CSEC English A Paper 2: Summary Writing || January 2021 Past Paper

Summary

The video provides a detailed and strategic approach to summarizing passages for the CSEC English A Paper 2 exam. The creator shares a comprehensive five-step plan designed to tackle exam pressure and ensure efficiency. The steps include planning, reading, highlighting key points, and evaluating the main idea. The video emphasizes the importance of organizing thoughts and how to effectively use transitions for a coherent summary. With engaging instructions and a systematic approach, students are guided through the process of summary writing, ensuring clarity and conciseness while staying within word limits.

Highlights

• Use a five-step plan to efficiently tackle summary writing. 📝
• Organize with a checklist to combat exam stress and forgetfulness. ✔️
• Read instructions and passages thoroughly to grasp the main idea first. 📚
• Highlight at least seven main points to address in your summary. Mark them clearly! 🖊️
• Understand and connect key points to the main idea of the passage. 🧠
• Choose the five most critical points to structure your summary around. 🔑
• Write your summary using transitional words to smoothly link ideas. ✨
• Review your summary to ensure it is concise and within the 110-120 word count. 🆗

Key Takeaways

• Effective summary writing starts with a solid plan—checklists help keep you on track! 📋
• Reading to understand the gist before diving into details is crucial. 🔍
• Highlighting only relevant points keeps your summary focused and concise. 🖍️
• Transitions between points make your summary flow smoothly, like a well-tuned orchestra. 🎼
• Aim for clarity and precision—don’t go over the 120-word limit! ✍️

Overview

Ever faced the nerve-wracking task of writing a summary under exam conditions? This video breaks down a five-step plan aimed at helping you craft a stellar summary for the CSEC English A Paper 2 exam. From planning and checklist creation to reading and understanding passages, this guide covers it all!

Once you've read and understood the passage, it's time to get selective. Highlighting at least seven main points is essential, but remember, they need to tie back to the main idea of the passage. Transitions aren't just for roads—they’re for summaries too! They ensure your summary flows from one point to the next smoothly.

Finally, it's crunch time: writing and reviewing. With your points picked and organized, your summary should practically write itself. Keep it within 120 words and use clear, engaging language. After all, a well-crafted summary is like a good tweet—short, snappy, and straight to the point!

Chapters

• 00:00 - 03:00: Five-Step Summary Writing Strategy The chapter introduces a five-step strategy specifically designed for writing summaries. The strategy is personalized and frequently updated by the author, suggesting an ongoing effort to perfect the summary writing process.
• 03:00 - 09:00: Planning the Summary This chapter provides a planning strategy for approaching an exam. The author suggests beginning with the planning section and describes a personal workflow that can be adopted wholly or partially by the reader. The process involves not looking at the questions initially but focusing on planning to establish a solid foundation for tackling the exam.
• 09:00 - 11:00: Reading and Understanding the Passage The chapter emphasizes the importance of writing down a checklist during exams to counter exam pressure, which can cause memory lapses. This strategy helps in maintaining a planned approach, preventing forgetfulness triggered by nervousness. It suggests that students should use the first two minutes to jot down their plan after reading and underlining key points in the passage.
• 11:00 - 21:00: Identifying Main Points The chapter focuses on the importance of identifying and checking off main points as you progress through a plan. It emphasizes the completion of tasks within a set timeframe, suggesting that all tasks should ideally be completed in 40 minutes. The speaker encourages interaction, inviting participants to comment if they need assistance or clarification. The discussion is part of a summer paper, which is being explained in a more detailed manner.
• 21:00 - 33:00: Listing and Structuring Points The chapter titled 'Listing and Structuring Points' begins with a discussion on the importance of planning during exams. The narrator expresses their wish for more planning space in exams, indicating how vital it is to the process. They describe their personal strategy for starting an exam, which includes reading the instructions and the passage carefully. This strategy is methodical, emphasizing the crucial role of preparation in successfully completing exams.
• 33:00 - 39:00: Writing the Summary The chapter titled 'Writing the Summary' focuses on the initial stages of tackling an exam question. The narrator explains their strategy for organizing thoughts within the first two minutes of receiving the exam paper. They write down their plan and create a system of time management by setting a goal to complete a task in a set amount of time, such as ten minutes. A checkbox system is used to track progress, allowing them to refer back and reassess their position if confused or forgetful.
• 39:00 - 40:00: Recap and Final Tips The chapter titled 'Recap and Final Tips' emphasizes maintaining focus and efficiently managing tasks. The speaker outlines a method to stay on track by highlighting at least seven key points within a 10-minute interval. They mention using a list written in all caps to underline five critical topics. The process is structured with specific steps and involves using a checklist to mark completed tasks, ensuring clarity and purpose in completing objectives.

