The AQA Power and Conflict syllabus is part of the GCSE English literature exam. It features 15 poems that explore the themes of power and conflict that students need to analyse as part of the exam. Power and conflict revision involves re-reading the poems and thinking about the techniques the writers use to explore various aspects of the use of power and the effects of conflict on ordinary people.
There is no quick way to undertake power and conflict revision for this exam and there are no correct answers that students can learn as a shortcut to success. Students need to be familiar with the poems, answer carefully using full sentences and think about how each work achieves its effects to practice effectively for this exam.
When looking at a specific poem students should try to use key images to explore what they already understand of the context of the poem. It is a good idea to look at specific lines of the poem in isolation to tease out its overall themes and meaning. Once students have done this it can be a good idea to undertake quick recaps or pop quizzes to emphasize students of key quotes, themes or technical features of the poem.
Before using a study or revision guide, students should examine the poem line by line and provide annotations for each. When revising the teacher or person leading the revision can add additional annotations which should then be worked through with the students; a good idea is to give the student key terms and look for lines that explore these in more detail. The student should then summarise context, themes and structure which will allow them to include revision notes and annotations in their own words.
The themes and structure of the poems need to be identified and this is an important part of a students revision. Focusing on word/themes pairs is a good way to do this. Students could also be asked to summarise the poems in a 60 second talk with a focus on their thematic ideas; this can help students to quickly revise poems with the emphasis on identifying themes.
In general, students that want to do well in this exam should read as much as possible (studies show this is a significant predictor of success), start as early as possible in becoming familiar with the poems and their themes and revising this and need to make an effort to truly understand the works rather than learning a few answers by rote.
