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English Lit Study Help?

Hi there, as well as my other GCSEs I'm doing Edexcel IGCSE English Literature from home. I only decided to do it a month ago and basically I have very little idea of what I need to do! It's meant to be a two-year course but I'll be taking the exam next year. I have to answer one question about one of the books from each section. These are the books:

Section A: DramaArthur Miller: A View from The Bridge
J B Priestley: An Inspector Calls
William Shakespeare: Henry V
William Shakespeare: Much Ado About Nothing
William Shakespeare: Romeo and Juliet
Oscar Wilde: The Importance of Being Earnest
Thornton Wilder: Our Town


Section B: Prose
Jane Austen: Pride and Prejudice
Harper Lee: To Kill a Mocking Bird
R K Narayan: The English Teacher
John Steinbeck: Of Mice and Men
Mildred Taylor: Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry

Paper two requires you to answer questions on an unseen poem/prose.

I've only read Of Mice and Men so far! Does anyone have any tips for the exam, and for study? I don't need an A* for this IGCSE but I'd like to aim for that anyway. Has anyone else done this exam? How did you find it? How many times should I read each book, and are there any study resources that are useful?

Of all the GCSEs to do totally on my own, why did I choose English Lit?? (rhetorical question)

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!
Hi there,

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Original post by Sanderling
Hi there, as well as my other GCSEs I'm doing Edexcel IGCSE English Literature from home. I only decided to do it a month ago and basically I have very little idea of what I need to do! It's meant to be a two-year course but I'll be taking the exam next year. I have to answer one question about one of the books from each section. These are the books:

Section A: DramaArthur Miller: A View from The Bridge
J B Priestley: An Inspector Calls
William Shakespeare: Henry V
William Shakespeare: Much Ado About Nothing
William Shakespeare: Romeo and Juliet
Oscar Wilde: The Importance of Being Earnest
Thornton Wilder: Our Town


Section B: Prose
Jane Austen: Pride and Prejudice
Harper Lee: To Kill a Mocking Bird
R K Narayan: The English Teacher
John Steinbeck: Of Mice and Men
Mildred Taylor: Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry

Paper two requires you to answer questions on an unseen poem/prose.

I've only read Of Mice and Men so far! Does anyone have any tips for the exam, and for study? I don't need an A* for this IGCSE but I'd like to aim for that anyway. Has anyone else done this exam? How did you find it? How many times should I read each book, and are there any study resources that are useful?

Of all the GCSEs to do totally on my own, why did I choose English Lit?? (rhetorical question)

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

Hi there :smile:
For section 1, I would recommend choosing An Inspector Calls. It's the most popular choice after OMAM in English lit (although I personally can't give you any help on that one as I didn't do it). However, you'll be able to find a lot of help on AIC here.
For section 2, OMAM is definitely the right choice, it's perfect for lit (and I can answer any questions you have on it).

I did AQA so I'm not sure about the structure of the exam, but I'd read the book one time fully, and then re-read the important sections quite a few times (you'll be doing this anyway as you study them).
For OMAM, I'd recommend writing out practice essays on the characters, and how they represent the contexts. Also, you should probably get a text book or revision guide for Edexel on each of them.

For the unseen poetry, get a range of poems off the internet and think of possible questions for them (look at past papers for examples), then annotate them.

I hope this helps :smile:
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Sanderling
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Original post by Gingerbread101
Hi there :smile:
For section 1, I would recommend choosing An Inspector Calls. It's the most popular choice after OMAM in English lit (although I personally can't give you any help on that one as I didn't do it). However, you'll be able to find a lot of help on AIC here.
For section 2, OMAM is definitely the right choice, it's perfect for lit (and I can answer any questions you have on it).

I did AQA so I'm not sure about the structure of the exam, but I'd read the book one time fully, and then re-read the important sections quite a few times (you'll be doing this anyway as you study them).
For OMAM, I'd recommend writing out practice essays on the characters, and how they represent the contexts. Also, you should probably get a text book or revision guide for Edexel on each of them.

For the unseen poetry, get a range of poems off the internet and think of possible questions for them (look at past papers for examples), then annotate them.

I hope this helps :smile:


Thank you, that's a great help. How about this revision guide? www.amazon.co.uk/Revise-Edexcel-Language-Literature-Revision/dp/1446904393

So do I only need to read one of the books (for each paper)?

Thanks again:smile:
Original post by Sanderling
Thank you, that's a great help. How about this revision guide? www.amazon.co.uk/Revise-Edexcel-Language-Literature-Revision/dp/1446904393

So do I only need to read one of the books (for each paper)?

Thanks again:smile:

Generally if you're doing them in school you learn one book in immense detail, but if you're not as confident you might want to have another book as a back up for each just in case the question for that particular one is awful :smile:
That looks quite good, as it allows you to practice and do work in it rather than just telling you what to write :smile:
Maybe also buy a study guide for OMAM and AIC that go over the key themes and characters in each

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