help!! english lang/lit gcse

Hiya my love,
Firstly I feel honoured to be tagged, really adds to my huge ego 😭. Ok now onto actually trying to help you.
So personally for literature I would say learn quotes, but not all quotes, quotes that specifically link to a certain theme ext, or a quote that has a lot of meaning to it, or it links to multiple poems in x, y, and z way. And then from there link it too everything you can, whether it be a close and solid link or a very far fetched weak link, if you can back it, then they will love it.
For example for Ozymandias I will never ever till this day forget the quote "king of kings". There is so much to unpack in that quote, starting from the way he is comparing himself to god in a way because in those religious times, the king og king was god, yet Ozymandias (Ramaseese II) is caling himself that and therefore saying that he is above god. Now how does something like this link with the other poems? This quote in itself is interpretation heavy, but if you dont know how to use those interpretations then you are going to stuggle getting those top band grades. So he belives he is most powerful. Now you have to think of the other poems in that section who also belive they are powerful etc (because the theme for that quote is power). The one I linked it too in my exam I think was My last duchess and how the duke has a "900 year old name" that he belives is ontop of everything else and that in itself should have made his last wife happy and comply to everything that he wanted her too. Both link to power and yeah. You could also link it too (once again my last duchess) "I gave comands, then all smiles stopped togeather". Its a strech, but english teachers love that sort of thing if you can back it. So he belives he is powerfull and all that because he gave comands and that caused the things to fall into order etc just how oxymandias belives he is king of kings so he is all powerful and therefore people shood "look at me" if they are "mighty or dispear".
sorry that was soo long, but basically what I was trying to get at for the poems was learn the quotes and then from there link the quotes accross all the other poems that you have learned, make it as far fetched as you can because that way you are putting yourself away from the majority and yeah.
For inspecter calls (which I did in year 9 so my knowledge on this is going to be a bit iffy) I would once again say learn the quotes that have interpretations to it and then link them to themes, other quotes, context and just everything else. Other charecters, theories and yeah. Sorry this one isnt as detailed, hopefully one of the others can help you on this one?
Now all of that is fun and games and knowing it isnt going to get you far if you dont know how to structure it in a paragraph. Key this for this, PRACTICE. practice questions, practice linking poems that your teacher didnt teach you, (so make it really far fetched, something like kamikaze and the prelude). And then give them in for your teacher to mark, have them tell you where you need to work, WORK ON THOSE PARTS. Another thing that my teacher said was drop the whole fixed structure of PEE paraghraphs. Mix it up, put your context fist, then your quotes, then your point then your interpretations and alternatice interpretations and vice versa. Now to do this, you must first know how to do a PEE paraghraph. This way you can eventually swtich it up because you have ages till your real exams if you try and just practice mixing them up. Im not just pulling this advise out of nowhere, my teacher was in contact with the main examiner or like question and markscheme writer of aqa and she said that examiners get bored of the standardised pee they want to see new things and that where I am xoming from for this. Right you could always write them up on like a word docs or something and then email them to me (if you want bc i could probs pm it you if u wanted) and then go from there, but obvi if not thats fine too and yeah.
That was all lit damn.
So for laung I would say read books, news paper articles, magasines, blogs all of that and anotate them, because esentially that is exactly what they do. They give you the randomest peice of text and you have to work with it. SO i broadened my knowledge like that, and that way you automatically learn the structure for question 5 too which makes or breaks your grade. They have a really generalised set of questions for lang so if you do enough past papers, you will get the hang of it and then move onto random texts with the same sort of styled questions and see how you do. Also I love writing stories in general so that really helps to make your writing better because you self criticise so much you eventually get where other authors are essentially coming from in their texts and the whole use of like similes and metaphors etc.
Sorry that this is so long but I really hope that it helps you, even if it is slightly. if you need anything else, do not hesitate to ask and get in touch. Also soz for the spelling mistakes, I hate spelling and I suck at it as @AspiringSurvivor will happiliy tell you abt.
Best of luck

