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分科攻略 · By subject · 4 min

English: reading poetry on a timed paper

A short poem takes as long as a long prose passage. Budget accordingly.

The poetry section of the English paper is deceptively small on the page and disproportionately time-consuming. A single fourteen-line poem can carry as many marks as a full page of prose analysis.

Read the poem twice cold before looking at the questions. First pass: for sense. Second pass: mark rhyme, metre, and any repeated words.

For a form question, identify the metre by counting stresses in the first line. Iambic pentameter (five stresses, unstressed-stressed) is by far the most common, and recognising it saves you a paragraph.

For a tone question, focus on diction — the specific word choices. Words carry connotations that neutral summary strips away.

Quote from the poem in every answer. Even a two-word quote grounds your point in the text and helps the examiner give you the mark.

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