Thinking AloudEnglish Blog

A friend of mine lectures at UCL and he is seeing more students with a rather touching belief that there is such as thing as The Formula. There isn't.

Confidence comes from a trust in your own thinking. Not memorising a pre-packaged essay and praying that the question behaves itself; not adding context at the end of a paragraph like an anxious Victorian chaperone; not sprinkling in the word ‘liminal’ and hoping sophistication will occur. Confidence comes from trust. Some students went into the exam hall this year not just with revision behind them, but with confidence, clarity and the beginnings of a lifelong desire to r

There was a particular look on my puppy's post-op face: confusion mixed with mild indignation, as though the laws of physics had been quietly rewritten while she was asleep. And I realised I have seen this exact expression many times before. Usually across a desk when a teenager opens an English exam paper. Go with me on this one.

There is something deliciously subversive happening in Sweden. After years of being the poster child for sleek screens, cashless living and children who can probably code before they can tie their shoelaces, Sweden is quietly rowing back. Physical textbooks are returning to classrooms.

Question: Compare the ways both writers transform personal pain into public performance. There are few moments more alarming than flipping over an A Level paper and realising the exam board has gone rogue. That’s exactly how it felt in my imaginary Paper 3 this morning, when the unseen comparative poem turned out to be Sylvia Plath’s ‘Lady Lazarus’, paired without warning with Lily Allen’s ‘Pussy Palace’.