I know this wasn’t meant for me but tyyyy
That was so helpful xx

Hiya my love,
Firstly I feel honoured to be tagged, really adds to my huge ego 😭. Ok now onto actually trying to help you.
So personally for literature I would say learn quotes, but not all quotes, quotes that specifically link to a certain theme ext, or a quote that has a lot of meaning to it, or it links to multiple poems in x, y, and z way. And then from there link it too everything you can, whether it be a close and solid link or a very far fetched weak link, if you can back it, then they will love it.
For example for Ozymandias I will never ever till this day forget the quote "king of kings". There is so much to unpack in that quote, starting from the way he is comparing himself to god in a way because in those religious times, the king og king was god, yet Ozymandias (Ramaseese II) is caling himself that and therefore saying that he is above god. Now how does something like this link with the other poems? This quote in itself is interpretation heavy, but if you dont know how to use those interpretations then you are going to stuggle getting those top band grades. So he belives he is most powerful. Now you have to think of the other poems in that section who also belive they are powerful etc (because the theme for that quote is power). The one I linked it too in my exam I think was My last duchess and how the duke has a "900 year old name" that he belives is ontop of everything else and that in itself should have made his last wife happy and comply to everything that he wanted her too. Both link to power and yeah. You could also link it too (once again my last duchess) "I gave comands, then all smiles stopped togeather". Its a strech, but english teachers love that sort of thing if you can back it. So he belives he is powerfull and all that because he gave comands and that caused the things to fall into order etc just how oxymandias belives he is king of kings so he is all powerful and therefore people shood "look at me" if they are "mighty or dispear".
sorry that was soo long, but basically what I was trying to get at for the poems was learn the quotes and then from there link the quotes accross all the other poems that you have learned, make it as far fetched as you can because that way you are putting yourself away from the majority and yeah.
For inspecter calls (which I did in year 9 so my knowledge on this is going to be a bit iffy) I would once again say learn the quotes that have interpretations to it and then link them to themes, other quotes, context and just everything else. Other charecters, theories and yeah. Sorry this one isnt as detailed, hopefully one of the others can help you on this one?
Now all of that is fun and games and knowing it isnt going to get you far if you dont know how to structure it in a paragraph. Key this for this, PRACTICE. practice questions, practice linking poems that your teacher didnt teach you, (so make it really far fetched, something like kamikaze and the prelude). And then give them in for your teacher to mark, have them tell you where you need to work, WORK ON THOSE PARTS. Another thing that my teacher said was drop the whole fixed structure of PEE paraghraphs. Mix it up, put your context fist, then your quotes, then your point then your interpretations and alternatice interpretations and vice versa. Now to do this, you must first know how to do a PEE paraghraph. This way you can eventually swtich it up because you have ages till your real exams if you try and just practice mixing them up. Im not just pulling this advise out of nowhere, my teacher was in contact with the main examiner or like question and markscheme writer of aqa and she said that examiners get bored of the standardised pee they want to see new things and that where I am xoming from for this. Right you could always write them up on like a word docs or something and then email them to me (if you want bc i could probs pm it you if u wanted) and then go from there, but obvi if not thats fine too and yeah.
That was all lit damn.
So for laung I would say read books, news paper articles, magasines, blogs all of that and anotate them, because esentially that is exactly what they do. They give you the randomest peice of text and you have to work with it. SO i broadened my knowledge like that, and that way you automatically learn the structure for question 5 too which makes or breaks your grade. They have a really generalised set of questions for lang so if you do enough past papers, you will get the hang of it and then move onto random texts with the same sort of styled questions and see how you do. Also I love writing stories in general so that really helps to make your writing better because you self criticise so much you eventually get where other authors are essentially coming from in their texts and the whole use of like similes and metaphors etc.
Sorry that this is so long but I really hope that it helps you, even if it is slightly. if you need anything else, do not hesitate to ask and get in touch. Also soz for the spelling mistakes, I hate spelling and I suck at it as @AspiringSurvivor will happiliy tell you abt.
Best of luck

thanks so much, that's sooo helpful!!
how many quotes do you think i should learn for each poem, and what's the best way to learn them effectively (as well as the context and stuff behind them)? e.g making flashcards(and if so, what information to put on them), writing them out and expanding/zooming in on them etc...?
also what do you think is the best way to structure a poetry comparison essay?
and for inspector calls, is it just quotes on characters/themes & context i need to learn? and if so roughly how many for each character/theme?
so is the best way to revise for english lit is just reading articles, books magazines etc, or do i need to learn/memorise any actual content?
also this may sound like a dumb question, but when your annotating articles, magazines and stuff what do you actually annotate? is it like the vocab, structure...?

