Please help! English language A-level

Hi all,

I am currently a year12 student. I got Agrade in my GCSE English Language and now im failing at A-level. In the mocks I keeping getting 9/30 marks. E-grade.

My exam board is Edexcel English Language.

What can i do to improve please help!

Reply 1

AimeeGleek123

you cant rest on the fact you got an a in gcse, alevels are much harder and they require a lot of work, you should keep practicing, look at the examiner reports and make flashcards.
What are you doing at the moment its hard to give advice when you don't know what the other person is doing at the moment.

Reply 2

Tsrsarah

Original post by charlotte-ash

I'm in year 13 and I do English language at a2, I got an A last year but a C at GCSE. I wasn't the best at English when I first started the course but now I usually achieve As and Bs on the exam. Our exam board is AQA so it might be different, but basically to achieve top grades you need to pay attention to the mark scheme ( Ao1, Ao2, Ao3). You get the most marks for talking about actual language features from the text so maybe that's where you're lacking. Make sure you know all your features. A common mistake loads of people make is they just pick out any basic features and don't fully explain them or they don't have a point to say with the feature. Don't just pick language features out and talk about them for the sake of it. Structure is also very important. Last year when I wrote essays I started with the MAP structure, you state the mode( written or spoken), audience of the text and purpose of the text. You also should pick out language features to back up how you know this ( eg the purpose of this text is to persuade, we know this because of the use of the imperative....). Then I would use the structure PEE which is just point, evidence, explain. Just practice picking language features from the text and practicing writing essays and this should bring your grades up. Hope this helped xxx

Reply 3

donte

I do WJEC, buy a textbook if you havent already - the revision express one is really good!
Learn as much terminology as possible.
Use: Point, Evidence (terminology), Explanation, Explore (references to time period/context, ie why has it been written like this)
Look at the syllabus and marking schemes & Do past papers!

Reply 4

hannah_koski

Well done on your A at GSCE firstly! Secondly, stop freaking, I got an A at AS on this exam board and I wasn't doing too well throughout the year either. I'd say look at the mark scheme, as well as learning all the relevant terminology inside out. Scattering theories, terminology through your essay is a really easy way to pick up marks. Relate back to the question and look at the mark scheme. Edexcel especially is an exam board that has certain tick boxes you need to include in your answer. Good luck!