GCSE WJEC English Literature 20th and 22nd May 2014

Realised that there's a thread for AQA and not WJEC
So, everyone say what books they are doing, and we can all help each other!!

20th May:
Of Mice and Men
Unseen Poetry

22nd May:
An Inspector Calls
Heroes

I did the exact same texts last year and got an A* so if you need any advice I'd be happy to help as best as I can

Oh yes please! Been laying off TSR for a bit, so sorry for the late reply.
Erm, perhaps any general tips on the way you think (my revision technique seems to be sucking atm - it seems to be taking me along time to work through) - so how did you revise? and how long? what do you think what was the hardest section?

Thank you!

I didn't revise for anything other than an inspector calls (oops) but what I did was plan out possible essay questions, not actually writing out the essay but just bullet pointing what points I would make so I knew what to do regardless of which question came up and then memorising the plans
I'd also suggest re-reading the texts so you know them really well and perhaps write out key quotes and stick them on your wall/fridge/around the house so you're constantly in contact with them
I found the poetry the hardest section purely because we did almost no work on it and we're just told to analyse the language if whatever we got, but as long as you recognise the key theme and then pull apart he language you should be fine
For the texts I somehow managed to predict the questions which came up (my teachers were like HOW DO YOU DO THIS? Because I literally predicted the questions and the extracts) but I think as long as you know the types of questions which come up you can plan and revise them
A good revision technique would be to make flashcards with your essay plans on the back and the question or a character name or a theme on the front so you have to say the plan out loud and memorise them like that


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Wow, you must be really good at English Lit then :P
Erm, how did you predict the question?! was it something that hadn't come up in a long time? or it repeats questions every something years?

Do you possibly have any resources that could help me, especially Unseen Poetry (because i have that really tricky), and Heroes (because we've not started the book in school yet as we fell behind while doing our controlled assessments)?

Sorry for bugging you, but thank you for the advice and tips!

I do the exact same books i do bot get the essay type questions please could you give me a plan or advice on hiw to approach this type of question

For the essays, I went with
-quick intro introducing the theme/character and overview of how they're presented or whatever the question is asking
-then roughly 3-4 points, eg for an OMAM about the importance of animals which was the question I sat, I did
point 1: Lennie being described as an animal (paws, etc)
Point 2: Lennie accidentally killing animals (deaths get bigger as it goes on, begins with mice and leads to dog, suggests he is capable of accidentally killing a human which he does)
Point 3: candy and his dog being the same as George and Lennie (Lennie depends on george like a dog, George shoots Lennie in the same way as candys dog is shot (and George takes on what candy says when he says that a stranger shouldn't shoot his dog; George can't let Curley kill Lennie) etc)
-conclusion basically rewording the intro to summarise

Obviously it won't be the same question but the same structure can be applied to other essay questions, remember to include quotations to show you know the text well

So basically intro, 3 strong and well explained points, and a conclusion
Also if you're aiming for higher grades, if you are analysing a quotation you can say 'this could show *interpretation of quote*, but perhaps it could also show this *insert alternative interpretation* as this shows that you're thinking about possibilities and making tentative judgements which is a higher level skill and will get you more marks
And if you think of an unusual (but relevant and plausible) point, say it towards the end of your essay - perhaps in your conclusion - as examiners like points they haven't heard before (don't get hung up trying to think of new points though, just don't be afraid to write them down if you think of them)

Hope I helped



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Hi thanks also wat grade did you get

I got an A*


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your advise was really good thanks and how did you revise for your lit exam?

I predicted them with a mix of what hadn't come up yet and gut feeling/luck, the heroes one was pure guesswork

For unseen poetry if you find the past papers you can get the hang of what types of poems there are, and practice analysing them but other than that there's not much you can do unfortunately, for heroes there are only really 3 key characters so if you google them (bitesize has some good points) and think of 3 main points of each character (eg for Larry you have the hero of the wreck centre and the war so you could quote the others talking about him, the criminal/rapist and then the crippled soldier with 'eyes sunken in their sockets' (I think that's a quote))
Have you read it yourself? I can't understand you not having started it in school, we spent half the year on OMAM and poetry and sat that in the January then the other half split evenly between inspector calls and heroes, I don't know how you can possibly cover it in enough detail (though I may be wrong) but if you haven't read it yourself I'd certainly recommend it, think about the themes of war and its effects, love, concealment, etc.
I don't have any resources but if you're struggling I can give you examples of the themes and character points for analysis if you PM me



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I didn't really revise much at all (though I should have done)
What I did do was create essay plans for possible questions and memorise the plans (rather than doing tons of practice essays) so I knew what to write about in the exam


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could you send me your essay plans if you still have them

I don't have them, but you wouldn't learn anything by using someone else's plans anyway, just make them yourself it shouldn't be too difficult


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How do i make them