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How should I revise A2 English Literature

I got an A in AS English lit but it was complete luck and i only just scraped it. I've read all the books I'm supposed to and kept up to date with my suggested wider reading, but im not sure how to use this wider reading. Also, when choosing quotes to learn am i supposed to find quotes based on setting/characters/themes or just general quotes?? Help.
Original post by dnr_23
I got an A in AS English lit but it was complete luck and i only just scraped it. I've read all the books I'm supposed to and kept up to date with my suggested wider reading, but im not sure how to use this wider reading. Also, when choosing quotes to learn am i supposed to find quotes based on setting/characters/themes or just general quotes?? Help.


Depends on what book you are reading. I find it quite helpful to go back and review annotations and notes you may have on all the books you have read. I would find a mixture of both thematic/ setting/ characters and general quotes. Often times you will find that general quotes often overlap with the other quotes so you won't need to choose/memorize that many.
Reply 2
Original post by dnr_23
I got an A in AS English lit but it was complete luck and i only just scraped it. I've read all the books I'm supposed to and kept up to date with my suggested wider reading, but im not sure how to use this wider reading. Also, when choosing quotes to learn am i supposed to find quotes based on setting/characters/themes or just general quotes?? Help.



okay so you need to be learning quotes from each character from your main set text. so for example we studied Brontë's Wuthering Heights so the main characters were Heathcliff, Nelly, Catherine, Cathy and Edgar Linton. There can be lots of themes within a novel but say the main ones for this text was love, hate, family, motif of fire, motif of passion etc etc. you need around 6-10 quotes of love for cathy, 10 for Heathcliff and so on. This is how I revised for English lit and lang at A level and managed a B. Also may I add that wider reading along with your set text is soooooo important I think I had around 4 to accompany Wuthering heights? focus your quote learning more on the texts you cant take with you in the exam though! (if your board is WJEC) hope this makes sense!
Reply 3
Original post by wolfmoon88
Depends on what book you are reading. I find it quite helpful to go back and review annotations and notes you may have on all the books you have read. I would find a mixture of both thematic/ setting/ characters and general quotes. Often times you will find that general quotes often overlap with the other quotes so you won't need to choose/memorize that many.


good point, cheers
Reply 4
Original post by LowriEW
okay so you need to be learning quotes from each character from your main set text. so for example we studied Brontë's Wuthering Heights so the main characters were Heathcliff, Nelly, Catherine, Cathy and Edgar Linton. There can be lots of themes within a novel but say the main ones for this text was love, hate, family, motif of fire, motif of passion etc etc. you need around 6-10 quotes of love for cathy, 10 for Heathcliff and so on. This is how I revised for English lit and lang at A level and managed a B. Also may I add that wider reading along with your set text is soooooo important I think I had around 4 to accompany Wuthering heights? focus your quote learning more on the texts you cant take with you in the exam though! (if your board is WJEC) hope this makes sense!


sounds good, i know the wider reading is important but im not sure what im supposed to be looking for when i read it you get me??
im not allowed any books in the exams :frown: but thanks for the advice!
Original post by dnr_23
good point, cheers


np man, good luck
Reply 6
Are you with AQA? Make sure you fully understand the new exam structure, I was surprised when I really looked at it today. For my revision, I'm making myself videos on all of the possible question areas and annotating my books until you can barely read them! ;-) I'm studying The Handmaid's Tale, The Picture of Dorian Gray, Othello, Feminine Gospels and Streetcar.
Original post by dnr_23
sounds good, i know the wider reading is important but im not sure what im supposed to be looking for when i read it you get me??
im not allowed any books in the exams :frown: but thanks for the advice!


ok ummm for wider reading I would say that they are there to support your points but they should not detract from your contextual argument. when you use sources from wider reading, do not use it as a substitute for your main quotations/examples. But do use it to further elaborate on your points. For example, In Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice "Insert Quotation" shows that Anti-Semitism exists in the play. This is further corroborated by Harold Bloom's commentary on the play when he said this "insert quotation' or just a general gist in one sentence. The significance of this is.