Aww your welcome.
For the quotes I would say 1-2 per theme so about 5-6 per poem depending on the length. And then for flashcards yes you could put all of this info on one flashcard but I think you should make it more interactive so its more fun for you and more challenging for you. So I would say put the quote on one peice of paper, then the theme on aniother, then the annoations on another and then like the link to another poem etc. So then take a picture of the original matched up, then mix up these peices of paper and then it is your job to try match them up and then when you think you are finished check with the picture. Also the quotes that you remember dont have to be the hardest thing ever, they could just be simple quotes and also remember that you are allowed to paraphrase in the exam, so you dont need to know the quote word for word, just about.

to structure a poetry comparason essay always start of with a theisis paraghraph. Where you state your overall point. So for example if your question was Compare the ways the poets present the power of memory in remains and one other poem in power and conflict. if this was your questions my thesis would be something along the lines of :

So something like that would be your theisis. Then from there personally I always did a short paraghraph on comparing the Titles of a poem. So for remains and war phtography the comparasion would be something like "The significance of the word remain alludes to the idea of an long lasting effect that cannot be removed. This links to the theme of memory as certain events are burnt into our brains and we are unable to rid ourselves of them, such as certain mental health problems as PTSD. Simularly the effect of the title "War photgrapher" creats the image of a physical photo which is refreshing the memory and therefore that is the remain of the event that the speaker went through". Like I said really shabby but you get the gist of it.
Then after that I would probably do 2-3 paragraphs of comparasion depening on how much time I had and in those paragrphs I would use a quote from on peome, talk about it and then talk about the quote from the other poem and how it linked to it. Dont forget if you can waffle on about the title for a bit, thats a whole paragraph so really you would need max 2 more if you have done enough on the paragraph one. This a rought idea btw.
Since I didnt do inspecter calls but I did a christmas carol I'll go off what I did for that. So I learned around 4 per charecter, and 1 was normalyl for a main theme for that charecter. That way if any of the charecters came up or any of the themse came up I was prepared. Context is nearly always the same thing. "X author wanted to make an impact of Y readership about the Z socity in ABC way". this part is normally because they are upper class or just whatever and authors hate uper class people in lit so theyre tryna scare them with the text.
And for the last part I think you meant lang. Not only that for revision, of cource you need to know certain structures and language features but after you know them, you are limited to past papers. Try all the past papers, ask your teachers to mark them and then once you have done them enough again and again to get a good grasp on how you should be answering them, use the magasines and news papers and random books as the peice of text they would give to you. Ask your tutor to write the questions on them, but they usually are generically the same
"q1. state 4 thing about ....
q2. effect of language features in this extract
q3. effect of structual features in this extract
q4.a student says..., agree or disagree
q5. write a description or story about ..."
Thyere very generic questions. I would say start off trying to answer them as best as possible, from there go onto looking at them in times conditions, so try to asnwer them in the time you would be given.
The parts I would annotate were just language featrues so like similes metaphores, stats all of that mumbo jumbo. And then structural features, so short sentance, punctuation etc. Then I would try work out why they did this. Normally for short sentance you can talk about quicken the pace and same for short paragrpahs. Stats something like creating credibilty and showing the reader proof to push their point across and all of that. Its really generic stuff language, if you do them both (lit and laung) you will get the hang of them. English is just all about understanfding where the writer is comeing from and expanding on it. Also for lang do use PEE paraghraphs bc its just easier and you can get high grade but for lit try to mix it up a little.
Once agian I hope this helps.

thankyou sooo much, your literally a life saver!!

no problem <3
if you need anything else dont be afraid to ask

Hi, I’m a person who basically is finished like I failed… like I know there won’t be any miracles about my results, right now I’m year 9.
I just want to say do you think I can improve from grade 3-9 in year 10?
Will I put into lower sets in English? (idk if there is sets!)
Do you mind giving me any advice/tips for me to get my grades up!
I’m like 35% worry about revision but the main thing is timing.
So my questions is how can improve in English lang and lit when answering questions in time and get full marks!
So thanks alots if you respond.
And y’all can respond as well

hey!
I'm currently a year 10 student who is taking both english language and literature (AQA for both) and have my first yr 10 mocks after the easter break (about 4 weeks time)
So far, we've done a few exam questions in class, e.g. comparing poems (power & conflict) or an inspector calls question on characters/themes (haven't done any on language yet)
But even though I have good teachers as well as a english tutor outside of school, i still find myself only getting grades 6/7.
Also when I read my friends' work/essays (who don't have any english tutoring or extra help outside of school) i find that their work is wayyy better than mine...
I normally struggle to revise for english, as i don't know where to start, or actually how to revise for english language/literature in general.
Any suggestions on how I could improve my grades & how to actually revise effectively for english (and also any revision techniques specifically for english??)
thanks
edit:
@milktee @Trickia @AspiringSurvivor @Tatakae L
lol I've literally just spent the last half an hour or so just reading through @agent_duck343's gyg thread, and was wondering if you could help..?

