Modern Drama — Revision Hub

⚠ Read this first — this examiner keeps the sentence and moves the blank

Comparing the four photographed papers side by side shows something that changes how you should revise. Dr. Waha does not write new questions each year. She writes one question and then reuses it with a single word altered — and when that word changes, the correct answer changes with it. Memorising letters is worthless here. Memorising the pair is decisive.

The stem, with the moving word	One paper	Another paper
When was Godot ______ (in French)?	WRITTEN → 1947–49	PERFORMED → 1953
When was Major Barbara first ______?	PERFORMED → 1905	PUBLISHED → 1907
When Estragon slept the ______ time…	FIRST → woke him	LAST → let him sleep
What does Estragon ask ______ for?	VLADIMIR → a carrot	POZZO → chicken bones
Who ______ the habit of confession?	ENCOURAGED → all of the above	CRITICISED → a single name

And she moves the options, not just the stem. “What is the greatest of evils?” is keyed Poverty when poverty is offered and None of the above when it is not. “Cusins sells his soul for…” has been keyed three different ways from the same three words. On this paper, “None of the above” and “All of the above” are real answers — so read every option before you answer from memory.

Unique to this course: two papers sometimes key the same question with the same options differently — Undershaft's character type, and who asked for a job at the shelter. Those items are flagged ⚠ throughout, with the defensible answer argued.

★ Start here

All Previous Exams 114 QsFour complete papers with their printed answer grids — the newest Form A, 2024/25 Second Term, 2024/25 First Term, and the older 50-item format. Every key checked, repeats starred, contradictions flagged. Cheat SheetThe moved-blank table, every date, both casts, every quotation she sets, the seven parts of the preface, the symbol list, the broken keys, and the last ten minutes. Printable on A4. Both Plays — bilingualEach play narrated end to end, English beside Arabic, with a diagram of each play's shape — and a closing comparison of Shaw and Beckett, which is what a “compare” question would want.

Waiting for Godot

Part 1 — Lectures 3, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12 46 QsNihilism, existentialism, absurdism • Beckett's life, Joyce and Proust • the dates • Act I from the boot to Lucky's monologue Part 2 — Lectures 14, 16, 18, 20 + seminar 40 QsThe Boy • the whole of Act II • the blindness and the last speech • the symbol list • Keller's “A Strange Situation”

Major Barbara

Part 1 — Lectures 2, 5, 7, 9, 13 40 QsRealism and Naturalism • Scribe, Zola, Ibsen • Shaw's life and Fabianism • the preface, all seven parts, with every quotation she blanks Part 2 — Lectures 11, 15, 17, 19 40 QsThe full cast • the drawing room • the West Ham shelter and Bill Walker • Perivale St Andrews • what Barbara actually decides

How to use this in the last week

Day 1. Read Both Plays, bilingual straight through. Two hours, and no plot question can catch you again.
Day 2. The All Previous Exams bank with the recurrence filter on ★★ On 2+ papers. That is the fixed pool she draws from. Get it to 100%.
Day 3. Both Godot banks, filter on High. Pay particular attention to the date questions and the Joyce/Proust pair.
Day 4. Both Major Barbara banks. The preface supplies more printed items than the play itself — do not skip it.
Day 5. The ⚠ Key disputed filter across every bank. Twenty items, and knowing why they are disputed will save you marks on the questions around them.
Day 6. The whole exam bank again, untimed, reading every trick note.
The night before. The Cheat Sheet, printed. Nothing else.