Writing task
Question 2 — Creative/Descriptive writing:
Write a story, or the start of a story, in which your central character responds to a place that is frightening to them. This could be based on a real experience or an imagined one. Your work will be assessed for the creativity of your ideas and the accuracy of your expression.
(50 marks)
The paper’s timing guidance says: “You should spend 30 minutes on Question 1 and 30 minutes on Question 2. Try to leave some time to read through and check your work thoroughly.”
Practise this exact question with personalised feedback on your writing.
Understand the task
This fear-centred creative narrative prompt chiefly tests originality, appropriate structure and precise vocabulary. Make the location specific and reveal fear through choices, physical sensations and pacing.
- originality
- appropriate structure
- precise vocabulary
- spelling and punctuation
Requirements to keep in mind
Writing time: 30 minutes; Marks available: 50; 2023 Lower School Scholarship Paper, not ordinary 13+ entrance
Plan your response
- Make the location specific and reveal fear through choices, physical sensations and pacing.
- Plan the response around the task’s specific instructions.
- Use deliberate paragraphing, sentence variety and concrete detail.
- Reserve time for spelling and punctuation checks.
- Compare with the official paper for any accompanying text or picture.
Check your response against the task requirements. Leave time to review sentence clarity, punctuation and spelling.
Original atoply example response
Written by atoply, not an official school answer or mark scheme. Other successful responses are possible.
Reveal example and teaching notes
Nadia stopped at the entrance to the empty swimming pool. Its enormous basin lay beneath her, drained and cracked, with weeds growing through the tiles. A single light flickered in the changing rooms.
She had promised to fetch the forgotten keys before the caretaker locked the gate. That was all. Yet every footstep seemed to belong to someone walking just behind her.
At the far end of the room, a door clicked. Nadia gripped the rail so tightly that its rust rubbed onto her palms. She considered shouting, but the silence felt too delicate to break. Then a small grey cat emerged from the doorway, carrying a length of ribbon in its mouth. Nadia laughed, and only afterwards noticed that the light had gone out.
Learn from the example
- The example focuses on one situation, keeping the action easy to follow. Notice how a detail, action or decision moves that situation forward.
- Use the task's requirements to plan the development and ending of your own response; an opening alone does not demonstrate a complete story arc.