Polish Language and Literature: Reading, Grammar, and Argument
Core competences
The Polish language component tests reading comprehension of literary and non-literary texts, grammar and orthography, and the ability to write a structured argument. You must be able to identify the theme, narrator, and rhetorical strategy of a passage, and to place works in their literary epoch: średniowiecze, renesans, barok, oświecenie, romantyzm, pozytywizm, Młoda Polska, and twentieth-century movements. Know the canonical authors - Kochanowski, Mickiewicz, Słowacki, Norwid, Sienkiewicz, Prus, Wyspiański, Schulz, Gombrowicz, Miłosz, Szymborska - and one representative work each.
Grammar traps
Expect items on case government, verb aspect (dokonany versus niedokonany), participle agreement, and punctuation before conjunctions such as że, bo, gdy. Orthography questions target rz/ż, ó/u, ch/h, and the capitalisation of titles and national names. A common trap is a sentence that sounds correct but violates case agreement after a numeral.
Writing rules
An essay needs a thesis in the introduction, paragraphs each making one claim supported by a textual example, and a conclusion that answers the question rather than restating it. Quoting from memory is risky; paraphrase accurately instead.
Worked example
Given a sentence with a numeral plus noun, decide the case. After numbers ending in 2, 3, 4 (except teens), masculine nouns take the plural nominative; elsewhere the genitive. Check the ending before choosing.
Rule of thumb
Read the question twice: once for the topic, once for the command word (analyse, compare, justify).