
All of which makes me a much better tutor. You have made me a much better tutor.
Kind regards,
J
Fly away PETER. Fly away PEARL.
(You probably have to be old enough to get that joke). But you don’t have to be old enough to teach this simple method:
The number of marks in all the Section A questions in the language exam tells you how many explanations to write.
Points make prizes. Quantity makes quality.
I absolutely second all of that, and I am so pleased other tutors and teachers are discovering you!