Hi;
I'm currently a Y12 student doing A - levels (chem, bio & psych). In my English Language GCSE I achieved a grade 9. I only lost 5 marks on my English paper 1 - achieving an overall mark of 75/80.
The greatest help was getting a good English tutor -, I changed tutor and I foundit immensely helpful as she provided very detailed feedback and homework every week AND ACTUALLY MARKED IT!. Need I stress more about the importance of feedback for your writing? .
Additionally fir Q1-4 ; the most important thing you need to know is structure in order to maxise your marks. In terms of Q5 ; am ambitious vocabulary is everything, I would encourage you to choose a description rather than a narrative inorder to maximize your use of vocab. ( to improve vocab I would try making lists of synonyms). - also vocab is of paramount importance in Lang - even more so than in Lit.
If you need any more help - feel free to message me; I can also help you with feedback and send you ny old essays which I scored highly on fir recerevce - I have a bunch of them.
Good Luck!