How to revise for English Lang and Lit?

Hi Guys,

Basically, I really want to get A or A* in the exams for GCSE English Language and Literature next year. I was wondering if anybody could tell me, regardless fo their final mark, how they revised and whether it helped them.

What did you all find most helpful to prepare yourself for the exams? Was it reading the anthology, past papers, bitesize...etc?

I am doing AQA A specification for both.
Any help would be much appreciated

Thanks in advance :smile:

Reply 1

amie05

Revision guides - CGP ones are amazing :smile:

Reply 2

AnonyMatt

Language:
Learn to spell
Learn to use paragraphs
Learn how to use a semi colon
= A*

Literature:
For the novel and play you studied, construct a portfolio of main characters, topics and scenes with relevant quotes.

Reply 3

flowermaster91

i did the wrong question and got a B...all that work for nothing though :p:

Reply 4

Max Hinks

Repeated past questions. All of the English lit questions and lang for the past few years are accessible, plus your teacher can easily make them up. Know your poetry terms inside out. Find stuff which they don't teach at GCSE. The poetry terms I used at GCSE are barely even used on IB English, there too basic, find the more complicated lingo :smile:

Using a semi colon in your English Lang as the above mentioned, also very good idea (correctly of course).

Reply 5

username244734

I did AQA aswell.
For me, I found the best thing to do was make my own notes, at my own pace, in my own time. During the lessons, we went over Lord of the Flies/poems/Romeo and Juliet and I made notes on pieces of paper (cos I was lazy and couldn't be asked to bring the books to lessons) - not the actual books. Then one weekend, I realised I needed to sort out my notes before the mocks. I sat down with my millions of pieces of paper and did Romeo and Juliet one weekend (it took me ages because 1) I got so many notes 2) I got bored and wandered off). I made the book really colourful, had loads of colour co-ordinations (like, stuff about fate was underlined in green etc.) and made everything really neat, nice and organised.

Did the same with the poems and Lord of the Flies. Going over it again helped loads, and making an effort to use colour co-ordination/post-it notes etc really helped me remember stuff. Then when it came to the mocks, I didn't look over anything ONCE because it stuck in my head. Even with the actual exams, I didn't look over Lord of the Flies once - I didn't need to.

Colours help me remember stuff because 1) they stop be from being like "eurgh all black, boring" and 2) it's easy to see where links occur with the texts and helped me remember where important things happened. So, like, with Lord of the Flies, if I saw loads of red underlines on a page, then I knew it was very important stuff and stuff about the Beast/death/loss of innocence. It was the ONLYYY subject where I took time out to go over things and make sure I was up to date (I didn't even do homeworks in the other subjects, let alone look over my books until the main exams lol). Organisation beforehand + punctuation + good, ordered writing = easy A.

Well done if you could be bothered to read my ramble :o:

But I hope it helps! (I got an A in the final exam, but was an A* student during the rest of year 11).

Reply 6

showmeapicture

For Language just MAKE tons of notes on everything in the pre-release. Make sure you know everything inside-out. Do lots past papers so you're familiar with the sorts of questions that it will ask you. It helps to know everything under these sub-headings on each article/poem:

-Audience
-Purpose
-Tone
-Structure
-Linguistic Devices
-Context

As for Lit; again make sure you know everything inside out. Draw up a table on each main character for the novels and write about their weaknesses and strengths, physical attributes, role, important events that occured. Also write a table about the settings in the novel and the meaning behind them. I did a lot of past papers for Lit as well. It really helps. Do the exact same for poetry.

Good luck :smile:

Reply 7

Shiny Dirt

Literature: Make notes in your book and poems, underlining certain quotes etc so then when you re-read it, you have annotations that will be valuable to mention. Just keep reading it...

I got lucky with language, so i can't help you there...just be as original and bizarre as you can for creative writing

Reply 8

Anon the 7th

I got A in both at GCSE didnt really do much

just brush up on punctuation and grammar, list all the 'features' of (literary) texts and practise writing essays

dont worry about timed conditions as youll get LOADS of time in the GCSE exam

Reply 9

lemonyspongecake

I know it seems like everyone says this but seriously practise all the time! With English Lit, read the texts until you know them backwards and try and get loads of good links and themes etc. With English Lang tbh I don't know how I got an A* coz it was much harder but I guess again just practise old papers however boring it is..

Reply 10

dymphna

Hang on, I'd say you were at least six months early. I got an A*, and I did NOTHING. Not exaggerating, literally nothing.

If you are vaguely competent at writing stuff, you'll be fine. Just make sure you know how to spell. And like everyone else said, semi colons. Read through your notes a few times, remember where the key parts in your book is. Read your notes on the poems. Or even just read the poems. Make sure you know which you can write best about so you can choose that one in the exam.

EDIT:
Couldn't resist. PEE all over the page. Point, Evidence, Explain. Just mix it up a bit so it doesn't seem so formulaic. (sp?)

Reply 11

Jinxy

I got two A's with no work. Pay attention in class, take notes, make sure you read the novel at least once. Try your best to enjoy it and find it interesting - i did and that helped me hence the not needing to do any work really. Get A* in all your coursework to pull the grade up. STRUCTURE is very important for essays, adopt an interesting but to the point writing style and stick to it. Learn all the terminology and use it where needed. Be original but not too over the top you want to sound advanced and intelligent.

Reply 12

0le

Here is the best advice for literature. Write a statement. Give and build in a quote. Analyse it. Conclude. Repeat.

Always have a general idea of what everything is about. Then, when you are quoting stuff, write the first thing that comes into your head. Then write stuff about how the author tries to make the reader think this and that etc.

Reply 13

isaacstarboy

honestly, i did very little work outside school and still ended up with both a*s. i think this was in part due to the amount of work our teacher forced upon our class during school hours. but even then, a lot of my class mates (who i thought were of similar standard to me) worked very hard on essays and poem analysis in their own time. hence why i was so surprised to be one of only 9 people in the year to get the top grade. in the end, i think english is one subject where natural ability is very prominent - i've always been good at english, even though my essays don't always follow the guidelines. lots of teaching and practise will no doubt improve the mark of someone who struggles in english, but if you find it easy and enjoyable, the exam really wasn't too stressful.