hello everybody and welcome to today's video a detailed look at AQA English language paper 2 question two this is one of the hardest questions in the entire exam because the wording of the question doesn't mention the key skill of inference and in this video we'll look at how to make sure you achieve the best Mark possible in this ambiguous question AQA English language paper 2 question 2 is a summary question worth eight marks assessing both bullet points of ao1 to identify and interpret explicit and implicit information and ideas and to select and synthesize evidence from
different texts for the synthesis element of this question you have to show understanding of information from both sources and you'll actually be capped at half marks at best if you only write about One Source because you're essentially not synthesizing information if you do that so you must write about both sources now this question might ask you to summarize differences similarities or information about a certain topic presented in both sources it might for example be based on Behavior or feelings or there might be a more concrete Focus like summarize what you understand about the different cars
used by the drivers in both sources and that might sound like a very specific example but question two is likely to have a very narrow Focus partly to make sure you don't have any Crossover with what you're going to write about later in question 4 and because of this you shouldn't necessarily expect to find a lot of different material that you can use in your answer but that shouldn't be a problem as an eight mark question you only want to spend approximately 10 minutes on question two the key thing about this question is that it's
not enough to just pick out those differences or similarities or whatever the question's focusing on you need to infer so let me show you how let's look at a typical question based on the extracts you can find in my guide to English language which you can download instantly at Mr bru.com or pick up in paperback on Amazon you need to refer to source a and Source B for this question the writers in Source A and B work in very different establishments use details from both sources to write a summary of what you understand about the
different jobs now just to say we're looking at a sample question on differences here so everything I go on to say now in the rest of the video will be about differences but remember the question in your exam might be about differences similarities or details about a topic now of all the questions in paper 1 and two combined I think the wording of this question is the least clear in the sense that it appears to be a very simple question where you could just pick out a basic difference like one works in a factory the
other in a call center however there is so much more to this question than simply picking out points of difference to boost your marks you need to be perceptive which essentially means you write something that's not stated in the text but that you've worked out for yourself so here's a three-step process you can follow to boost your marks in question two step one find find a point of difference such as in Source a staff work full-time 6 days a week whilst in Source B workers are able to choose from a range of hours step two
find quotations to back up your answer now remember this is not ao2 we're not analyzing language but we still do need to back up our points with quotations from the text so we might write the employees in Source a work from Monday morning till Saturday night whilst in Source B the call center has a mixture of full-time part-time more flexi time staff now many students would leave it there but there is another key stage step three given that this is the difference what does this lead me to realize about what I've been asked to focus
on this is the inference bit so to apply this to our question given that the factory job is made up of long hours and six day weeks whilst there is more flexibility available in the call center what does that lead me to realize about the two jobs and that is where the inference comes in that is where you end up saying something which is not stated in the text but you've worked out for yourself and you end up writing something like this hail describes the call center as having a mixture of full-time part-time or flexitime
staff implying that the job in the call center caters for a variety of different needs and Lifestyles which the bosses are willing to accommodate but Neil Chu says we work endlessly ceaselessly work from Monday morning till Saturday night which implies the role is inflexible making it difficult for the staff to find any sort of work life balance and that inference where the candidate has worked out something for themselves that's not clearly stated in the text is where you're going to really excel in this question so that third stage is essential given that difference what does
this lead me to realize about the topic I've been asked to focus on although this isn't an easy question past exam reports have been so helpful and I'm going to go through a few key points taken from them now just to say in all examples I'm paraphrasing the exam reports rather than quoting them directly but you can find them online and read the comments for yourselves if you wish the November 2017 exam report explained how to achieve marks within level three an inference or difference must be presented with enough detail to be considered indisputable or
Beyond doubt so make sure you explain fully the same report said that you don't have to present a vast number of different points you're being given marks for the detail and depth of your points not the variety and wide array of things you spotted and that makes sense doesn't it as an eight mark question you've got about 10 minutes to spend on this one and if you're going to write in convincing depth and detail you're probably only going to be able to write about two maybe three different things when you approach the question this way
you'll only write about differences that actually allow you to infer so if I had chosen the difference Neil Chu Works in a factory hail Works in a call center there's really nothing to infer from this so make sure you be selective about the points you choose to write about in the first place and only pick ones you can infer something about that's the key to this question the summer 2023 exam report stated that students often went off topic and wrote about the writer's feelings about something rather than the topic of the question itself so if
we apply that to our question today that would mean writing about Andrew hail's opinion of working in the call center and aen Neil Chu's Viewpoint of working in the factory now we need to remember that writer's viewpoints and perspectives is the focus of question four and not what we're going to be writing about in question two so look very carefully at the specific thing the question is asking you to write about and don't drift away from that the November 2023 exam report pointed out how one issue was where students were finding a point of difference
and then paraphrasing that rather than trying to draw an inference or interpretation so that would be something like this in sour a CH describes the factory job stating workers had to work endlessly ceaselessly work from Monday morning till Saturday night which means they had to work long hours 6 days a week she says this is tiring writing the work is the most wearisome kind in Source B hail describes the call center as having a mixture of full-time part-time or flexitime staff which means people work all kinds of different shifts so here we found a point
of difference we've backed it up with quotations but we've not inferred we've not worked out anything that isn't clearly and explicitly stated in the text we've not asked ourself given that this is the difference what does this lead me to realize about the topic what we've actually done is we've basically Rewritten the quotations in different words we've paraphrased and that's not what this question is asking of you now another point we might work on could be how the job in Source a is intense with staff working without remission but the job in Source B is
more relaxed with someone popping to the shop every day for everyone's snacks and people taking it in turns to control the Orcs cord and you can see that idea written up into a full paragraph with reference in my English language guide so if you found this video useful please do give it a thumbs up and subscribe to the channel
