CALLING ALL WHO GOT A*/A in GCSE ENGLISH LIT!

What did you do to revise? I got an A* in my mock but don't want to be complacent. What can I do apart from past papers to keep my grades up and any good resources?

Reply 1

olegasr

I watched some videos on youtube the night before and got an A*. I recommend you do the same. Maybe not the night before though. Mr bruff has some good videos and there's this other guy that I can't remember. They make a lot of really useful points that you can easily use in your exam and get an amazing grade.

Reply 2

niallbc

Went through texts and poems with friends and every ody gave their ideas at the same time, this gave me lots of intepretations to consider and ideas to steal. I got full UMS in my poetry exam and a low A in my book exam, as my coursework was only an A i came out with an A but it was never really my forté despite loving poetry. The main thing with poetry was knowing all the techniques and subtext meanings personal to the poet and the history behind it.

Reply 3

futuremedic1997

Original post by TyanaChu

What did you do to revise? I got an A* in my mock but don't want to be complacent. What can I do apart from past papers to keep my grades up and any good resources?

Hey! i found youtube a HUGE help, especially the youtube channel Mr Bruff. What I felt was the icing on the cake was looking at A* exemplar pieces. Honestly, if you read read and read these A* exemplar pieces and analyse what they did you will be fine. Try and basically copy the structure into your own work....The questions in exams all are the same style anyway
Lasty id say practice....and get your teachers to mark them! thats what theyre paid for! get feedback from them and do another practice and give it back to teacher to mark! Good luck!

Reply 4

ChillBro

Got an A and didn't do any revision...... So many not revising and just winging the exam works? who knows, all depends on the marker.

Reply 5

WolfTy

Original post by olegasr

Yeah funnily enough i did this exact same thing in my mock (which was the 2015 paper) and got 32/34 but I'm not sure if thats enough for the real thing?

Reply 6

chance23

I wrote extra essays and got my teacher to look at/mark and give me advice. English isn't a subject where you can do past papers and mark the answers yourself (like maths), so make sure you get your teacher or someone to look over them and give you pointers on how to improve.

But the fact that you got an A* in your mock is an indicator that you are on the right tracks/doing something right.

Reply 7

olegasr

Original post by TyanaChu

Yeah funnily enough i did this exact same thing in my mock (which was the 2015 paper) and got 32/34 but I'm not sure if thats enough for the real thing?

It's definitely enough. As long as you get the exam technique down I don't think it really matters what you write. The main tip I can give is: don't be afraid to go absolutely crazy with your points provided you can support them. The examiners get really bored reading the same points over and over again so if you come up with something ridiculous and manage to stand your ground - they're gonna love you. Examiner love = good grade.

Reply 8

Alice__90

Original post by ChillBro

Got an A and didn't do any revision...... So many not revising and just winging the exam works? who knows, all depends on the marker.

So did I. English was my strong subject so I kind of took advantage of that, wouldn't recommend it though. Maybe if I'd revised I could have got an A*. :colondollar:

Reply 9

Zwitterion1

I'm pretty sure I didn't even finish reading the book for mine, I was asking people for useful quotes the morning before the exam haha. Definitely do not do that though. Just do past papers and get your teacher to mark them.

Reply 10

tcameron

Original post by TyanaChu

What did you do to revise? I got an A* in my mock but don't want to be complacent. What can I do apart from past papers to keep my grades up and any good resources?

What exam board are you? I did AQA.
Sparknotes and mrbruff on youtube.
I honestly did no past papers of my own tbh as it's hard to mark myself from mark schemes.
I also formulated my own ideas my annotating the anthologies/books which weren't ones I'd got in class which I think allowed me to stand out more when the examiner was marking.
English is a hard one to revise I'd say as I feel it's a lot more about natural flair than anything

Reply 11

WolfTy

Original post by tcameron

I have AQA and thank you for your help :smile:

Reply 12

mughushed

English is a tricky one to revise, so make sure you know the book/play/poems (whatever you're studying) inside out. All GCSE EngLit exams are open book aren't they? So while it would be unnecessary to learn quotes as such, you should memorise where key quotes are in the text! But remember it's quality not quantity, so pick quotes that apply to different characters/themes! Also, as mentioned before, Mr Bruff is fantastic :smile:

Reply 13

Dinasaurus

I know I don't exactly match the description but I got an A* in all units except one which was the one where the exam was on To Kill a Mockingbird, which I hadn't actually finished reading. So my advice would be, read the damn book. I knew the ending and like 90% of the book, so I assumed the rest would be trivial. You never know what might come up.

Poetry is hella easy though, just make the most far-fetched points possible that have the loosest possible connection, I think I had a Ted Hughes poem, "Hawk Roosting" and I made a reference to Kazakhstan's flag, (which I literally just got from Borat).

(edited 8 years ago)

Reply 14

Alexion

I was high A* in all my coursework, ****ed up the exam so only got an A overall (for both Lit and Lang)... wish I'd spent more time preparing in hindsight, despite the fact it doesn't affect anything

Reply 15

MIST_123

If anyone here is studying GCSE English Language and GCSE English Literature (AQA) and wants to achieve an A/A*, Private Message me.

I used Mr Bruff's A* Club Videos which helped me achieve an A (English Lang) and A* in (English Lit) last year- I would highly recommend them and would be happy to help/share the links etc.- just drop me a PM :smile:

Posted from TSR Mobile