Hope this helps
Reply 8
Original post by dnr_23
sounds good, i know the wider reading is important but im not sure what im supposed to be looking for when i read it you get me??
im not allowed any books in the exams :frown: but thanks for the advice!


what is your main set text? find the connections within your set text with the accompanied ones. again as an example- key theme in wuthering heights would be say.. isolation, i then found a connection of isolation in the color purple by alice walker and finding a few quotes which sound like the theme of isolation. trying to simplify it as much as i can i know how bloody hard it is!
Reply 9
Original post by wolfmoon88
ok ummm for wider reading I would say that they are there to support your points but they should not detract from your contextual argument. when you use sources from wider reading, do not use it as a substitute for your main quotations/examples. But do use it to further elaborate on your points. For example, In Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice "Insert Quotation" shows that Anti-Semitism exists in the play. This is further corroborated by Harold Bloom's commentary on the play when he said this "insert quotation' or just a general gist in one sentence. The significance of this is.

Hope this helps


ohhh ok yeah that helps thanks!!i
Reply 10
Original post by btea
Are you with AQA? Make sure you fully understand the new exam structure, I was surprised when I really looked at it today. For my revision, I'm making myself videos on all of the possible question areas and annotating my books until you can barely read them! ;-) I'm studying The Handmaid's Tale, The Picture of Dorian Gray, Othello, Feminine Gospels and Streetcar.


doing OCR, the course im doing is American Lit 1880-1940 but thats just for one of the exams. our main texts overall are The Grapes of Wrath, The Great Gatsby, Streetcar, A Doll's house, Paradise Lost and Hamlet. For this american lit exam we have to also read:
The Portrait of a Lady Adventures of Huckleberry FinnSister Carrie
My Ántonia
The Age of Innocence
The Sound and the Fury
A Farewell to Arms
Native Son

SO IM SWAMPED. OCR have also given us a booklet of university level essays as wider reading to accompany the course.

Annotating is def a good start ill make sure i do the same! what kind of videos are you making?? And will you split each novel by chapter and learn quotes/themes or just look at each novel as a whole? thanks x
Reply 11
Original post by LowriEW
what is your main set text? find the connections within your set text with the accompanied ones. again as an example- key theme in wuthering heights would be say.. isolation, i then found a connection of isolation in the color purple by alice walker and finding a few quotes which sound like the theme of isolation. trying to simplify it as much as i can i know how bloody hard it is!


basically we have two exams with multiple set texts including
-Gatsby/Grapes of Wrath,
-hamlet,
-paradise lost compared with A doll's house

there will also be an essay question like "write a critical appreciation of this unseen passage, relating to your studies of American Literature from 1880-1940." so we have to read loads of essays about american literature in history and its so vague and difficult :frown:
Reply 12
Original post by dnr_23
doing OCR, the course im doing is American Lit 1880-1940 but thats just for one of the exams. our main texts overall are The Grapes of Wrath, The Great Gatsby, Streetcar, A Doll's house, Paradise Lost and Hamlet. For this american lit exam we have to also read:
The Portrait of a Lady Adventures of Huckleberry FinnSister Carrie
My Ántonia
The Age of Innocence
The Sound and the Fury
A Farewell to Arms
Native Son

SO IM SWAMPED. OCR have also given us a booklet of university level essays as wider reading to accompany the course.

Annotating is def a good start ill make sure i do the same! what kind of videos are you making?? And will you split each novel by chapter and learn quotes/themes or just look at each novel as a whole? thanks x


That's so many books to learn inside out! I'm making videos for all of my a level topics but for Eng I'm splitting it by theme. Doing it that way makes it so much easier to draw comparisons between texts and also helps when it comes to writing essays. I'll learn quotes according to theme too. I found that making my own questions last year and making essay plans for them helped x

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