CSEC English A Paper 2: Summary Writing || January 2021 Past Paper Transcription

• 00:00 - 00:30 I have five steps in which I write a summary I take five steps I don't know about other other teachers or students I have a five-step plan and my plan my summary plan my summary strategy and technique has been continually revised revised and edited revised and edited I'm just trying to optimize it to to to get the perfect
• 00:30 - 01:00 workflow so I'm going to tell you the first thing that I do in the exam you can steal my strategy or steal parts of it are integrated into your own strategy if you already have one so I get my paper I don't even look at anything here I scroll I scroll well I wouldn't be scrolling I'd be flipping right I scroll and I start here this is the planning section
• 01:00 - 01:30 and the first thing I do I write down my checklist of things to do why do I do this exam pressure can erase memory you will go into the exam and after 10 minutes you forget your whole plan your whole strategy gone because you're so nervous and now you're like well okay I've read the passage I've underlined me and points what do I do next so what you should do in those first few in those first two minutes write down the plan
• 01:30 - 02:00 and then as you go through the plan check off everything that you complete all right so after 40 minutes all the boxes should be checked all right if you're not keeping up I can't see a hand if you raise your hand but let me know in the comments if if you need me to repeat anything or turn back because this summer paper that I'm doing right now the summer question it's it's a bit more slow paced because I'm explaining the technique but the
• 02:00 - 02:30 next one I'm gonna run through it in exam time all right bomb I get this nice big box actually I see I think C6 should give us two two pages to plan because planning is so important so you get this big box the first thing I do I start writing what I need to do my step one read instructions and passage and I write this down read instructions and Passage
• 02:30 - 03:00 all right I write that down and I put my timestamp I put my time I'm gonna do this in 10 minutes and I put a little box to check beside this I put me an idea and I put a little box I'm going to explain what each step is a bit later on then number two so this is my first two minutes in the exam I'm writing down the plan that means if I even forget where I am on or what I'm doing I can check back
• 03:00 - 03:30 and I can get back on track two I'm gonna highlight at least seven points that's my second step and I'm gonna do this in 10 minutes I have my box here when I complete that step I check that box step three list five critical in all caps points
• 03:30 - 04:00 and I can list those points in five minutes I have my checkbox good I'm going to write down step four structure summary notice I didn't say right summary because my summary is already there it just needs to be structured properly structure summary with at least seven points or we can just say seven plus points
• 04:00 - 04:30 and this is going to take me 10 minutes I have my box step five check summary and let's say I I spent two minutes writing all of this down it means I would have another three minutes I can count how many words I have six spelling arrows and do little things like that I cannot make any major changes at this time
• 04:30 - 05:00 but I can make very small changes so this is what I do I enter the exam I write down the plan half of my planning section is used just building out the roadmap to the summary technique two minutes have passed and in those two minutes you have written your plan all right so let me take you through each step step one read instructions and passage you're going to do this within 10 minutes all right bum
• 05:00 - 05:30 you're going to read everything here obviously we have done that already so I won't do that again then I'm going to read the whole Passage all right now on the first reading of the passage you are not marking up the paper you're not highlighting underlining what you are doing right now you are trying to get a gist you're trying to get a
• 05:30 - 06:00 general understanding of what the passage is about you have one task that you're gonna do after you've finished reading for the first time and you're gonna do this main idea you're going to write in one sentence or even one phrase what the passage in a boat is about and you're gonna write that here if you can write that one phrasal sentence
• 06:00 - 06:30 if you can prove to yourself that you know what the passage is about you are set to continue all right so now we have read the passage boom we can check check that little box here passage is red and the next thing we have to do right here is write down what the entire passage is about in one sentence or maybe two
• 06:30 - 07:00 sentences and if you check the title coconut oil redeemed that's gonna also give you an indication of what the passage is talking about all right would you say that this captures the essence of the whole the
• 07:00 - 07:30 whole Passage first people said that coconut oil is bad for you but no the product is making a return so after you read the passage you distill it into just the core idea you write that down and for me my planning is done I'm done planning so I can check off this box here that saves me an idea and I'm gonna move on to step two which is to highlight at least seven points
