Exam questions

Depending on your exam board, the format and focus of the questions may vary. If you’re preparing for an exam on The Great Gatsby, you should look for past papers (often published on the exam board website, or ask your teacher) and use these to construct your own similar questions. Practise with as many as possible, but if time is short, try to attempt the ones you judge are most likely to appear, although they may be phrased differently. Do some practice under timed conditions, replicating the situation in the examination room. If you are allowed to use a laptop, have a reader or a scribe, or have extra time, it’s especially important to practise using these as much as you can, so that you have a fair chance in the exam.

It’s also crucial to know how you can gain marks for any work you do on the text, whether it’s exam practice or a coursework task. Make sure you understand the Assessment Objectives for your task, and if possible, have a look at a sample essay that meets the criteria. Your teacher is the best source for this information, or you can look on the exam board website.

Sample questions

The following sample questions for you to practise essay-writing are adapted from the AQA and OCR websites:

1. Write about some of Fitzgerald’s narrative methods in Chapter 1 [or another chapter].
    
2. How appropriate do you think it is to label The Great Gatsby ‘a rags to riches story’?
    
3. ‘In The Great Gatsby the lower social classes are presented as crude and vulgar.’ How do you respond to this view?
    
4. How appropriate do you think it is to describe The Great Gatsby as a tragedy?
    
5. How do you respond to the view that it is very difficult for readers to feel anything other than contempt for Tom Buchanan?
    
6. Some readers are irritated by Nick Carraway as a narrator. What is your view of Fitzgerald’s use of Nick Carraway as a narrator?
    
7. How far do you agree with Nick’s view that Gatsby is ‘worth the whole damn bunch put together’?
    
8. ‘Illusory as it is, Gatsby’s dream gives meaning and value to human experience.’ How do you respond to this view?
    
9. What do you think of the view that obsession with money and the consumer culture of the 1920s dominates human thinking and behaviour in The Great Gatsby?
    
10. What do you think about the view that there are no women in The Great Gatsby with whom the reader can sympathise?
     
11. ‘Gatsby’s world is corrupt but ultimately glamorous.’ How do you respond to this view of the novel?
     
12. The novel’s title is deeply ironic – there is nothing ‘Great’ about Gatsby. How far and in what ways would you agree?
     
13. ‘A brave new world grown old and tarnished.’ Discuss the settings of The Great Gatsby in the light of this comment.
     
14. ‘All the major characters are victims of the society in which the novel is set.’ How far and in what ways do you agree with this view of The Great Gatsby?
     
15. Nick Carraway says, ‘They were careless people, Tom and Daisy - they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness or whatever it was that kept them together.’ In the light of Nick’s comment, explore the role and significance of Tom and Daisy in the novel.
     
16. ‘Nick never satirises West Egg society’s conspicuous consumption without letting us know that he admires it too.’ How far and in what ways do you agree with this view of The Great Gatsby?
     
17. ‘Can’t repeat the past?’ he cried incredulously. ‘Why of course you can!’ In the light of Gatsby’s comment, explore the importance of the past in The Great Gatsby.
     
18. ‘The symbolism of The Great Gatsby suggests that hopes turn to dust and ashes.’ How far and in what ways do you agree with this view of the novel?
     
19. ‘In The Great Gatsby, no one is happy but everyone dreams of happiness.’ How far and in what ways do you agree with this view of the novel?
     
20. ‘Nick is careful to record the different points of view of Gatsby’s various admirers and detractors.’ In the light of this quotation, discuss ways in which Gatsby is presented in the novel.
     
21. Nick Carraway says, ‘Dishonesty in a woman is a thing you never blame deeply.’ In the light of this comment, discuss ways in which Fitzgerald presents female characters in The Great Gatsby.
     
22. Consider ways in which Fitzgerald presents optimism and happiness in The Great Gatsby. In your answer you should consider:
    a. How Fitzgerald’s narrative methods contribute to the effects of this presentation
    b. The influence on the novel of the context in which it was produced.
     
23. ‘What’ll we do with ourselves this afternoon? … and the day after that and the next thirty years?’ Examine Fitzgerald’s presentation of aimless existence in The Great Gatsby. In your answer you should consider:
    a. How Fitzgerald’s narrative methods contribute to the effects of this presentation
    b. The influence on the novel of the context in which it was produced.
     
24. Examine Fitzgerald’s presentation of honesty and dishonesty in The Great Gatsby. In your answer you should consider:
    a. How Fitzgerald’s narrative methods contribute to the effects of this presentation
    b. The influence on the novel of the context in which it was produced.

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