How to Learn... English Literature

I just feel like there's so much more to learn and my essay has to be perfect in the exam....

i disagree with this notion that you have to have done past papers to do well in an exam. make sure you have a good nights sleep the night before?

OP I noticed you didn't mention poetry, do you need help with that?



What sort of rubbish advice is that?

Your definition of doing "well" must be a C or lower.

And yea... i pretty worried about all of it, including poetry, im aiming for an a* because i'm not doing it a-level and so want to show i have good literacy skills when applying for uni jobs etc

It might seem like a lot, but if you look at the themes used in past papers and attempt those questions I guarantee you will do well.

I noticed you didn't mention poetry, do you need help with that?



What sort of rubbish advice is that?

Your definition of doing "well" must be a C or lower.

Not at all i'm aiming at a 2.1 level undergraduate. And at universities, a* doesn't exist i'm afraid.

for gcse it is fine to memorize, but by degree level you are required to become an independent learner and thinker, okay?

I might get shot down here, but a big part or English is your natural ability to analyse a text and write fluently. Whilst you won't past if you don't know the text, you can do well if you know the text and can write nicely.

Read the books so you know them like the back of your hand, jot down key quotes, and do practise questions.

Right so for an Inspector Calls, I would suggest going to Revision World, where they have videos on AIC which are soooooo good - they are really perceptive and include quite contextual vocab - I am typing those notes up, adding extra stuff from my revision guide, and using that, I'm am making plans for all the past paper questions.
Unfortunately I don't think they have it for TKAM but I hope it helps!

Are you being serious right now. We're talking about an English Literature GCSE here.

You're saying that if a student memorises a book they can ace an exam. Lol no. It requires a lot of preparation which includes mostly exam practice. I understand you're now a university student, but don't forget how difficult GCSE's were.

I'm not going to bother saying more since you got a pathetic argument.

I'm doing Of Mice and Men and Inspector Calls for mine. I have a good memory anyway, so I manage to learn pretty quickly where in the book events tend to happen (where arguments occur, where certain character descriptions are etc) so I recommend to gain some idea of where everything happens, as this makes it easier for you to find some quotes in the exam which will give you more writing time instead of having to flick through the books.

For Inspector Calls, learn where about in the book the Inspector reveals information about each character, as these are the locations you'll find the best information for that particular character. You should also get to know the personalities of each character, which is described in the opening scene which you can just infer from, as these will help aid your explanations.

You don't need to know everything as you'll have the books with you. Just make sure you have a general idea of what everything is like. I recently sat some Literature mock papers, I don't know how I did so I can't tell you if it helped (Going for a B, maybe an A). But I know that most of the marks come from the analysing part, so as long as you have some ideas and opinions about different stages in the books, I think you'll do fine.