• 07:30 - 08:00 so now we go up here and I have many different colors that I can work with but in the exam I suppose you will just have a black a black pen so you can underline you can Circle you can square you can do whatever you wish the point is you want to be highlighting at least seven points from this point onward so you've read the passage you have written down what it's about in
• 08:00 - 08:30 one or two lines and no every main point that you highlight must connect to this one point that you have just written down so if you find a point that has nothing to do with this do not highlight it because it's not a main point that's why you wrote this down here you wrote this down so that no you have an idea of what will qualify as a main point if you had gone into the summer without
• 08:30 - 09:00 writing this down then anything can look like a main point but know that you have this anything that has no connection to this right here we're gonna leave it alone we go paragraph by paragraph and if something connects to that me and me and me in point we highlight it in paragraph one do we see any mean points paragraph one the fact that Caribbean people use coconut oil for many years that's it
• 09:00 - 09:30 that is the complete point and someone says the last sentence the purpose of coconut oil Caribbean crunches I've been using for many years okay all right so what I can highlight here is this for me that's a main point for several decades people have been using coconut oil a local product for different purposes and we can go
• 09:30 - 10:00 into the different purposes but no need for examples right now and there's another main point do you see another main point ah Jade is Jade is reading Caribbean countries have been using coconut oil for many years and even started exporting it that's an important point the exportation of it remember guys anything that connects here that connects to our main idea
• 10:00 - 10:30 we're going to include it we have the word exportation so if it has something to do with exporting the coconut oil send me a point so we can say uh you get a different color some Caribbean islands no need to put the examples exported the oil to foreign markets that's another point as we held at the points we number them that way we can ensure that we have at least seven so we have one for several
• 10:30 - 11:00 decades Caribbean people have used coconut oil for different purposes two some Caribbean islands including TNT exported the oil to foreign markets all right fine what about paragraph two do we see any main points in paragraph two they don't fall off coconut oil we seem to be an agreement there all right so we can highlight that in 1918 started downfall of coconut oil
• 11:00 - 11:30 and if we want to continue highlighting to say that well this is all connected we can't do that this is our one one main point and the point is coconut oil started going down because people started saying it's bad for you all right fine are there any other main points in paragraph two before we move
• 11:30 - 12:00 on they have bypassed the coconut oil no and they're saying we don't want coconut oil anymore we want other oils yeah so that's also connected so now we have how many points we have four points let's move on coconut oil is having a good time and then people who started exporting it making money from it perhaps then we started to find health issues connected to it and because of that
• 12:00 - 12:30 people started recommending other oils instead but but what the people who manufactured coconut oil they didn't buy this they're saying no no no no no no no no no no no no no these people are trying to sabotage us so all of this right here is a point the people who were making the coconut oil they protested I said the corn oil people
• 12:30 - 13:00 they are they are trying to scam us out of our industry right the corn oil people they just want to make money for themselves that's what's going on and there's a point that's connected to this Norm right the scientific evidence provided by these International groups in the attention blah blah blah blah blah these are two separate points that we can include later on
• 13:00 - 13:30 I guess we we don't need to include the example yeah so what's happening here the local oil the coconut oil manufacturers well not just coconut oil but the edible oil manufacturers and coconut oil will be a part of that group they were protesting know that coconut oil was going out of all the style and people were blaming coconut oil for this and that right and then the scientific evidence
• 13:30 - 14:00 provided by these International groups gained so the same scientific evidence about um you know the health issues people started to pay attention to them and so guess what they started going to other oils they started moving away from coconut oil so that is connected now we have six points next paragraph do you see anything relevant here I think tibia puts it
• 14:00 - 14:30 nicely no conclusive evidence yeah so they're saying coconut oil is going to kill you off it's bad for your health connected to heart attack blah blah blah but guess what the more recent scientific um evidence has shown that the previous labels are unfounded so what's going on is are these health risks that we were talking about in the
• 14:30 - 15:00 1980s new evidence has come out that is saying this is not real coconut oil is not giving anybody heart attacks yeah there are no connections there are no connections and we have the same the same thing going on in the in the next sentence is here research has been research is saying that there is no risk of heart
