GCE Advanced Level - StudyGuide.PK

Some candidates misinterpreted the word article as a ‘magazine article’. Candidates who attemptthis question should be aware that they are asked to write a dialogue. Scene setting, description ofthe participants, constant use of dit-elle, répondit-elle and the use of reported speech are allcontrary to the rubric and will risk compromising the candidate’s mark for this question.(c)Account of hotel door key problemQuestion 3There were some interesting and relevant accounts giving various, often ingenious, explanations ofwhat had happened and how the problem was resolved. Some less imaginative accounts did notget beyond a repetitive series of (failed) attempts to open the door. Candidates should note thatthey must abide by the rubric and that lengthy and irrelevant introductions merely waste words andprevent the award of full Communication marks.Translation into FrenchChanges to the mark scheme this year have made higher marks more accessible and many candidatesscored well on this question. However, no mark scheme, however generous, can reward the lack ofknowledge of necessary vocabulary and grammatical structures and a minority of candidates were simplyinsufficiently prepared for this question. Particular points of difficulty were as follows.Paragraph 1 - ‘ducks’Paragraph 2 - ‘busy reading’‘a novel’‘stones’‘never succeeded’Paragraph 3 - ‘bench’‘usual’Paragraph 5 - ‘never to speak to anyone about the meeting’ posed grammatical problems that were toodifficult for many candidates.Paper 3015/02ReadingGeneral commentsThe overall standard on this paper was good. The main difficulties came with Section 3, where grammaticalaccuracy and a detailed understanding were essential.Comments on specific questionsSection 1Exercise 1Questions 1-6This exercise was answered well, although very few candidates gained full marks. In most cases, theproblem was Question 5, where many answered ‘B’. ‘B’ was also the most common error in Question 3. InQuestion 6, most of those who made a mistake chose ‘A’. The vast majority answered Question 4correctly.17