Sorry for the reply, thank you for tagging me!
@Tatakae L has given some fabulous advice, very impressed
Just a few bits from me
For lang: I had a sheet with all the definitions and learned them and then I did so so many exam Qs- I used to ask me teacher to give me a some, read the extract, highlight the important points and then answer the questions to the best you can. After every answer, i usually use to email my teacher to mark it and she used to mark it really harshly and her feedback is the main thing that improved my grades. So take advantage of your teachers, they are there for you and no one will ever give you a better feedback than them because they have know you for a while.
For Lang: quotes! The other have already given such good advice on it but make sure you remember the main quotes from each theme and then do exam Qs once you are sure you can remember the important ones.
Good luck, I am sure you will do amazing!

Sorry for the reply, thank you for tagging me!
@Tatakae L has given some fabulous advice, very impressed
Just a few bits from me
For lang: I had a sheet with all the definitions and learned them and then I did so so many exam Qs- I used to ask me teacher to give me a some, read the extract, highlight the important points and then answer the questions to the best you can. After every answer, i usually use to email my teacher to mark it and she used to mark it really harshly and her feedback is the main thing that improved my grades. So take advantage of your teachers, they are there for you and no one will ever give you a better feedback than them because they have know you for a while.
For Lang: quotes! The other have already given such good advice on it but make sure you remember the main quotes from each theme and then do exam Qs once you are sure you can remember the important ones.
Good luck, I am sure you will do amazing!

Hi.
Since you are in year 9, its great that you want to try and get better already because if you try you defo will push up your grade. I dont know about a grade 9 but I defo think you can boast yourself up to a minumum 6-8 if you really hoenstly try constantly. Im not saying its impossiible to get a 9 tho!
Getting put into lower sets really can limit someones ability I find, so honeslty if you try from now and show improvement and then ask your teacher they most likely will push you up sets because if your grades are showing the effort you put in then you can do it.
My advise for you would be the same as the persona bove. Firstly try to just answer the exam questions to your best of your ability. So you have a exam question and you just fill it out. Wheather it takes an hour or 2, as long as you add in everything you want and make it feel like it is how you want it then that is good enough. Give these into your teacher to mark and add feedback and when they do, listen to the feedback, work on it, maybe give it back to see if it is enough. Once you have done this and you feel satisfied with the amount you have done, and the grades you are getting, start trying to answer the questions in that same quality but in the time you would be given in a real exam. Do not sart off timeing yourself right at the start. Work your way up.
I hope this helps you

I already did those, but the things is when I give the teacher with the practice question exam, she said she expected to mark it in a month?
So my option really is to wait and move to another school and I’ll be year 10 but I’ll be put into lower sets..which I have to try hard and move sets up, but what do you think how long will it takes me to move up sets one by one?
For Science: And, The teacher told me something that actually break my heart fr!
He said that “Mohamed, in year 9,10,11 you’ll be guaranteed doing foundation exam! Even if you work hard, It too late for you to improve!”
Which basically mean you are useless and wont get career you wanted is what he is trying to say!
Wallahi, am I finished? Or I won’t be finished if I go to another school because my science teacher is so like odious!
For maths, I have no problem, my grade is 7 but I know in my heart that I’ll get a 9.

Okay I'm so sorry, because that isnt on you at all, thats totally on the teachers. If you put the work in then who is to say that you wont get it.
Try, try try and Allah swt will make the rest easier for you. Nobody can stop you if you try.
For english like I said honestly just learn timeings and everything like that, look at grade 9 asnwers, see what they are doing and what you could be doing to be like them etc.
For science I would say past papers and content. There is only so much that they can ask you in science so if you do all the foundations past papers first and try to get as best on them as you can, then look over the parts you got wrong and learn the content, then do more past paper questions, you will get it inshallah.
Your teachers shouldn't be putting you down, but if you know that you can do it, then that is all that matters and you just have to try and prove them wronge

Thanks man!
I really appreciate those advice.
But inshallah things will change by Allah,
Thank you so much again!