Is there any point revising for GCSE English Lit 2morrow? If so, how?

here is an example that hit band 6 (aqa)

At the end of the play the second death carries with it priestley’s political point that that lessons of ww1 represented by the death of eva were not learnt so the birlings now face the final word of the play ‘questions’ priestley’s question in 1945 could be that how did the ruling classes allow ww2 to occur so that millions of eva smiths lost their lives again. Eric and sheila who represent the younger generation who grew up in the interwar years and failed to live up to their responsibility, priestley’s play may reflect the mood of the country who accepted a socialist government. The crime play indicates that it is not sheila and eric who learnt the inspectors lesson but it's is the next generation, their kids who learnt the inspectors lesson.

maybe this will help

Did you teacher say that's a Band 6? I think there are a few areas that need development and would probably say it is more considered (Band 4) than Insightful (Band 6)...

thats not the whole paragraph as i plan to use it tomorrow

How can you plan to use a specific paragraph without knowing the question?

As a paragraph it does have some good ideas you just need to make sure you are basing everything around evidence and techniques. Explore different words and ideas from that quotation to move up through Band 5 and try to say something really unique for a Band 6

You should absolutely be revising for your exam! I am an English teacher and therefore completely biased, but while the exam is subjective they are very mathematical and picky about where you pick up your marks.

For Section A you must know characters, themes and key ideas and must be able to support any response using well-chosen quotations. For any higher grade you must also be able to discuss the effect of specific words or phrases. The higher up the mark scheme you go the more carefully selected these words become. You are also expected to analyse techniques of language, structure and form. For example you would analyse stage directions if quoting from a play!

For Section B you must do the same again, but this time you are working around an extract. Part a) will want you to closely analyse details, aka analyse key words and techniques. Part b) allows you to show off your knowledge of the whole text and to explore context, i.e. racism or the Great Depression in Of Mice and Men.

My advice would be to make sure you know your language techniques and are ready to explain how and why they are effective (beyond "this simile puts an image in the reader's head" - we hate this!) and that you are clued up on any contextual factors for Section B.

Good luck with revision

yes thats good but you could use the falling curtains stage directions at the end and say the lesson learnt is superficial, as to get an a* u need alternative views

Both will work. What I would not recommend is using just one quotation and working your way through lots of interpretations for the whole essay. It's easy to get lost that way and it would not show off your knowledge of the whole text - remember, this is your one chance to do so!

I teach my students to PEDAL - Point, Evidence, Device, Analysis, Link (to context or to next point, depending on question). For an A* the analysis should include multiple interpretations of the device or word being analysed. It should also be concise so you can move on and make as many points as you can within your time.

For example you might talk about how Crooks says he "ain't no Southern negro" and suggest that the word "negro" shows his acceptance of the racism he faces to the extent that he refers to himself using derogatory racial terms. However, his assertion that he isn't "Southern" allows him to differentiate himself from the ex-slaves in the South and reveals that he might well be as racist as the rest of the men on the ranch as he is keen to distance himself from the slave trade and remind others that he has been born free and should be treated better.

This analyses a key word, has two interpretations and brings in the context of OMAM

How would i go about answering a question like this in part B " how is this character important as a whole?"

ok thank you, could you explain to me how the stage directions suggest that the lesson learnt is superficial as I don't quite understand how it would.
btw what exam board are you doing???

my exam board is aqa

the curtain falling can represent the end of capitalism, or it can represent that the upper working classes and the upper classes pride fell, so you would say priestley may have used this methaphor to indicate to the audience that the these classes no no longer rule society. now you would expand this and say how the quote supports this idea.

ok thank you very much. I'm also AQA, good luck for tomorrow!!

So can you just summarise the structure of each paragraph in bullet points please?

How many paragraphs would you say to write as a whole in section B?

Do you mean for AQA? For section B there is usually an extract centred around a character and you discuss how the character is presented in the extract specifically - that means picking out language and key words to analyse.

For part b) your question is more likely to ask how that character represents a wider theme. For example how that character and others are used to present ideas about brutality in the novel. If it asks how they are important it obviously wants your opinion - there is no right or wrong answer there, you just need to be able to justify your views