P2 Feedback
Perhaps the best way to practice for Paper 2 is to take a mock exam (under exam conditions), make mistakes, discuss those mistakes and then fix those mistakes. Most likely, the kinds of mistakes that you make are the kinds of mistakes that other students have made before.
Teachers often provide students with feedback on their Paper 2 responses like the feedback provided in the Google Doc below. To give feedback on a student’s response,
- make a copy of this Google Doc (see button below),
- delete the comments that do not apply to the student,
- add new comments and examples from the student’s response,
- give marks by replacing [X],
- and ask students to rewrite their Paper 2 response, taking the feedback into consideration.
ATLs
One of the IB's approaches to teaching suggests that learning should be informed by assessment. It's important to read a few good model responses before writing your own response. Writing a comparative essay on literary works and an unseen question is difficult, but you can learn from others.
Assessment
Notice that the assessment criteria ask you to both compare literary works and answer the essay question. What if you don't compare the works? You'll lose marks on criteria A, B and C. What if you don't answer the question? You'll lose marks on criteria A and C. Unfortunately students who answer theme-based questions often forget to analyse and compare the authorial choices (stylistic features) of the works. This is not good for Criterion B. There's a lot to juggle on Paper 2: the question, the stylistic features of the works and comparative analysis.