AS LEVEL POLISH Unit 1 Reading and Writing Report on the Examination 2685 June 2015 Version: 1.0
Further copies of this Report are available from aqa.org.uk Copyright 2015 AQA and its licensors. All rights reserved. AQA retains the copyright on all its publications. However, registered schools/colleges for AQA are permitted to copy material from this booklet for their own internal use, with the following important exception: AQA cannot give permission to schools/colleges to photocopy any material that is acknowledged to a third party even for internal use within the centre.
REPORT ON THE EXAMINATION A LEVEL POLISH PLSH1 JUNE 2015 General comments Entries for PLSH1 have risen slightly with 1510 students taking it last year and 1524 this year. In general students did well in all sections. The A grade mark for PLSH1 was at 73, with 58.98% students achieving grade A. As last year, the ability of the students was wide ranging. There were a number of well- prepared students with excellent Polish, who knew what was expected of them and who produced good quality papers. Most of them had attended Polish Saturday schools, or had had some form of tuition, or had studied the text thoroughly. Some of them had an excellent command of Polish and some did not, but both groups knew the requirements of the exam and were well prepared. There were many students (more than last year) who arrived in England some years ago and missed part of their schooling in Poland. They have subsequently neglected their Polish since being in England. Some believed what knowledge they had brought with them would be sufficient to succeed in the exam. This was not so. Many of them did not study for the exam or even familiarise themselves with the specification. They produced very weak papers, especially in the essay section. There were many untidy, badly written scripts which made scrutiny difficult. Some just did not attempt to answer section 3 (the essay section) and left blank pages. These students usually failed, or achieved grade E. It is of paramount importance that schools make sure that the students they have entered read the specification and know what the exam requirements are. The students should be reminded to read the instructions carefully and to study the past papers for practice. In this way, they will know what is expected of them and will fully understand how to answer the questions. Section 1 Most students performed well. The lack of exam practice, however, was most evident in this section (the comprehension questions) where more students than last year needlessly lost marks simply by not supplying as many pieces of information as the indicated number of marks required. They were also required to answer in full sentences so as not to lose marks for language and to be careful with the spelling. The comprehension this year required very careful reading and attention in answering some of the questions - careless or hasty answers caused mistakes and lost marks. It was surprising that some answers appeared not to be based on the text but from pure imagination or wishful thinking. It is always recommended that students should read the text before starting the task of answering questions. Question 1(a)(i) Kiedy wiele kolekcji i zbiorów mogłoby okazać się bezwartościwymi? This question did not present any difficulty for the majority of students but there were some unexpected responses such as: w latach 60 i 70, w 1496 roku, w XVIII wieku, jeśli nie są stare, jeśli nie miały autorów. Question 1(a)(ii) Dlaczego w starożytności kopie nie miały mniejszej warości niż oryginały? Here the most common wrong answer was: gdyż kopiami greckich rzeźb ozdabiano wille rzymskich arystokratów or ponieważ nikomu to nie przyszło do głowy. Often students supplied only two pieces of information thus losing one mark. Question 1(a)(iii) Co wyrzeźbił młody Michelangelo Buonarroti i jak wyglądało jego dzieło? For this simple question most answers were correct. One was rather unexpected: śpiącego kota! 3 of 6
REPORT ON THE EXAMINATION AS LEVEL POLISH PLSH1 JUNE 2015 Question 1(a)(iv) Questions (v) and (vi) did not cause many difficulties and were answered correctly. However Question (iv) had some wrong answers such as: zakopał dzieło w ogródku, postanowił sprzedać jako starożytną statuę żeby więcej zarobić and for Question (v) zaprosil go do Rzymu żeby stał sie jego patronem. There were some nice attempts for the word fałszerz: fałszywca, fałszyrz. Question 1(a)(vii) The most common mistake was giving one piece of information instead of two and nazwisko autora, was the most popular answer. Some students, by removing the word tylko from the sentence kupujacy kierowali się nie tylko wzgledami estetycznymi znaczenie miało nazwisko autora, changed the meaning resulting in the mark being lost. Question 1(a)(viii) This question did not present any problems and was answered correctly by the majority of students. Question 1(a)(ix) Na czym polegały późniejsze, bardziej wyrafinowane, metody fałszowania obrazów? For this question one piece of information was usually given. Students who read the text carefully and were fully aware that for 2 marks, two pieces of information were required to score full marks. Question 1(a)(x) Co robili fałszerze obrazów w XIX wieku, aby obraz wyglądał na stare dzieło? This seemed to be one of the easiest questions and was mostly answered correctly. The only problem was that some students gave the same answer to Question (ix) as for Question (x). Students should have been made aware that it is not possible to have the same answer for two questions and should be advised to read the questions again. Some did this and corrected themselves and some did not. Questions 1(a)(xi), (xii) and (xiii) were questions for 2, 3 and 2 marks respectively. Here again a