• 15:00 - 15:30 disease but we don't even need all of that because the point is right here all of these health risks that people are talking about they are unfounded there is no conclusive evidence all of this is one point so now we have seven points I think there is nothing else worth looking at in that paragraph we have two more paragraphs to look at this paragraph here do we see a point
• 15:30 - 16:00 a pointer or two so we're looking at the Journey of coconut oil from being this great oil to being discredited I know all of a sudden the discrediting is being discredited people are saying but all of these negative associations to coconut oil they're not real so do we see this story progressing as we as we hit this paragraph here
• 16:00 - 16:30 ah I think Aquila is reading well not only is coconut oil harmless but it is healthy it is actually the opposite of what you guys have been saying you're saying it's causing heart attack coconut oil is actually beneficial where do we see this where do we see this look at this the positive findings are significant
• 16:30 - 17:00 so remember we have moved from discrediting the negative findings to talking about the positive findings right so remember you know everything that we're that we're highlighting is connected to this never lose sight of that we're talking about coconut oil being redeemed what does redeemed mean it means you are in a bad State and know you're in a better state so this is
• 17:00 - 17:30 coconut oil being redeemed this is people regaining trust and fears in coconut oil so we have positive findings and then as a point connected to this we can say there is no connection and this is kind of an example here in the Philippines or in United States but the point is there is no connection between the coconut Island heart disease
• 17:30 - 18:00 no connection and this point here is connected to this yellow point so it's not really a new point so let's make this yellow because it's it's really the same point same point up here yeah so we have eight points so far and this is continuing an Old Point look at the last paragraph do we have anything relevant here we're finishing up the
• 18:00 - 18:30 Journey of coconut oil where do we where do we end the journey coconut oil has returned to normal consumption what about the industry Kim I return all right there we have it there we have it so after all that has been said and don't avoid coconut oil if we go back to manufacturing and exporting coconut oil what what could happen
• 18:30 - 19:00 the industry could could revitalized and this could boost or you know our Caribbean economies so let us take coconut oil back to the Glory Days back to when let's make coconut oil great again that is the point of this last last paragraph make coconut oil great again yeah because it's going to be beneficial all right let's look at the Journey of coconut oil every summary has a journey that that we
• 19:00 - 19:30 are being taken through right there has to be connections among all of the points nothing is is just random so in the beginning we were using coconut oil we have been using coconut oil for decades that's point one after that we have used it so much that we have started exporting it right so coconut oil is now making us
• 19:30 - 20:00 money what happens next they don't fall off coconut oil because people started saying their connections between coconut oil and disease so coconut oil declines because of this connection between coconut oil and health risks people have been going to other oils but the people who manufacture the edible oils they
• 20:00 - 20:30 were not convinced they are saying this is a scheme to destroy our industry right however are these scientific evidences talking about the health risks they basically turned people away from coconut oil in recent times we are now seeing where there's no evidence there's no modern evidence to suggest that coconut oil is dangerous
• 20:30 - 21:00 right in fact we are seeing where coconut oil is beneficial yeah and again no connection between coconut oil and health risks no what are we gonna do about it we should go back to consuming producing and exporting coconut oil and this will can Revitalize our industry and boost
• 21:00 - 21:30 the Caribbean economies that is the step by step of this passage how many points do we have we have nine points how many points do we need we need seven or more that means we are in the clear we're good so we took about 20 minutes on this step but in the exam because I'm teaching step by step we're taking long in the exam you will be able to do that in 10 minutes
• 21:30 - 22:00 go through the whole Passage underline highlight our square whatever you want to do with it highlight the points no step two is complete Now we move on to step three we're going to list five critical points and we're going to do this in five minutes why can't I do this in just five minutes because we already have nine points here all we need to do
• 22:00 - 22:30 is choose the five best ones note that at this point you will be writing the points in your own words so you're gonna find Five Points all right let me see what what five points I want to choose what are the five most important points and I'm gonna I'm gonna mark them up in another way or can I mark them up in another way I'm gonna use some blue ink and mark them up all right so this is definitely
