English Lit GCSE help

so my gcse exams start in just over a week now, and i am struggling greatly with my english literature!
I am resitting an exam on An Inspector Calls, and aiming for a high A, I am also doing Simon Armitage poems, Of Mice and Men and The withered arm short stories, which I am also aiming for As in, can anyone help me with some good revision sites for them, or have any tips?

thanks :smile:

Reply 1

ILM

Take a look at:
•Coursework.info (For exemplar essays)
•WCSEnglish's awesome videos (YOUTUBE)
•Google's your best friend for last minute pointers!

I hope that helped.

Reply 2

AdamskiUK

I got an A* in Lang and an A in Lit.

An Inspector Calls is great. It allows you to comment on loads of things like the blatant socialism that Priestly portrays through his characters and their language. That's a very big talking point because you can relate to it contextually. At the time this was written, Socialism was the big rave. You can also talk about the satire, such as how the dad (forgot his name now), thinks he knows what he's on about (Titanic not sinking, something about WW2).

More might come to me, and I may post them up when they do :wink:

Reply 3

teengeek

okay thankyou, does anyone know any good websites that may help?

Reply 4

AdamskiUK

enotes do good summaries, but they charge you if you want to read more than say 1/10th of the article.

I'm sure you can find things similar for free online.

My English AS was a nightmare, but I used some of the free stuff on enotes and it sure helped! :smile:

Reply 5

Sammy95

Original post by teengeek

im doing inspector calls and of mice +men too, but im in year 11 so hopefully i dont have to resit :tongue:

this is what im gonna do/doing:

i got the cgp guides, for each character im copying up what it says and then im gonna write a mini essay on each one so that i can put all the ideas into one bit. im also planning on using my teacher's notes too. and then write about the themes like the american dream blablabla and what each character represents like the inspector is the authorial voice etc.

for poetry i got the cgp guides too lol and i want to use my teacher's notes too. i photocopied a clean version of each poem and annotated it like they have in the books and wrote down the notes and answered the questions. i also might try doing a few comparison essays just to get the hang of it :smile:

good luck

Reply 6

teengeek

thankyou that helped a lot, will use those revision techniques :smile:

Reply 7

tsveta

Talk about the theme of mystery around Inspector Goole, or however you spell it. Talk about the playwright's Marxist approach and criticism of the morals or Victorian society.

Mice and Men. Make sure you talk about the American Dream - context etc. Research it if you don't know what it is.

Been two years since I did GCSEs so can't remember much but will keep thinking! Hope that helped.

Reply 8

AdamskiUK

Original post by tsveta

Talk about the theme of mystery around Inspector Goole, or however you spell it. Talk about the playwright's Marxist approach and criticism of the morals or Victorian society.