GCE Advanced Level - StudyGuide.PK

Comments on specific questionsQuestion 1This question was very popular, and candidates seemed well prepared. The title was occasionallymisinterpreted as meaning that parents had less influence over their children than over their friends. Somecandidates even had parents’ friends influencing their parents. The French can only mean that parents haveless influence over their children than their friends have over them. While the best essays examined thecase, ascribed reasons for the influence and reached sensible conclusions, the poorer ones merely listed acatalogue of problems associated with youth and the generation gap. It was not uncommon to findsentences of the type Actuellement nous vivons dans un monde moderne, as if this had not always been thecase!Question 2This question was less popular and the standard of answers was not so good. In many cases, the essaysimply turned into a standard essay on urban pollution. The better answers examined both the benefits anddisadvantages of city life. The question of what constituted a grande ville was sometimes focused onMauritius rather than on major world cities. Few candidates concluded that the suggestion in the title was arealistic option.Question 3This was very popular. The title, however, was not always given full consideration, and many candidatestook the opportunity to write a general essay on the problems of pollution. The title of the essay wasintended to be ironic, but too few candidates really examined the question of what might happen if homosapiens were to disappear from the planet. The more unbalanced essays merely listed the problems ofpollution, nuclear energy, genetically modified foods, etc. A number of factual inaccuracies inevitablyoccurred, e.g. Il n’y a plus de vie dans l’Océan Atlantique à cause des essais nucléaires.Question 4This question was often treated in a topical fashion, with the war in Afghanistan being used as an example.(The essay had, of course, been set long before the events of September 11 th 2001, and no particular topicalreference was intended.) Weaker candidates wrote about violence in general and social unrest in Mauritiusin particular. Knowledge of current affairs was not always accurate, and history also suffered at the hands ofweaker candidates (Hitler a exterminé 6 000 000 Nazies dans les camps de concentration). Strongercandidates were able to give a balanced view of the two sides of the question. Nearly all concluded thatwars were justified (or justifiable) in some cases.Question 5With Question 1, this was among the most popular questions. Even weaker candidates argued quite wellfor the beneficial, as well as the detrimental, effects of video games. Weaker candidates, however, oftenfailed to form the singular jeu-vidéo from the plural given in the title. Considerable knowledge of thesegames was shown. The correct construction with jouer (i.e. jouer à) was not always used. All answers tothis question were relevant, but few candidates distinguished themselves by originality.Question 6This question was not popular. Very few candidates attempted it, despite the provocative nature of the title.At least one answer was extremely good, scoring the maximum mark available.Paper 9112/06Directed WritingGeneral commentsIt is pleasing to report that most of the candidates were well prepared for this paper. Their approach wasefficient and many achieved very high marks. The majority of candidates were on familiar terms with thematerial, although even in the case of the best candidates there was, of course, an occasional29