• 22:30 - 23:00 a main point point one there's no way we can skip point one we've been using coconut oil for decades right of course we can skip point three this is a critical point we've been using it for decades it has been good to us and then the decline because of the health issues so remember we have nine points we're picking five of the best points that
• 23:00 - 23:30 tell the story first coconut oil is nice and good and we loved it then we have the health the health problems the health problem findings and the decline right after the decline other oils took over from coconut oil coconut oil was the thing I know other oils have replaced it right but
• 23:30 - 24:00 these people did not believe that they were actually health problems right and what ended up happening in the end no health risks were actually found yeah so what I'm gonna do now I've chosen Five Points maybe you would have chosen five different points no problem I chose Five Points that I think till a complete story and I'm gonna give those five points to seasick
• 24:00 - 24:30 but I'm gonna give seasick these points in my own words and guess what in this in this part you can actually join points together if you wish using and exporting all right that's one Caribbean people have been using and exporting coconut
• 24:30 - 25:00 oil for decades all right point two we're going to talk about the decline now so we can say the 1980s because of the 1980s uh decline yeah the 1980s started climbing the
• 25:00 - 25:30 coconut oil industry as health risks were said to be connected to the product still kind of merging and organizing the points well so when it's time to write my summary it's easy there are other IELTS you can say alternative alternative oils and I want to find a nice way of saying alternative oils took over you can say
• 25:30 - 26:00 alternative oils Rose to prominence following the downfall of coconut oil alternative oil oils Rose to prominence right and in the exam you will be back and forth between the point list and the passage constantly checking to ensure that you are writing the correct points yeah and now we're going to talk about the
• 26:00 - 26:30 protests so local um so we're going we're getting to where coconut oil came back as you know a trusted thing that we are we are believing so it it was
• 26:30 - 27:00 ultimately revealed so it was ultimately revealed that coconut oil contrary to previous findings has numerous significant health benefits all right I think Cesar could be happy with these and we checked this off done
• 27:00 - 27:30 now it's time to structure the summary with seven or more points so at this point you go back here you already have five points or maybe you've actually merged a couple of these into some nice thick points but they have at least five points here so to make up the number to at least seven you can just pull from other points that you have not written down here
• 27:30 - 28:00 and then we have a summary so looking at this so let me look at these Five Points I'm looking at these Five Points over here and I'm going to just convert these Five Points into a summary so we say one paragraph We indent to begin or we do not use red pens in csec we use black all right so Caribbean people your summer now is going to be quite similar to The Five Points you've
• 28:00 - 28:30 already listed right because you have written those points down in your own words so the work is much easier for you know ensure that you are when you're moving from one point to the next year using your transitions so I'm gonna move to a point talking about an opposite thing happening so I use however that way the reader knows that they can
• 28:30 - 29:00 expect a U-turn or a left turn or a right turn I'm not going straight I'm turning off onto an opposing point all right so however due to connections so what I'm doing these cm5 points plus more from this from the passage I am filling in the
• 29:00 - 29:30 blanks connecting the dots elaborating on the points all of these if you're out of this this might be like 80 words your summer is 120 words so you need a bit more information so you can talk a little bit more about the points so however due to connections to health risks uh backed by scientific evidence preferred by International groups but talked about these groups who came up with the findings
• 29:30 - 30:00 the products popularity what happened to the to the popularity it declined in the 1980s yeah the products popularity declined in the 1980s no we're going to talk about how corn or how other oils took over that means you need another transition
• 30:00 - 30:30 subsequently yeah we could say consequently as well but I like subsequently it means so this happened and this happened next other oils and the passage seems to put some importance on corn oil so I can say particularly corn oil there's a difference between a random
• 30:30 - 31:00 example and an important detail all right so subsequently other oils particularly corn oil yeah I have some Alternatives and next we can talk about the the protests so after the alternate of the corn oil and so on took over
• 31:00 - 31:30 um local these aren't new points guys they might sound a little bit fancier but they're not new points I'm just connecting the dots and opening the vocabulary of aesthesic