small number of students just failed to supply enough information. In the case of Question (xii) many only said that Keating was a forger but failed to notice that he was also an art restorer. Questions 1(a)(xiv) and (xv) jaka jest obecnie sytuacja na rynku dzieł sztuki? And Dlaczego współczesny rynek nie może istnieć bez fałszywek? These two questions required some consideration and most students answered Question (xiv) correctly but not so with the last question. Some gave the same answer to both questions and some came up with their own ideas: zwykli ludzie nie rozróżniają oryginału od fałszywki, bo obrazy nie były wtedy takie cenne, ponieważ większość oryginałów jest mocno zniszczona. Those who knew the exam technique and read the text carefully had no problems. Question 1(b) True / False / Don t know Some students seemed to be unaware that there are three possible answers to the questions: True, False and? and they only used T and F. They therefore lost points on Questions (ii) and (iv). Students who have not done any exam practice appeared not to know that in response to a question where there is no information in the text, the answer is?. Section 2 This year s passage for translation into English was an extract from Artur Rubinstein s memoirs. The first paragraph seemed to be translated correctly the most. Only the most able knew that nie pojawiłbym się na tym świecie required the third conditional: I wouldn t have been born / I wouldn t have arrived into this world. 4 of 6
REPORT ON THE EXAMINATION AS LEVEL POLISH PLSH1 JUNE 2015 The second paragraph was the most challenging with many students struggling with the word przemysł and do miasta napływały setki rzemieślników. Below are the most common errors found in this year s translations: W zaborze rosyjskim caused many difficulties: in Russian union, in Russian boarder, in ZSRR, in Russia, in Russian community and in communist Russia. Car was king or sir Napływały: were swimming, sailed Rzemieślnicy:Romans, tourists, trading ships, traders, sellers. Przemysł: the idea developed, import, export,new source of cotton. Warsztaty; garages, magazines, harbour. fabryki: fabrics fabrications, manufactures. W połowie XIX wieku was: age,time or xxi cenury Łódź was boat The standard, however, appears to be improving. There were fewer poor translations this year than in previous years and not many students left a blank page without attempting this section. In terms of examination technique, I would like to mention that it is a good idea to read the passage for translation through from the beginning to end before starting the translation. When translating, it is of paramount importance to understand the whole text, as it is the meaning that has to be conveyed and it sometimes cannot be achieved if one translates a few words at a time, or word by word, oblivious as to what lies ahead. Students should think about what they are translating and this way they would avoid many mistakes. Section 3 The topic for the essay was: Jest powiedzenie nie szata zdobi człowieka, lecz człowiek szatę. Jak Twoim zdaniem, ubiór wpływa na ocenę człowieka i czy jest wyrazem naszego charakteru. Czy oceniamy ludzi po ich wyglądzie czy charakterze? Or as some put it nie szmata zdobi człowieka, lecz człowiek szmatę. The results were rather pleasing and it seems that even less able students had something to say, if only to one part of the question. Many essays were rather short lacking any depth of thought and using some naive examples, eg jak ktoś jest brudny i obdarty to nie znaczy, że jest złą osobą, może nie ma pieniędzy na proszek do prania. There was a noticeable lack of skill in essay writing. The assessment criteria for Question 3 gives clear requirements for an essay of a good grade. The answer focuses on the question. Ideas are logically and clearly developed and organized. Good personal reaction, usually justified. Some essays were not planned or logically developed and students continued writing whatever came to their minds, often contradicting themselves. Some students also used very colloquial language: człowiek się boi podejść do osoby, która wygląda, że wyszedł ze śmietnika. 5 of 6
REPORT ON THE EXAMINATION AS LEVEL POLISH PLSH1 JUNE 2015 Some examples of this are below: Nie należy popadać w skrajności. Ocena innych na podstawie tak zwanych utartych przekonań, nie zawsze ma odzwierciedlenie w rzeczywistości. Musimy pamiętać o tym, że pełna ocena osoby i jej charakteru nie jest możliwa poprzez jedynie obserwowanie, lecz rozmowy i obcowanie z ludźmi Below are a few sentences from a very good essay which has a good structure: an introduction, a body with some points and a conclusion, all of which are logically developed. Od początku istnienia kultury ludzkiej, ubranie było kluczowym elementem życia społecznego. Dzisiaj, tak jak i w dawnych czasach, ubranie, może być symbolem przynależności do subkultury lub statusu społecznego. Z jednej strony można stwierdzić, że ubranie może być wyrazem szacunku i dobrego wychowania. Nie da się wątpić, że istnieje wiele okazji i uroczystości, jak pogrzeb i śluby, które wymagają pewnego wyboru ubrania i wyglądu. The same student finishes with a conclusion: podsumowując można stwierdzć, że pomimo złudności pozorów wyglądu zewnętrznego, ubiór i wyglad mogą być zarówno ważne w ocenie człowieka jak i jego charakter. Nie da się podważyć tego, że ubiór jest pewnym rodzajem komunikacji niewerbalnej, gdyż ma on wiele do powiedzenia co do nastawień, przekonań i zachowań człowieka. Mark Ranges and Award of Grades Grade boundaries and cumulative percentage grades are available on the Results Statistics page of the AQA Website. Converting Marks into UMS marks Convert raw marks into Uniform Mark Scale (UMS) marks by using the link below. UMS conversion calculator 6 of 6