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When you are working on your controlled assessment there will be individual activities and group activities which will take place in class or at home.

Here are a few guidelines to help you know what to expect:

• you will read and try to understand the whole play in class
• your teacher will give you the theme and your task title
• you will need to carry out research - this can be in school or at home and it can be in groups or individually
• you will need to plan the structure of your essay
• during the preparation and planning stage your teacher will give general feedback to your class but cannot assist you individually or look at any draft of your response;
• finally, for the formal timed assessment you have a maximum of two hours to complete the task working on your own and using a clean, unannotated copy of the play

There are three areas that you must include in your preparation and planning:

• The first thing you will need to do is read and understand the play. You should start by trying to understand the plot.
• The next thing you will need to think about is how Shakespeare crafted his play – the dramatic devices, methods and techniques he employed and his use of language.
• Finally, you will need to focus on the key terms of your task and try to create an argument, explaining your own opinions and interpretations, using relevant evidence from the text to support what you are saying.

Always focus on the theme which you have been given. For example, ambition in Macbeth, and link all your research and planning back to it throughout your study of the play.

Here is a checklist table of questions to ask yourself to ensure that you are focused: