a QA english-language paper one question one is supposed to be the example it's easy opener and yet last summer more than 50,000 students failed to achieve full marks in this opening question in this video I'll give you three simple tips for hitting top marks in paper 1 question 1 and you can download the free sample paper that we look at in this series of videos at mr. broth calm we're starting off with AQA english-language paper 1 question 1 which is a simple question intended to ease students into the exam question one asks you to list four things about a certain topic from a certain part of the source so far this has been the opening for 5 or 9 lines of the source so a relatively short section of the text and questions might revolve around character or perhaps setting this question assess is the first part of a o1 to identify and interpret explicit and implicit information and ideas let's look at a typical question read again the first part of the source from lines 1 to 7 list 4 things about brightly from this part of the source for Mars so the first thing to say is that students often lose marks for writing about the wrong part of the text in other words not choosing their answers from within in this case lines 1 to 7 and this might seem like a simple mistake but do not underestimate the pressure you can feel particularly at the start of the exam so a simple tip here is to draw a box around the part of the text you're being asked to take your answers from just make sure you do that carefully and don't strike through any actual lines of text in the source because you're going to need to look back at this opening part of the text when you're working on question 3 and you don't want to find that you can't read some of the words the main thing for this question is to keep it simple you should find four simple points for your answer you can write in your own words or take a direct quotation from the text either way making it clear that you are answering the question also you could use the wording of the question itself to help focus on the task and avoid writing about the thing so in this case you might start each answer with the words brightly or he so let's look through the lines in question and pick out four simple points up the road from Brent ought to st. Mary Tavi came brightly his basket dragging on his arm he was very tired but there was nothing unusual in that he was tired to the point of exhaustion every day he was very hungry but he was used to that too he was thinking of bread and cheese and cider new bread and soft cheese and cider with a rough edge to it he licked his lips and tried to believe he was tasting them then he began to cough it was a long peeving cough something like that of a dog or pony he had to put his basket down and lean over it and tap it his thin chest with a long raw hand so using brightly as our sentence openings let's pick out four simple points about this character brightly was tired brightly was hungry brightly was thinking about bread and cheese and cider brightly lift his lips and that's it it's as simple as that full marks or at least it should be simple but of course lots of students fail to make it that simple now the examiners reports have continually pointed out that simply retrieving information from the text as I've just done in that example can lead to a better result than trying to interpret that information in other words students who try to draw an inference from the point often get that inference wrong and aren't credited with any marks let's look at an example in the extract brightly coughs some students might infer from this that he's sick and right brightly was sick for one of their answers but that wouldn't be awarded any marks it's not a fair interpretation as coughing is a bodily function and not necessarily indicative of sickness so you would get a mark for writing brightly coughed but you wouldn't get a mark for trying to interpret that cough and writing Bribie was sick another common mistake is to slightly miss read the text for example in the sentence he licked his lips and tried to believe he was tasting them and miss reading could see a student write he tried to believe he was tasting his lips but of course that's not correct what brightly tries to believe he's tasting is the bread and cheese and cider of the previous sentence so make sure you follow my three main tips for this question pick for explicit simple points for your answer don't overcomplicate through trying to infer or analyze use the wording of the question to ensure your answers are on topic and draw a box around the section of the text you're directed to to make sure you take your points from within the right lines I hope you found this video useful if you'd like to see a longer video on this question then you can see one just here click on the screen and you'll be taken to that video please do subscribe to the channel