Year 12 Media exam: Learner response

Year 12 Media exam: Learner response

The Year 12 exam was a great opportunity to take on a full two-hour A Level Media exam in the format we will be facing next year.

It's important to remember that we are not expecting you to reach your target grade in this particular exam. If you do, that's brilliant - but it probably means you need a higher target grade! This exam will contribute to your UCAS university predicted grade and give us a good idea of your progress at the halfway point in the course but as ever the most important aspect is that you learn from this experience and get better as a result.

A Level Media - End of year 1 exam: Learner response

Create a new blogpost on your Media Exam blog called 'End of Year 1 exam learner response' and work through the following tasks:

1) Type up your feedback in full (you do not need to write mark/grade if you do not wish to).
D-

2) Read the mark scheme for this exam carefully, paying particular attention to the 'indicative content' for each question. Identify ONE point you could have added for the first three questions in Section A:

Q1 additional point/theory:
- Todorov: disequilibrium of danger/battle; male hero tries to restore new equilibrium.
- Propp: classic character roles present – hero, villain, heroine (love interest).

Q2 additional point/theory/CSP reference: 
- Hegemonic masculinity – reflects hypermasculinity of 1950s.
- Applying Gelfer – this is stage 1 masculinity (unconscious masculinity) and reflects the
thinking of the time.

Q3 additional point/theory/CSP reference: 
Common – Letter to the Free:
Protest song with cultural significance: slavery, 13th amendment, ‘black codes’, documenting
discrimination in society and mass incarceration, link to Selma (director/cinematographer),
civil rights movement. Use of floating black square motif to build on lyrical references.

Michael Jackson – Billie Jean:
Billie Jean impact on MTV – first mainstream black artist on channel, important cultural
influence on American society.

3) Section B requires you to write extended essays with 35 minutes and 5-7 well-developed paragraphs per question (excluding introduction and conclusion). Count the number of paragraphs you wrote for each question in Section B excluding your introduction/conclusion:

Q6 number of paragraphs: 4

Q7 number of paragraphs: 5

4) Question 6 (TV industry) was arguably the hardest question on the exam. Write a new paragraph that answers the question referring to either Capital or Deutschland 83 and the global TV industry. Use the indicative content in the mark scheme to help you.

Deutschland 83 is brilliant example of the global nature of television. Internationally co-
funded production – German/American money. UFA Fiction a German production company;
distributed by Fremantle Media (same as Capital). Deutschland 83 Did better in America/UK than it did in Germany. Poor viewing figures in home country, viewers dropping each week. Perhaps subject matter was aimed at an international audience? Did German audience disagree with historical perspective? Were pop culture references (80s pastiche; soundtrack) aimed more at an international market?

5) Question 7 was a synoptic question that rewarded your ability to cover all four key concepts of Media. Write a new paragraph for this essay using the indicative content in the mark scheme to help you.

Magazine offers a range of audience pleasures: Uses and Gratifications – personal identity
and surveillance. Readers see their lives and ambitions reflected on the pages and are
provided with solutions and workouts to achieve their goals. Articles demonstrate Men’s Health is willing to move with the times – mental health feature; ‘Marathon Man’ feature focuses on older men maintaining active lifestyle.

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