• 31:30 - 32:00 so I can get a grid one so subsequently other IELTS particularly corn oil became favored alternatives to coconut oil what happened next local edible oil manufacturers protested they protested convinced that the aforementioned findings were the coin oil manufacturers attempt to dominate the market all right but I still need to add we need to talk about the
• 32:00 - 32:30 um the health benefits and so while writing the summary you check the passage to make sure that you don't just have five points where they have at least seven all right so oh yeah the protest the protests were ignored right so we need however however so now we're going to talk about what happens in the end
• 32:30 - 33:00 so a lot of time passed and we we have ended up at like some kind of result and so we can use this word ultimately that's a nice word it means you know in the end this is what happens so ultimately years of testing uh revealed
• 33:00 - 33:30 so we're we're not saying in the end you know there are no connections to health problems so ultimately years of testing revealed that uh yeah so ultimately years of testing revealed that the negative associations spin to coconut oil are unfounded but not only that the the
• 33:30 - 34:00 health health risks are unfounded but we also see where there are significant benefits so we can use another transition note to jump to that big point we could use something like in fact they're actually health benefits something like that or we can say on the contrary because now we're saying you you thought it was left but actually it's right
• 34:00 - 34:30 and how many words do I have here just doing a quick check I think I can fit one more sentence in I'm gonna count the words after this but I'm going to fit one more sentence in because I want to include uh uh 0.9 I want to include 0.9 remember we need seven or more points so you can put
• 34:30 - 35:00 more than seven points in the actual summary the more importance you can squeeze in properly the better so I'm gonna I'm gonna say uh the Caribbean economies talking about going forward Caribbean economies so I think this looks good let me read
• 35:00 - 35:30 read through everything and basically we're at the review stage you know in the summary so we can check this off we have structured the summary with seven or more points and now we're gonna check it so we have just a few minutes we have to read everything make sure the points are connected and we also have to Cone the words and make sure we are between 110
• 35:30 - 36:00 120 the closer I get to 120 without passing 120 the better all right Caribbean people have long used and exported coconut oil however due to connections to health risks backed by scientific evidence preferred by International groups the products popularity declined in the 1980s subsequently other oils particularly corn oil became favored alternatives to coconut oil
• 36:00 - 36:30 local edible oil manufacturers protested convinced that the aforementioned findings were the corn oil manufacturers attempt to dominate the market however these protests were ignored ultimately years of testing revealed that the negative associations spinned to coconut oil are unfounded on the contrary the product is proven to have health benefits the Caribbean economies could see a boost if there's a return to the normal use
• 36:30 - 37:00 of coconut oil so how many words do we have here all right so this seems to be about 118. you don't know how to count just count them one by one our cone 20 and right 20 when I reach 20 and then 40 80 until I reach 1 120. so this this should be good it's not over 120 but it's close that's what
• 37:00 - 37:30 we're aiming for and we check spelling and grammar and stuff like that and we're done all right so this is what I have for this summer let's recap the steps and we should be able to do all of this in 40 minutes one once you have once you have practiced the technique you can do it in 40 minutes it might look like it takes an hour or more but it only takes 35 to 40 minutes if you have done it enough times
• 37:30 - 38:00 all right so step one we read the instructions yeah just recapping recapping reading the instructions on the passage in 10 minutes we write down the main idea that's what we need here the main idea and all of the points that you highlight and write later on must connect to the main idea then you highlight at least seven points that takes you about 10 minutes
• 38:00 - 38:30 you might not have all of these different nice colors in the exam it doesn't matter use your black pen you can underline the points R you can Circle the points or you can put the points into squares whatever you need to do highlight the points somewhere and count them as you go point one two three four five so when I read seven you can start feeling good
• 38:30 - 39:00 yeah because you need at least seven points after that you're gonna choose five of the points from the seven plus points I have here and I'm gonna write them in your own words here csec is going to give you five marks for these Five Points yeah then these cm5 points plus at least two more from up here
• 39:00 - 39:30 you're going to use them write your summary using the transitional words to connect your ideas I have one two three four five final step check your summary make sure you're not over 120 words make sure you're not under 110 words I think if you if you can aim for 115 to
• 39:30 - 40:00 120 this would be good yeah if you're on the 110 you're in trouble you need to add information if you're over 120 you're in trouble you need to get rid of information or combine words