Thursday, 12th June 2003
Film critic reborn
I never thought I would enjoy an exam so much as yesterday's General Studies. It was just so relaxing, which is not a word that I tend to associate with exams. I suppose it did help that there's absolutely no revision required :)
First was modern language reading comprehension which was rather straightforward given that I did French A/S level last year and theoretically you shouldn't have to study the language beyond GCSE to get good marks. Oh, and it was multiple choice, which is always nice :) And then there was a science and spatial reasoning multiple choice paper, which is just fun and very quick to do.
Then came the two essays, during which my hand almost dropped off at the wrist due to all the longhand writing to which I am unaccustomed, but thankfully it remained attached and so I could complete the paper. The short list of science essay questions to choose from all seemed rather dull - "Detail the ways in which a gardener uses science in his garden," or "In the world of computers ever more technical hardware and software is making its way into the home. Discuss some potential applications of this for a family". The latter I avoided because I didn't like the wording of "more technical", and also there's a strong possibility that I would have started veering off the point of "family applications" if I'dtried writing that one. I ended up choosing a question about the validity of the quote There are three kinds of lies - lies, damned lies and statistics
and how statistics can be used properly or improperly.
The second essay though - culture/arts/social science/humanities - was great. I was very tempted by the question which read: "What social, moral and ethical problems are caused by the increasing availability and use of the internet as a means of communication? Discuss how some of these issues could be resolved," but in the end I went for the following: "Over the years, many films have been acclaimed as the greatest film of all time. Determine the criteria by which you would judge the quality of a great film. Illustrate your answer with reference to at least two films." I had a field day with that one and couldn't stop writing!
The major annoyance was that having bought Citizen Kane last week, we almost watched it at the weekend, and then decided not to at the last minute. It would have made such a good subject, seeing as it's just about always voted the best film ever made, but I couldn't include it since I've never seen it. So I tried to make sure I chose films that the examiner would probably have seen, so Vertigo and The Godfather were my two examples, and 2001: A Space Odyssey was an example of a so-very-nearly-great film - I don't think that you can quite gove a five-star rating to a film that actually requires you to read the complementary book in order to understand the last quarter of it. There's just no way that you could know what was going on by only having seen the film.
I started going into rather too much depth though, such as talking about the symbolism of some of Vertigo's cinematography - for example, there are a large number of shots filming Judy's mirror image, which is apt since she's becoming he reflection of Madeleine, and for the first part of the film Madeleine is nearly always filmed from afar to make her seem ethereal - again, appropriate because in a way she's not really there. Oh look, I'm off again :)
The Godfather part of the essay was rather less objectively critical than it was meant to be - I got carried away and it started turning into a gushing review of what I consider to be a superb film. Ach well, never mind. I got back on track again in time for the rest of the essay.
It was such a nice exam. The only annoying thing is that now I don't have any access to the essay that I wrote, which is a shame because I rather liked it.
The only thing that I didn't enjoy was the sudden appearance of a medium-sized spider on my desk halfway through. And for you Antipodeans, that's going by the UK size system, so I believe this translates as "invisible" for you - it was about 15mm in diameter. I started to jump but had to control myself since it was the middle of the exam, and so had to settle for sweeping it off the desk with a pencil. I didn't give it a second thought until it reappeared at my elbow ten minutes later, prompting the suppression of another jump in mid-air. After its second removal I spent the rest of the exam glancing nervously around at regular intervals in case it decided to grace me with its presence again.
By the way, an update on the tea situation - definitely better with sugar. I will persevere.
Comments
General Studies?
Q36) Write 300 words about some things you have thought and how they relate to stuff.
Please enlighten me, how does that paper sit in the scheme of your education?
AND
you are intuitive re: antipodeans.
i used to be bothered by spiders, until the other day when i had a 4-inch one of these in my shoe.
Sounds like you may have done quite well on that paper then ;)
I thought one of the things about the new A2-Levels was that you can get your transcripts back (to check the the examiners haven't accidentally given you an E if they see you're at an independent school). So maybe The Essay is not lost forever.
Good luck with the next.
General Studies. When I thought I had keffed up my A-Levels, the fact that I had an A at GS was potentially useful. (in the event, my Uni accepted 2 Bs and a D instead of 3 Cs in my main subjects).
One class mate got As in Maths Physics chemistry and an F in GS - which summed up how narrow she was.
As far as education is concerned, it boils down to ow the school teaches it. They made us study, for a half term at a time, micro-subjects unconnected to our main ones. So I did Religious Art, and Appreciating Literature, amongst others.
I got nearly the opposite of that, an A in GS and an E in Maths and a D in Physics. I knew I'd done the wrong A-Levels; but was still pursuaded to do a degree in Physics. Blah.
That's how our General Studies schedule has gone - we've had different topics in three-week slots covering things like basic law, economics, history of art and the media as well as random things like explosives and forensic science. You tend to go from extremes of interesting subjects that you'd never have thought of looking into to really dull subjects that you'd never have thought of looking into.
I think the course itself is worth doing, but the actual exam does tend to be a bit full of fluff and you get a huge amount of marks just for showing that you can write at all - hence last year, for two similar GS exams as these (science/language comprehension/essays) I and a few people I know got a uniform mark of 100 for each exam, which is the maximum. (By the way, the uniform mark isn't the same as the actual mark, because they then adjust them after all the grades are in.. or something.) Most universities officially don't accept the GS qualification, but it can help to sway things sometimes.
And I can get back the essay after all? Yay :)
Richard: You have just pointed out the only flaw in my plan to travel in Aus/NZ next summer. I'm just glad they're all over there with you lot :)
Incidentally, I read that Britain has the biggest number of spiders per square inch anywhere in the world. Some of them you can even see with the naked eye.
i was just being dramatic, i almost never see creepy crawlies round here. just when you leave your shoes outside by the wood-pile, you're asking for trouble, innit. I think Aus took all the poisonous snakes and lizards and spiders and bugs too, its like a huge media event when ONE snake gets into the country.
when you come here, give us a yell, i'll show you a good spot for tea (and/or good live jazz).
"medium-sized spider on my desk halfway through. And for you Antipodeans, that's going by the UK size system, so I believe this translates as "invisible" for you - it was about 15mm in diameter."
yep, 15mm is 'invisible'. You should have seen the size of the spider I found in my garden the other day! (and picked up for a better look...)
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